Work Bench Top

[alec]

Hello guys, I very rarely post but read your comments and ideas on a regular basis. I am thinking of building a new work bench and wondering what to use for the top. The bench can only be 5ft in length as I have limited space. I was looking in wicks and saw they were selling beach kitchen work tops (3meter long x 3mil thick ) I thought I might cut in half and glue 2 lengths together giving me about a 1.5mtr x6mil top. Has anyone done this and was it successful and what is the general opinion. many thanks

 

[carlb40]

Is that is real wood worktops and not the laminate type? If it is the latter then it will be a very slippery top indeed.

How about just having 2 sheets of 18mm mdf cut to size ie 600mm x 1500m and glue them together. You get a flat heavy surface 72mm thick

 

[alec]

Thanks for your reply Carl, It's the real wood work top and 30mm thick not 3 as I said. I have heard of it being used before and wondered what the overall opinion was. I have thought of using ply but was looking to use something better. Perhaps someone has used it before.

regards

 

[Jelly]

If it's solid beech (or laminated) beech and you can glue it up to get a 60mm thick surface you'd have something pretty much ideal!

If you want a tool well in the bench, you can easily do it by only adding the second layer on one side or adding it down down both sides with a gap between.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It'd probably be ok. If you choose to glue it, you'd need to take the finish off - it's probably easier to do the underside,as it's probably not quite so thick. It should be stable with two glued together.

 

[adidat]

How about just having 2 sheets of 18mm mdf cut to size ie 600mm x 1500m and glue them together. You get a flat heavy surface 72mm thick

+1

whilst it wont look as nice as beech/maple its much more useful. you can screw into it ieg. clamping blocks and routing clamps. stick sandpaper to it for flattening stuff, it should stay flat enough. and when it looks really sh@t unscrew it and stick another sheet on, whats £20 every 2 years!

adidat

 

[Giff]

Hi Alec

I did this about 2 years ago after seeing a post on here. I bought mine from these people http://www.worktop-express.co.uk/wood_w ... ktops.html
I used 40mm and cut it in half and glued it together to make an 80mm top as you have suggested. It is really solid, and heavy ! but I have had to plane and sand it down a bit after a while as it bowed a little. Geoff

 

[alec]

Many thanks for your replies! I have some food for thought, Beech or ply. It's a case of beauty or the beast and I think the beast might win. Would you glue up the first 3 sheets of ply and counter sink and screw the top piece allowing it to be easily removed.

Again many thanks all!

 

[Giff]

The only downside with the ply is that if it does warp a bit it wouldn't be as nice when planed. With the solid tops you can keep planing them and they will still look the same. I've got 80mm to go at and that's a lot of warping ! :-0 G

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You could use 1 x mdf and 1 x ply - use the mdf in the middle. A bit cheaper and heavier - screw the bottom three together first, then screw the top one down, so it can be replaced if need be a few years down the line.