What to use for New Worktop?

I’m with Howard apart from two points. ‘Normal’ these days for kitchen worktops might be 30mm - or even less. I reckon thicker is better - as practical limitations allow. Our kitchen worktop is 40mm.

Second point is cover with something that is replaceable on a regular basis or as needed. Lino offcuts are cheap. That might even go over the top of Howards suggestion of an aluminium sheet.

Mine are laboratory cupboards destined for the college skip.

There have been some good suggestions for worktops but my suggestion of 8x2 with 6mm mdf top would only cost around £50. If you have money to waste......

Edited By norman valentine on 20/03/2020 16:54:57

Thank you fo rall of the suggestions and idea. I shall have a good think and see what I can get, especially with the current restrictions.

I would rather avoid anything which needs to be replaced periodically. There will be a vice or two, a grinder, belt sander, bench drill and Dremel drill stand bolted down on it and I do not relish rmoving them each time. Metal topping sounds interesting, as does treated MDF.

Regards,

James.

When I made a bench, I bought a sheet of marine ply 19mm thick which was cut into two 6 X 2 and one 4 X 2. The large pieces were glued and screwed together for the main top and the back was held up by a length of 4" square bolted to the wall. The rest of the frame was 4" square and 2" by 6" held together with tenons and glue. The two legs were also attached to the floor with angle plates and rawlbolts. The bench was pretty rigid and a woodworking vise was built in at the same time. I made the 4" Paramo metal working vise QD in case I wanted a clear space.

old mart:

Good idea about the metal working vice; woodworkers often temporarily grip a batten mounted vice in the wood vice which is, of course, normally flush to the surface of the bench.

That marine ply must have cost a bob or two!

MIne are mill bench - kitchen worktop. Home made bench - 3/4" WBP ply. 'Electronics bench' just plastic surfaced chipboard. One for my mini lathe and bench drill that is topped with a mahogany veneered chipboard door. 3D printer stand all made of 1/2" wpb ply and the SC4 is on the steel stand.

Neil

Options abound. My side 'bench' bit like kitchen style is MDF with gloss paint but is really only where I put stuff down and have a grinder and sander and bench dril on their own extra mdf plinths.

I have an 'assembly table' where i keep PC and a chair and pretend I'm thinking . For some projects I clear it off and screw templates down. Itls an old dining room table with a sheet of MDF. Once a project is done I fill the holes with (suprise) filler and scrape it level with one of those wall scrapers.

Finally I have a small free-standing bench i made storing metal on the cross members underneath and with some 2x4's as the top. that gets anything dirty (or handy) put on it. Blobs get scraped off, the top gets wiped down with an old Tshirt as a defining grubby old oily rag.

One option no-one mentions is that you can easily paint almost any surface with slow setting epoxy which will settle level and is very resiliant..can always be sanded and recoated if you're really fussy.

A few years ago I got cut-offs of Corian which were perfect for the tops of my benches made from 30mm thick beech boards about 125mm wide. I got them from a local supplier who cut them out of bigger sheets as part of some contract they had which left about 250mm all around with the 1.5 meter x 2 meter dimensions.

I got the off-cuts for about 10% of the price of a virgin bit of material but I was probably in the right place at the right time and the Corian has been my bench surface for about 15 years and is still in very good condition.

Mine are 20 mm Block Board with 14g Aluminium sheet covering, folded over 1" down at the front and a 2" Upstand at the back. Been good for last 30 years and should be OK for the next 20 !

Phenolic faced plywood was used in our factory as flooring on a production line, it had a patterned finish to enhance grip but it is also available with a smooth finish, it seemed to be very hard wearing and was impervious to liquids. I believe it is also used for more durable shuttering applications.

Mike

Thank you for the suggestions. In the end, I have used kitchen worktop again. I did consider timber or heavy boards with a replaceable top of lino or the like, but wanted to avoid any raised edges on the worktop. I had that last time and detritus kept getting caught in it. The alternative would have been to lay it under the vice et al, needing them to be removed to replace the top.

Cost and the ease of getting material in the current circumstances was another consideratio. I really want to get the job finished sooner, rather than later. The nearest place where I can get reclaimed boards and the like is a fair way of and I would need to arrange transport.

Regards,

James.

Edited By James Alford on 24/03/2020 07:16:13