use a door as a workbench?

[DDS]

Hello

I'm thinking of buying a few of these B&Q interior MDF doors, plain faced and white finished at about 18 quid a go:

NAT26MDF, EAN 0000003847749)

It seems to my simple mind that knocking up a framework from CLS timber, then fitting the doors, would make a nice work surface for a hobby room in our house (electronics, computers etc. rather than arc welding or turning cast iron steam engine boilers).

I could cover the work surface of the door with some rubber matting and I think it could all look quite nice and be quite solid - I presume that when you buy a door for fitting yourself, it won't have handle hole or lock holes or hinge rebates - true?

I know that the doors will be flimsy unless any load is spread over a fair area, and I suppose if I was worried I could skim the surface with some 6mm ply or similar - but I'm hoping the doors themselves have a hard enough carcass to withstand light use and not much weight apart from some test and measurement equipment (upto 20kg, spread over an area upto the size of a tea chest's bottom, that sort of thing)

So, may I ask please, are the doors supplied completely plain and has anyone done this sort of thing before with satisfactory results?

DDS

[John Rumm]

For light use they will probably be ok. They will be of egg box style construction with a thin face skin of MDF, but they are usually reasonably stiff.

Having said that, a sheet of 19mm MDF will probably cost you similar money, and be far stronger, not to mention larger.

[DDS]

oh yes - I see what you mean. Wickes do an 18mm MDF sheet which is 2 foot wide by 8 foot long and costs 15 quid (their product code 110035), or a 4' wide one for £15.90. A better bet then. Thanks!

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that DDS formulated :

Just seek out some reject kitchen worktop - much more solid, good surface to work on and less likely to suffer damage.

[chris French]

Though a sheet of MDF will need a bit more support. Though since you are making some sort of frame, that isn't necessarily a big deal.

The door does work though. I had one as a desk/model making bench in my teens. It fitted nicely into an alove, so was supported along the 3 edges.

Cheap kitchen worktop can also work well, I used that in our she din the old house. Has a nice easy to keep clean surface

[Cash]

Personally I would go for the far stronger (IMHO), 19mm exterior grade birch-faced plywood (or at a pinch shuttering ply, good on one face) for the bench top - mine has withstood some rather harsh and varied punishment for the last 27 years (admittedly with various holes and dents in it now).

Cash

[GB]

If you are going for a door, maybe a fire door blank? This one is £28.50 at wickes Lisburn Ply Veneer Fire Door 1981x762mm Product Code: 200294.

[Donwill]

I found a scratched and damaged 40mm x 3M kitchen worktop in a local building supplies firm. I got it cheap as they couldn't shift it. Don

[Andrew Mawson]

In my last house I used two such doors, widened by lengths of 4x2 screwed to their edges, as a temporary Christmas Feast family table on woodworking treesles. Now in new house one is still in use as my office desk on the same tresles, and the other is my desk in the workshop on top of a pair of two drawer filing cabinets. Both work very well

AWEM

[mick]

We did it for years when we built control panels. We had a steel box framework (supporting the door on all edges) and just fastened the doors on with screws up through the box section. When the top gets too full of holes etc., just turn it over for another use. They worked very well indeed. We didn't bother with paint or varnish. ;-) We were putting steel boxes up to about 1m square on them, most of the weight transfers to the frame so the door isn't really under a lot of stress.

[tony sayer]

In article , Harry Bloomfield scribeth thus

In fact the missus wanted a lump of that for her study room, goes from one wall 't other all in one go and very sturdy even with no intermediate supports. Nice wood finish too.

FWIW used to work in a TV repair shop centuries ago where the benches were mad of olde doors and quite well that worked as well. Could also face it with some MDF later if the surface isn't up to it perhaps....

[Andy Dingley]

Doors can work out OK, but I'd use heavier doors, not B&Q interiors. They're too flimsy for heavy stuff, they're too bouncy for light, precision stuff.

Last time I did this I used a couple of cheap firedoors. There was a regulatory change in the '90s, these were old stock and went for bargain clearance. I don't know firedoor prices today, but otherwise I'd be looking at kitchen worktops. They need support against long- term sagging (2x4 frame), but they're dense enough to be nicely stable.

[Tinkerer]

That's taken me back 50 odd years. The first firm I worked at used doors as office desks. They were mounted on black metal frames which at the time was a well known and popular system, and trying to remember the name of it is driving me crazy. Can anyone remember? It consisted of black metal tubes about three quarters of an inch square and it all plugged together with plastic plugs to make table frames, shelving or whatever.

[Huge]

Dexion Speedframe.

[Dave]

This is what I used in my hobby room. Never had a problem with it.

Dave

[<me9]

Dexion speedframe

[fido]

Years ago we found an old door in a house we moved into. My wife covered it with curtain interlining and then lining. Gets used as a worktop for making curtains etc. Also light enough to strap to the roof of the car, take to car boot sales (put in on two trestles). When lining gets soiled, easy to replace!

[jgharston]

Promble with kitchen worktops is that they're 2' deep whereas reusing a door gives you a worktop 2'6" deep. Thobut I've found a work surface shallower that a full 3' is too small for a decent computer working area.

JGH

[Bob Eager]

Breakfast bar worktops. 900mm.

[Huge]

BTW, I have some Ikea desks in my study which apparently have the same construction as doors...