Worktop surface

[Ron Lowe]

Hi, all.

I'm about to build a workbench along one wall of my double garage. It will be around 4m long. It will have a fairly large vice installed in it, directly above one of the supports.

I plan to make up 5 wooden trusses to be placed at 1m intervals, with long strips of wood front and rear as additional supports for the topping. ( This frame will all be made from reclaimed timber approx. 3" x 1.5" recovered from some massive packing crates we regularly recieve shipments from the US in. )

As for the top, I reckoned on using cheapish 600mm 40mm thick worktop. That will work out at around £116 for 4.1m length.

I could also use 2 thicknesses of 18mm ply as a cheaper option. Slightly more utilitarian looking, but I suppose I could veneer it in some way. That sounds a bit hassly.

Any other suggestions? Or any cheaper suppliers of utility-grade worktop?

[Frank Erskine]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:15:38 +0100, "Ron Lowe" had this to say:

You'd probably find it more useful to fit the vice slightly to the _side_ of a support. This will give room for awkwardly-shaped pieces you might want to hold in the vice.

Assuming it's an engineers vice, don't forget to have the rear jaw _slightly_ proud (say 1/8") of the front of the bench, so that you can hold a long vertical job without the bench being in the way.

[zaax]

Ron Lowe said

Go to a local sawmill and see it they have any off cuts of hard timber (oak etc) so you can glue, screw them together. A bench collapsing half way though a job an fun

[The Medway Handyman]

You don't really need 2 thickness's for most jobs if its well supported. I have a 15' x 2' bench wall mounted with an 18mm MDF top.

Use 18mm ply & top it with 3mm hardboard/MDF. When the top gets scuzzy just replace it.

[Andy Dingley]

Nasty _and_ expensive!

A much better idea. You should be able to find spruce shuttering ply that's strong and cheap. Not _the_ cheapest, but the cheapest you'd actually want to live with. Birch costs a fortune and even the rainforest stuff is more than the spruce.

2 x 3/4" sheets is the usual recommendation. Anything else is too bouncy. Laminate them together with permanent glue, then lightly stick (double-sided tape is fine) a layer of 4mm MDF on the top, which you can replace when it looks chewed. Finish the top of this with varnish, or at least wax polish, so as to keep the moisture a little at bay.

Splash out on some hardwood edging strip and do a decent job of it.

[Nick]

Nick

[Bob Martin]

But don't expect it to stay flat !! I've a had a lot of problems recently with 18 mm ply warping - sometimes quite badly. And it isn't cheap stuff - it's the best available at my local yard.

[Peter Lynch]

I have surfaced my 2 workbenches in hardboard (over ply). Over time the top takes a lot of rough treatment and gets cut-up/drilled/painted/written-on. Hardboard is cheap and since it's only pinned down, I can easily rip out the old stuff and cheaply replace it when the time comes - which it will. (I first saw this method on "The New Yankee Workshop")

Pete

[John Weston]

Isn't veneering is a bit OTT for a workbench? :-)

I used floorboards as a bench-top, over a Dexion frame. The intention was to replace it when it got too badly marked, but that was 30-odd years ago and a re-making due to a house move so...

I wouldn't use a Formica/vinyl kitchen worktop or any form of similar hard covering. The top needs to stop you recovering safely from the _occasional_ slip with a chisel, etc. :-) Likewise you would make it difficult to add fixings for those "essential" tools...

You could put a piece of beech or similar along the front, giving a tool-well at the rear.

I concur with other comments about vice placing but also consider a woodworking vice if that's what turns you on. They're much better then engineering vices from woodwork (I've got both...)

Also make sure the height is suitable for you. I find most ready-made alternatives too low.

[Guy King]

The message from "Ron Lowe" contains these words:

My local market sells offcuts and damaged kitchen worktops. My main bench is 3m of damaged (the laminate delaminated) 40mm top with a hardboard facing. Cost about fifteen quid all in.

[Richard]

I have a similar project in mind having just broken the corner of my lab bench by applying too much when straightening a bike side stand gripped in the corner-mounted engineers vice :-(

I wondered about replacing the original chipboard/Formica worksurface with some suitably thick ply plus a sheet steel top. Any thoughts?

Richard

[Mike Dodd]

I simply used 18mm MDF on top of a 4" square softwood frame. No obvious distortion, has taken a battering, and should I need to - replaced easily with a few screws removed.

Re: sheet steel top - depends - a good way to knacker up any bladed tools.

Interesting memories as an apprentice - the machinists had steel covered benches, the fitters had wooden benches and the sparks had vinyl (or something) covered wooden benches - dunno if there's any relevance there.

[Guy King]

The message from Mike Dodd contains these words:

And the slightest trace of rust will mark any timber you slide along it.

[Ian_m]

I got a damaged/chipped 3m worktop for my garage from B&Q for £18.

[Steve Walker]

Yeah, that's what I did - an 8x4 sheet cut in half and folded lengthways. Glued under weight (sacks of sand), fixed to a simple 4x2 frame and then sanded & varnished. It's really solid - you can mount a heavy vice and pound away at it all day (fnarr fnarr), really good workshop solution imho.