Thread: table saw top - MDF or ply?

Try heading down to your local kitchen place and get a piece of offcut laminated top.

There about 1.5"thick or so, rout the top out an inch or so so that it is a snug fit on the top of the saw and you wont lose much saw height.

Better still, go down to your local kitchen place and get from them a piece of MDF 16mm or 18mm and get them to laminate it with some laminate. This will give you the MDF top you are thinking of and the laminate will give you a nice surface to slide your workpieces over.

Originally Posted by Just George

Better still, go down to your local kitchen place and get from them a piece of MDF 16mm or 18mm and get them to laminate it with some laminate. This will give you the MDF top you are thinking of and the laminate will give you a nice surface to slide your workpieces over.

What he said

Very nice idea, I like it! Loses an extra couple of mil blade height, but still well within acceptable limits and with considerable benefits.

MDF is the easier material to work with, but are there any particular reasons to take it over ply?

I was at Bunnies yesterday and saw some white-marker board that is made up of a white laminate and 3.2mm masonite, only about $8 for 900 x 600. Attach this to some mdf and you shouild have a flat, strong and slippery surface. Not too sure on the wear characteristics of the white surface though.
<O</O

I am thinking of this for the top of a router table in the near future.

Originally Posted by blue penguin

Very nice idea, I like it! Loses an extra couple of mil blade height, but still well within acceptable limits and with considerable benefits.

MDF is the easier material to work with, but are there any particular reasons to take it over ply?

MDF is better to work with if you need to rout a groove for a protractor or any edge routing.

The edges are structurally better for this, as the slots for a protractor will be nice and clean. Ply may splinter when routing it.

MDF was my preference anyway, but that certainly makes the decision much easier. Thanks.

Penguin
I've thought about this lots and it have found that this depends on the climatic conditions of your workshop and if you see the top as "expendable".

A laminate to will make it more difficult to attach things to.

MDF is great I love it / hate it ... have working it ... toxic dust. But half the price of ply. BUT DON'T GET IT WET ... or allow it to sit in a humid environment when it's raw still swells unless you get the waterproof version.

Laminated MDF if you don't want to make too many temporary attachments. Raw MDF if you want to go cheapest. Ply for everything in between.

I used to work for an MDF plant in Tassie many moons ago, so I know all about the toxicity! You should try standing around the press and get a REAL lung-full of formaldehyde. Good stuff, lol. The MUF (melamine urea formaldehyde resin) boards are great for wet work - apparently the Japanese even use it for saunas and such, so it's pretty hardy stuff when treated properly. Your average product isn't so great when wet though, as it sounds like you've discovered already!

Ply is something I've not really worked with at all before, although I've noticed many people use it now for all sorts of jobs.

I'm not really sure just how/what I'll want to attach to it yet, but I don't imagine the laminate would pose any real problems in this respect. A little tricky setting up perhaps, but no trouble once the initial work is done (what problems do you envisage with temporary attachments though?). In the end, the top certainly is expendable if it needs to be, but all the same I don't want to be changing it all that often either, as it would be a pain to set up properly on a regular basis - best done and (largely) forgotten, I say.

I think ultimately laminated MDF is the best way to go (for the various reasons given by others above), but I may go with an unlaminated sheet initially to iron out any design bugs without major outlay. Then, provided I don't mess it up in the process, I've always got a "backup" top if required for some reason done the track. I may even give a ply surface a try-out anyway, just to see for myself how it actually stacks up - nothing quite beats hands-on personal experience.

I've made 3 mobile bases from that black 20mm form-ply (builders use it for boxing concrete among its other myriad uses. Excellent for that. Just screw 4 x 60kg capacity wheels (one of them locking) and bob's our uncle. As far as tops go I use 19mm MDF sandwiched between two layers of 3/16th Lamipanel (laminex sheets for shower bays). I picked up 2 big damaged sheets from my local Laminex Industries warehouse for 10 bucks. When you rout the channels for jigs the Lamipanel makes for excellent and accurate non binding edges. Much better than ply or MDF and its slippery as hell.
Cheers

BP
sounds like you're across the pro's and cons of MDF.
I just enjoy being able to bung a self tapper into my saw top for temporary jigs and fingerboards etc. The same can be done on a more permanent basis with tracks etc. When I'm on the move (all the time) it gets used as workbench as well so I saw, glue, screw etc on it. So being able to bung in a self tapper with o pilot whole is a bonus for me. When I set up more permanently in a decent shed I'll prob go with laminex over something but everything else (fences etc) out of ply.

Originally Posted by Shedhand

I've made 3 mobile bases from that black 20mm form-ply (builders use it for boxing concrete among its other myriad uses. Excellent for that. Just screw 4 x 60kg capacity wheels (one of them locking) and bob's our uncle. As far as tops go I use 19mm MDF sandwiched between two layers of 3/16th Lamipanel (laminex sheets for shower bays). I picked up 2 big damaged sheets from my local Laminex Industries warehouse for 10 bucks. When you rout the channels for jigs the Lamipanel makes for excellent and accurate non binding edges. Much better than ply or MDF and its slippery as hell.
Cheers

That sounds like pretty good stuff indeed. Since I don't have an LI warehouse anywhere even close to local (that I'm aware of), would you be able to suggest a specific place that I might get some Lamipanel from? Do you know what it goes for normally?

And do you glue on the the Lamipanel and then route the channels, or do the channels first and then line up sections of Lamipanel either side? I'm assuming the former, it sounds like it would be pretty easy stuff to work with.