Thread: Laminating man made boards into stock for shop table?

your handy with the computer design program things Lou.

No reason I can see why it shouldn't work.

But why glue up with ply?......why don't you just get yourself a 4x2 plank or something like. True it up with plane. An old house stud would be rested. Maybe that.......just seems a lot cheaper than all that ply and aluminium angle. .....

One thing I could tell you, I'd choose anything else over MDF. Thats stuffs crap I reakon.

Goodluck.

NEWLOU: Why not? ply laminated anyway you just be making it thicker lol.


TRIPPER: I had the same idea about mdf until I came across this site, mdf is all they use and raw prices are madness.http: http://www.thistlejoinery.co.uk/index.html


HJO

Originally Posted by HJ0

NEWLOU: Why not? ply laminated anyway you just be making it thicker lol.


TRIPPER: I had the same idea about mdf until I came across this site, mdf is all they use and raw prices are madness.http: http://www.thistlejoinery.co.uk/index.html


HJO

incredible. The problem is, whenever I think of MDF and the way it looks when you split it, is that its like paper mache,,,,,or Cardboard ! uno. Find the idea of making a piece of furniture out of cardboard just a little disturbing. ..but I probably should get over it.

Lou
point 1 is the aluminium angle going to be proud or flush could be a problem to fit.
Point 2 where do you get cheep aluminium angle

perhaps a sheet of masconite ( spelling) of the right thickness on top of the ply between the al angle would save you having to rebate the al into the ply

But why not use the thickest mdf that the budget allowes with a sheet of masconite ( spelling) glued over the top
Have used this with great success


Rgds

The way I see it cardboard is made out of wood, makes it less painless lol:eek: Also fills a purpose when the piece you spent a week making has to be grrrr painted white.

ps should have a pic of my crazy mdf experiment this time next week



HJ0

19mm ply is plenty thick enough for the dody of a bench top but getting some beef in the edge is what you are after.

I have a bench with with a piece of 2" x 4" hard wood down the edge & that great.

I put a 2" x 19mm rebate in a wide edge of the hardwood and glued the ply on the rebate & surfaced it flat then rounded the edges.
A good stout frame will look after the rest I did mine out of 90 x 45 pine with thirding joints. glued & screwed.


I have some smaller work tables wher I have just laminated some 75mm wide plywood strips arround the edges to give me near 40mm edges trimed up on the bench saw & edge rounded.

dont waste your tome trwing to laminate up the whole surface... concentrate on the edges and the middl;e will look after its self.
cheers

Hmmm 57mm thick marine ply lamination... whada ya put'n a couple ton on it?

What about a torsion box using the ply? Use marine for the top layer for hardiness and say 12mm CD ply for the lower layer... be lighter and still strong enough to put your bike up on it!

Hey Lou
If'n yer make yer bench too solid yer'll hafta rip yer shed floor up and put down a reinforced floor.

Originally Posted by soundman

dont waste your tome trwing to laminate up the whole surface... concentrate on the edges and the middl;e will look after its self.
cheers

I concur, soundman. Lou, its amazing what load bearing capacity is added to a shelf just by addinga piece of timber on edge under the edges of teh shelf. same would apply to workbench. i cant imagine anybench in a backyard workshop needing 3 layers of thick marine ply

Originally Posted by Harry72

Hmmm 57mm thick marine ply lamination... whada ya put'n a couple ton on it?

What about a torsion box using the ply? Use marine for the top layer for hardiness and say 12mm CD ply for the lower layer... be lighter and still strong enough to put your bike up on it!

Harry's spot on. Look at building a torsion box with your choice of top and bottom. From memory Lignum posted some information on this subject that would be of assistance.

To put some reference to all this.
I use some staging modules that are manufactured by a bloke I know up here.
A 2400 x 1200 sheet of ply 19mm thick structural CD supported round its edge and braced across its long centre, supported by 6 legs.
Has sufficient point loading capacity to be traficable by pasenger vehicles.
He hires them often for motorcar display purposes. It all been engineer speced.

so a bench round 1500 x 800 with a solid hardwood frame round the edge should be pretty damn solid.

BTW I recon 1500 x 800 is about as big as a bench need to be for general use. I had one bigger and it was a pain. I only use the front 600 or so to work on the rest accumulated junk and it took up soooo much real estate in my workshop. It recently went on a circular saw assisted weight loss programe.

cheers