Workbench top

[Nick WelburnParticipant @nickwelburn]

I’m sorting out my workbench in the garage. It’s got a mini mill and mini lathe on it. I’m going to bolt them down and run cables power etc.

I’m planning to use a 3m length of worktop. Any advice on colour would be appreciated. Obvs A is doesn’t really matter, B black will show less mess.

But am I missing a trick on a lighter background. May as well get it right…

[Nick WelburnParticipant @nickwelburn]

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

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[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

White bounces more light back into the workshop and also probably easier to see a small nut or screw on the surface if you drop one.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I've got an offcut of light grey granite pattern wher my 3D printer lives. Because that's what I had handy!

John

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Light colours make for a more pleasant work area.

But be careful that it doesn't match the colour of your most used material: for example steel parts on a silver surface

[Russ BParticipant @russb]

Posted by JasonB on 26/01/2022 12:59:14:

White bounces more light back into the workshop and also probably easier to see a small nut or screw on the surface if you drop one.

+1 for this comment

I have smooth metallic white sparkle worktops in the garage, when I'm rebuilding engines I have an area set aside for circling and naming unique bolts/valve shims etc.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Not so sure about kitchen worktop as a benchtop. Its very smooth and slippy for easy cleaning so stuff tends to roll off. Not helped by the nicely curved edge. Generally the top surface is quite easily damaged too. I've always found it unpleasant to work on when doing mechanical or other workshop type jobs.

The labs I worked in at RARDE / DERA / DRA had heavyweight lino tops on teak(?) support structure with poper, carpentry made cupboards beneath. DRA management decreed modernisation pulled the whole lot out to replace with cheap metal frames and legs, smooth melamine tops and kitchen cabinet style cupboards. Total and utter crap. Much less pleasant to work on. Pretty much a riot from the worker bees once we realised what was going on. Management got bonuses for spending a fortune making things worse.

Heavyweight lino and a suitable under support is probably too expensive for normal folk. Especially as it needs a nice battening around the outside edge.

Consider a moisture resistant T&G flooring board with the slightly rough surface, such as Cabertek P5 (but do look before you buy), as an alternative. Not silly expensive, so binning if damaged doesn't hurt too much. The rough surface stops things rolling too far but isn't so rough as to be damagingly abrasive. I usually pin a softwood batten on the edge with a tiny bit of upstand over the surface to further help control rollers. Perhaps 1/2 mm or a bit more so no great impediment to sliding heavy stuff off.

Great for shelves too, with a bit more upstand on the edge batten, 1/16 or so, on high ones! Upstand is a bit annoying on high ones 'cos I have to get the fold up step stand out rather than drag stuff off at head and above height. Enforced safety is probably a good thing as drag off has come close to being more than a bit risky in the past.

Clive

[MikeKParticipant @mikek40713]

I would recommend not fully bolting down the lathe. You will twist the not very sturdy bed. I had mine bolted down until I found the twist in my measurements. Now I have not-tightened bolts, just to keep the lathe from moving.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

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[brian roberts 2Participant @brianroberts2]

My preferred work-bench top surface is industrial black rubber sheet, about 2 mm thick. Cut to shape it stays in position and resists oil and grease quite well, but if I'm dismantling an engine I'll use some newspaper for the inevitable oil spillage. It doesn't suffer damage from knives either.

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

I had white. It got stained. Maybe the stains would look a little less unsightly if the top had a light marble/granite pattern on it like Journeyman. I still prefer 'unsightly stains on white' to black though.

Someone told me that light green you see everywhere (painted machines in industry, Warco, watch repairers benchtop) is 'easy on the eye' but I'd like to see the paper, appropriately peer-reviewed, before accepting it as fact.

I guess the advice is white, black, or somewhere in between.

Edited By jaCK Hobson on 26/01/2022 14:28:50

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

18 mm chipboard,with natural colour hardboard tacked on top,cheap and cheerful, used for engine restoration work and rougher work,and lasts for long time about 20 years ,gets oil petrol and paint spilt on it, in my engineering workshop the timber framed bench has a plain untreated chipboard top, about 40 years old, if any machined parts ,precision tools etc are accidentally dropped on it they are not damaged,same as the floor, I have an old kitchen floor unit which has a formica top,to which my Fobco drill is bolted, drop anything small on that surface and it will bounce and disapear into oblivion.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

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[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

I used chipboard firedoors topped with hardboard, the hardboard is treated as a replaceable surface, and cut so that it can be inverted when one side gets too trashed! It has been nearly 2 years now, and I am there 5 days a week, and still fine!

Phil

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

My worktop benches are a light sandy colour. I tried black which does not show dirt but small parts are much more visible with the light colour worktops. Fence posts make good legs!

Rik

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

I quite like just plain ol MDF, looks great after a while when the oil get soaked in……

My mobile grinder/sharpening set up is 750mmx1.5m, it has a formica top for easy clean….

I also have an 8x4x8mm steel plate workbench for welding and marking out life size……

plus the same size with a 3/4 plywood top for asembly purps…..

luckily all my machines are full size and on their own feet….and not bolted down either…..

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

When I built my shed storage it was based on kitchen units I made out of 18mm MDF but 800mm deep. The top ended up being made of two layers of the same – offcuts topped with clean sheets countersunk screwed, filled and then painted. I figured that repainting it when it got tatty wouldn't be too much of an issue with a gloss roller.
I chose a bright green just to be cheerful. More expensive options I might have invested in as a top layer – if I wasn't cheap – included floor vinyl, sheet alloy, or those rubber tiles for garage floors or simply epoxy. or clear polyester over a colour.

pgk

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

As Clive says …

The labs I worked in at RARDE / DERA / DRA had heavyweight lino tops on teak(?) support structure with poper, carpentry made cupboards beneath.

At Johnson Matthey we had the same. The 'lino fitter' would pop in every few years and replace the old lino with fresh sturdy, spillage proof lino, making the benches look as good as new. The old lino had cut marks, paint, drill holes etc.

DRA management decreed modernisation pulled the whole lot out to replace with cheap metal frames and legs, smooth melamine tops and kitchen cabinet style cupboards. Total and utter crap. Much less pleasant to work on. Pretty much a riot from the worker bees once we realised what was going on. Management got bonuses for spending a fortune making things worse.

Yes, got that T-shirt. There is always a case for 'modernisation as there is for 'if it isn't broke, don't try to fix it'.

My home shed bench is Studding framework, 20mm chipboard topped by replaceable hardboard sheet. Shelving underneath is mostly made from the recycled floorboards of my old shed.

Ches

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

My workbench tops came from a dealer in reclaimed wood. The are a multiply board with a black plastic coating and were originally used as shuttering for poured concrete. The plastic coating prevents the concrete from sticking. The boards are about 3/4 inch thick and are heavy and sturdy.

Brian

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

Well, despite some reservations above about its use my lathe has been mounted on a cheap range 38mm kitchen worktop purchased on offer at B&Q. Granted it is on top of a 2" box section MS support but its as good as the day it was set up – circa 1987.

Can't complain, it's done me proud so far

Tug

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

My bench and its top started life as a number of desk/tables at work that had 1" chipboard tops with a matt finish Formica top and bottom. The top is now three of the original table tops bolted together with a sheet of 3/8" steel underneath the topmost one. Other table top sheets were fitted between the table legs to provide extra rigidity and then draws were built into the bench. Colour is an off white.

This results in an incredibly rigid bench and the top most layer gets taken off to expose the steel when I need a large welding table.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

I built mine of 2 layers of 18mm marine ply. I have two regrets. One I should have varnished it. Now it's quite black and ugly. Two I should have paid more attention to the levelness. somehow, despite 6 inch deep ply battons supporting the length, it's got all lumpy and twisted, which makes it a bit rocky with some tools and parts.

Iain

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

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[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Whatever material you opt for, and especially if it is a chipboard-based material like many 38mm kitchen worktops, make sure that your 3m is well supported from below along its length to prevent sagging.

My 2m long bench with my mill on has a 38mm kitchen worktop top but this rests on six 4×4 legs with lots of further support underneath from intermediate 4×2 studding. The whole bench sits on nine 4 inch diameter nylon castors.

Finally, unless you can read the future and you know you're never going to want to re-size or dismantle your bench, do not use glue to hold things together, but screws and bolts only; made properly it will still be plenty strong enough for several hundred kgs of mill and lathe.

 

Edited By Bill Phinn on 26/01/2022 17:11:05

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