Hello,
I am making a work bench with a plywood table top. I have a nice Baltic Birch sheet for the top and bottom of the table and I will put trimming around the edges the table (covering up the plywood edges). I want to increase the thickness of the table top with a less expensive sheet material. Does anyone have any recommendations for sheet material? Also is there any concern about seasonal movement between the birch and filler sheets? I plan on gluing all the sheets together and using wood screws to keep sheets tight while curing.
Thanks,
Eric
Replies
That’s probably the only place I would find a use for mdf or even better hdf. It’s heavy, stable enough and cheap, all good qualities for a coring material.
I used 3/4” bb on top of a 3/4” construction ply over and screwed the edges down onto rails and a center support (quasi-torsion box). It is not pretty but it has served me well in an unconditioned garage in TX for many years and should for many more.
If I had gone with a more traditional base I would’ve used 2 sheets of 3/4” mdf under a bb top as I would not trust plywood alone for staying flat.
If you’re looking for ideas, Paul Sellers has a YT video on making a bench out of bb sheets. Rob Cosman also has a few vids using mdf as the top.
MDF is a great choice - it's stable compared to other sheet goods and will stay flat.
MDF is fine, but I'd probably skip it if I were using traditional holdfasts. They would deform the mdf too much.
Personally, I don't think 2 layers of 3/4" material is enough. If I were using sheet goods, I'd go three layers.