How to glue down a sheet metal top on a workbench?

[myredracer]

About to get a new 30" x 12' sheet metal counter top for a workbench I built. The bench has 2 layers of 3/4" ply and I need to know what to use for glue and how to apply it. Someone suggested epoxy. PL400 would be easier but am wondering if the thickness would be a problem? The PL premium is easier to spread though and maybe the premium version would be okay? It's in a heated space too. Have never used epoxy for gluing large surface areas. Seems to me it would be expensive and a hassle to apply and get the sheet in place. With PL there'd be some adjustment time to get the sheet exactly in place.

What does everyone else use? The sheet is heavier gauge sheet (18 IIRC) and will take two people to manhandle it into place without damaging it and would like to avoid something messy and difficult to work with.

 

[383 240z]

Scuff the back side of the steel so the glue has something to bite into. 80grit on a DA would work well. PL makes an adhesive for wood to metal. The key is to spread it over the entire surface. A 1/8" notched trowel would work well

If you just put it on with a caulking gun, the voids in the glue will show as the metal deforms in the depression

 

[James-W]

Cut the heads off some short nails and weld the nails to the bottom of the sheet metal. Then, get the sheet metal where you want it and tap the nails into the wood bench. No nails are showing and the sheet metal is tight to the wood bench top.

 

[Bondo]

The sheet is heavier gauge sheet (18 IIRC) and will take two people to manhandle it into place without damaging it

Ayuh,.... Just fiction, 'tween the wood, 'n metal, along with Gravity would probably be enough,....

Have ya ever tried to pick up the last sheet of tin off a pallet, bare handed,..??

 

[Falcon67]

I just ran some beads of clear silicone caulk and stacked a couple of cylinder heads on it for 24 hours. That was 10 years and a move ago, top hasnt moved yet. I use it for transmission work and cylinder head work.

 

[jonjon1]

I did this a few times, all you need is PL Premium, its a polyurethane construction adhesive, I have glued, wood to cement, wood to metal, wood to anything, lol.. Its water proof, paintable, interior, exterior, cures in the cold, hot, wet, or all of the above..

Its in a blue and yellow tube and says "3x" on it, made by loctite, good stuff, I buy it case at a time.... I actually glued a sheet of stainless to a full sheet of OSB, I used 36grit air grinder (the flexi type) to rough up the sheet, then just gooped the adhesive on and laid on the metal, its been there a while, there is a rinnai water heater and some controls bolted through it, but you can not pull the edges of the metal off that wood, you will rip the wood apart before getting the metal off...



quick story for ya, I was at one of my builds in a development 2 days before , waiting for the final inspection, I walk in the house that was supposed to be finished, but the company that I had do the counter tops also did the kitchen floor and the thresholds for me (I was super busy, they were there so I said to get it done), DID NOT mortar the thresholds, had 3 tiles in closet cut but not set, and did not put the grait splashes up in the kitchen, everything was there, just not done, and this inspector was a PITA...

SO I ran to the truck grabbed that PL 3X, glued the thresholds, backsplash and them tiles in the closet!!! The house was super cold, I was actually there to turn the water and furnace on for the inspection... I only had about an hour before he was going to be there... I figured if it was an issue after he left I would peal everything off, scrape the glue and do it "right"...

He came everything was fine, it all passed, I got the signed C.O. receipt.. I go to pull the back splash off and it wouldnt budge, so I just left everything, that was a while back when I first started using the stuff, and I know the people who bought the house, its all still glued together, I told them what I did and they said "just have someone come and grout the closet"....

 

[wrench409]

How expensive was that sheet metal top? Did you have it put on a brake to go over the edges? Is it stainless or just flat steel? Sorry for the hijack.....

 

[JonnyMac]

Construction adhesive, use a whole tube. Then get several lengths of rigid timber or metal and clamp them across the top at as smaller intervals as possible. Then wind the clamps as tight as possible.

 

[jonjon1]

How expensive was that sheet metal top? Did you have it put on a brake to go over the edges? Is it stainless or just flat steel? Sorry for the hijack.....

I buy ss 22ga 4x8 for around $135 a sheet, they sell 4x10 also, I bought 20ga 4x10 before for $240ish before..., thin stainless is pretty easy to brake bend, not like aluminum, thats tougher, tends to rip up a bit....

Wednesday I ordered 3 sheets of 1/8" diamond SS floor plate, $900 each!!! Redoing the floor in a trailer for a friend of mine, he was going to stainless rivet it down, I talked him into tig welding brackets to the sheets and bolting it to the framing, and then tig welding all the seems, the trailer is just over 23' inside, should work out well...

 

[myredracer]

How expensive was that sheet metal top? Did you have it put on a brake to go over the edges? Is it stainless or just flat steel? Sorry for the hijack.....

Can't remember the exact cost as I've been waiting a couple of weeks. They're bending a back splash lip along the back and on one end and the front and other end is getting folded down with a safety lip at the bottom edge (metal is folded 180). Cost is around $250 Can (+ tax). Very reasonable I thought.

One thing I learned is that the sheets come in 12' and 14' lengths. I had the bench all made up with welded steel legs and frame to exactly 12'-0" overall but that didn't allow for the bends at each end. When I talked to the metal shop, I would have had to pay a big premium for a 14' sheet. So I cut the bench and shortened it 2 1/2" to allow the use of a 12' sheet.

The metal is galvanized.

 

[Fogey]

Interesting topic - Are we talking Galvanised Steel or Stainless Steel?

 

[T_R]

The ones we have at work are wood with sheetmetal top. The tops are just bent on a brake and wrap around with screws on the bottom. No glue. They look old, real old I'd guess 40-50 years maybe and don't move. I can't really see a need for glue.

 

[ZRX61]

jeeze guys, talk about overkill, a few random dabs of silicon caulk or liquid nails type stuff is more than adequate.

 

[Farres]

With the weight of 14 gauge on a 12' sheet. you don't need any adhesive. Gravity will work just fine, and, someday, you may be very glad you can pick it back up and off if needed.

 

[Doozer75]

All you weekend wonders have no clue.
The proper bonding agent would be contact adhesive,
as in like the Formica laminate countertop kind.

-Doozer

 

[astroracer]

Gravity will work just fine. It sounds like you are "wrapping the steel top around the wood bench anyway so where is it going to go? Bolt a vise on and it will go nowhere.
Mark

 

[purplezr2]

I just ran some beads of clear silicone caulk and stacked a couple of cylinder heads on it for 24 hours. That was 10 years and a move ago, top hasnt moved yet. I use it for transmission work and cylinder head work.

This is how everyone I know has done it

 

[Shiftless]

Gravity will work just fine. It sounds like you are "wrapping the steel top around the wood bench anyway so where is it going to go? Bolt a vise on and it will go nowhere.
Mark

good idea astro
But since it is 12 feet long, better bolt down a vise on EACH end.

 

[stevenhs]

PL premium

 

[alfazer]

Or strips of double sided tape.

 

[ddawg16]

About to get a new 30" x 12' sheet metal counter top for a workbench I built. The bench has 2 layers of 3/4" ply and I need to know what to use for glue and how to apply it. Someone suggested epoxy. PL400 would be easier but am wondering if the thickness would be a problem? The PL premium is easier to spread though and maybe the premium version would be okay? It's in a heated space too. Have never used epoxy for gluing large surface areas. Seems to me it would be expensive and a hassle to apply and get the sheet in place. With PL there'd be some adjustment time to get the sheet exactly in place.

What does everyone else use? The sheet is heavier gauge sheet (18 IIRC) and will take two people to manhandle it into place without damaging it and would like to avoid something messy and difficult to work with.

You call that heavy? My hot water heater enclosure is made out of 14g and I think it's almost too thin.

You are going to have issues with it getting dimpled and banged up pretty bad. I would not do any hammering on it.

I'm going to put a top on my bench soon and I was going to use 10 or 12g

I agree with using contact cement. Or, some flat head screws.....so you can replace it later when you realize how thin it is.

 

[Shiftless]

You call that heavy? My hot water heater enclosure is made out of 14g and I think it's almost too thin.

You are going to have issues with it getting dimpled and banged up pretty bad. I would not do any hammering on it.

I'm going to put a top on my bench soon and I was going to use 10 or 12g

I agree with using contact cement. Or, some flat head screws.....so you can replace it later when you realize how thin it is.

I like the idea of using screws, but flat head screws will stick up proud of the surface and cut your hands and snag stuff when you sweep across the surface. I would use regular wood screws with rounded heads to hold down the metal and make it easy to remove later on if all the dents bother you too much.

 

[wildstyle]

I counter sunk some deck screws into my 16g steel tops. They are flush with the surface

 

[slip knot]

I had a local metal building company bend my tops. The tops were 16' long and 32" wide. They took it right off the roll and custom bent it. They can bend up to 20ft long on their brake. IIRC its 18ga. and its glued down with construction adhesive troweled down with a 1/8 or 1/16 notched trowel. hasn't moved any yet.

if you get a smooth substrate under it, it should lay smooth and stay that way unless you pound on it hard enough to dent the sub.

 

[OctoMan]

Liquid Nail.

 

[jfish]

No no no, you all have it wrong.

The only acceptable surface is .25< and the only acceptable method of adhesion is to weld it directly to the steel frame your workbench is constructed from.

Duh.

 

[Slowboat]

Contact cement. Exactly what it is made for

 

[Shiftless]

No no no, you all have it wrong.

The only acceptable surface is .25< and the only acceptable method of adhesion is to weld it directly to the steel frame your workbench is constructed from.

Duh.

Spoken like a true GJ'er "

With a 6 inch or bigger vise fastened to each end with half inch grade 8 bolts, right?
And 5000+ lumens directly overhead.

 

[jfish]

Spoken like a true GJ'er "

With a 6 inch or bigger vise fastened to each end with half inch grade 8 bolts, right?
And 5000+ lumens directly overhead.

this thread is now making progress. our work here is done folks.

 

[tcianci]

Contact cement. Done

 

[forAK]

good idea astro
But since it is 12 feet long, better bolt down a vise on EACH end.

Mines 8' long and that's what I did. It aint moving. Having double 3/4 is a good start but I've punched through mine and it's 16 ga.

 

[myredracer]

No no no, you all have it wrong.

The only acceptable surface is .25< and the only acceptable method of adhesion is to weld it directly to the steel frame your workbench is constructed from.

Duh.

I have two layers of 3/4" plywood on top of the steel frame. Why would I need 1/4" steel? I'm not doing heavy fabrication work or welding on it.

I might make a smaller table, maybe 3x3' with a heavy top for welding and pounding on. Might give it some retractable wheels too so I can move it out of the way when not needed.

I will be mounting a vise on the top so yes, that will help hold one end of the sheet. I won't need to glue the whole sheet down like it was laminate and just some dabs of some kinda adhesive/glue here and there should be fine. What I don't want happening is the adhesive telegraphing through. The fabrication shop warned me about that. I think something like silicone might do that. Same with construction adhesive but I think the polyurethane version will spread thin enough if I use a small trowel.

I have a back splash bent up along the back and one end so that if I happen to spill a fluid it won't get behind the bench. Therefore the sheet metal will not stay in place as suggested above due to a lip all around. The vise will be at one end of the bench and I don't want the top to be able to creep on th plywood. Sure don't want screws penetrating the top either.

The fabrication shop offered to glue the top onto the plywood but that would have meant taking a 12' x 30" piece of plywood 1 1/2" thick to the shop and then carry it back into my shop afterwards with the weight of the sheet metal added to it. Besides, it's already screwed to the frame (from underneath) with a lot of screws.

 

[Shiftless]

Gil:
The contact cement that tciancy suggested will eliminate any chance of texture bleed through. Comes in spray cans. Super easy if you want to glue down sheet metal. The only downside is that you can't wiggle it around. Instant stick. If that is a problem, put some wax paper covered lath strips in between the plywood and the sheet metal, position the metal and withdraw the sticks. I'm pretty sure contact cement won't stick to waxed paper.

Anybody with "formica" laminate installation experience is welcome to correct me.

 

[kelpaso1]

Like several others have said, a few random dabs of silicone is more than enough. That's all I did with mine and have the same situation as you. Sheet top and bent down the front of the bench and bent up at the rear for a backsplash. Not sure what you are talking about with the glue bleeding or trans versing through

 

[Falcon67]

How expensive was that sheet metal top? Did you have it put on a brake to go over the edges? Is it stainless or just flat steel? Sorry for the hijack.....

I went to a shop that built AC duct work. Bench top was 22x48. He broke over the sides an inch to fit down over the bench top - $25 total.

 

[jfish]

I have two layers of 3/4" plywood on top of the steel frame. Why would I need 1/4" steel? I'm not doing heavy fabrication work or welding on it.

I kid Gil, I kid. But to be on the safe side, go with 5/16".



All the other posts are on point, your ply/sheet metal bench is going to work great with contact cement. Don't forget the pics when your done!

 

[jerseykat1]

3m super 80 spay adhesive on both the wood and metal. It makes it like a contact cement. But you better position it correctly the first time. It will not move easily and its ready to use instantly.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[stage20]

if i were going to contact it, i would buy contact cement and roll it on each side.

the sprays work, but thats a lot of spraying.

 

[Doozer75]

Think just like it is a piece of Formica.
Use contact adhesive on the steel and
on the bench (yes a roller works well),
let it dry, insert your sticks, position the
metal sheet, withdraw the sticks, and
press it home, then roller it to get any
air out. Liquid nails? Gunna be lumpy
as shlt and have voids.

-Doozer

 

[Steevo]

My 12ga steel workbench top weighs about 350#.
I welded it all together, slid it into place, and the only thing that "holds it down" besides its own weight is the vise bolted through the corner on one end:

It hasn't moved in six years, and I don't think it ever will.