Workbench top suggestions

[Hunduh]

I know it’s been done before and I used the search function and now my head is spinning.


I built a 2 box Steev-O style 39” high workbench bench with space for a stool between the 2 boxes. I’m looking for a 9 foot by 32 inch bench top. My original plan was to use a 5/8” steel plate for a top, but every steel shop I have been to is telling me it is going to rust just from the high humidity in the summer. I am not looking for high maintenance and I do NOT want to paint it or wax it every month.

So now I’m thinking stainless steel over a sheet of 1” plywood or 2 sheets of 3/4” plywood. Will I get a ‘bounce’ if I don’t glue the stainless steel to the plywood? Can I even affix the stainless steel sheet to the plywood permanently with an adhesive? Would plywood or particle board be stiffer OSB or regular plywood?

Maybe a solid core 1 3/4” door with 12 gauge stainless steel cover? Again, can stainless steel be glued?


I’m not looking for a plywood top, I want a clean smooth surface like stainless. I live in the city and am fortunate to have a 2 car garage, but I am limited to one workbench. This is a do it all bench.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

It's not something you can duplicate cheaply, but I used school lab class black composite tops that were being scrapped. It's not as gentle on finished parts as a wood top, but I love being able to use a torch right on it and clean it with brake cleaner...

Tommy

 

[goodboy]

I have steel and you are right it's a maintenance item... stainless is nice but gets spendy when you start going up in the gauge...

 

[Falcon67]

I'd suggest MDF with a sheet of .125 hard board then your stainless. That would minimize flex I think. I have a sheet metal top on an MDF 1 1/8" topped bench - it has a few dings but I did not glue the sheetmetal down, it's just formed and sitting on the bench top. Contact cement or better construction adhesive will pretty much stick anything.

 

[Hunduh]

What do you guys think of 1/2” steel plate with stainless sheet glued to it? It will be pricey but solid

 

[Firebrick43]

What do you guys think of 1/2” steel plate with stainless sheet glued to it? It will be pricey but solid

I will look nice but??

Most people who want 5/8 thick bench tops want to be able to beat or weld on them. If you beat(or add lots of heat) on a thin SS glued to a thick steel it will delaminate. If you don't want to beat on or weld, just laminate a thick mdf/ply top and cap with the SS.

 

[doublearon98]

As firebrick said, if you not welding on I'd go with 2 sheets 3/4 ply glued and screwed together, then glue stainless on top. An exterior solid core door isn't a bad idea with a stainless cap. What ever you do I highly highly highly recommend leech F-26 glue.

There is also the option of using three 2x12s to make a top. That's what my dad has on his and its had **** beat the hell out it on it and still good to go.

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[Hunduh]

I don’t weld often. When I do, I guess I will have to use the floor or put something down on top of the bench before I weld. The bench will be a clean work bench.

 

[Stuart in MN]

What do you guys think of 1/2” steel plate with stainless sheet glued to it? It will be pricey but solid

Sounds like you'd be able to land commercial aircraft on it. Unless you're pounding on it with sledgehammers I think it would be overkill.


My standard response is to use a piece of 3/4" plywood (or two layers if you really need the extra strength) with a layer of 1/4" tempered hardboard on top. Tempered hardboard is tough, stands up to oils and greases pretty well, and if it does get too beat up it's cheap to replace.

 

[Hunduh]

Sounds like you'd be able to land commercial aircraft on it. Unless you're pounding on it with sledgehammers I think it would be overkill.


My standard response is to use a piece of 3/4" plywood (or two layers if you really need the extra strength) with a layer of 1/4" tempered hardboard on top. Tempered hardboard is tough, stands up to oils and greases pretty well, and if it does get too beat up it's cheap to replace.

Ok...is tempered hardboard that dark brown stuff I’ve seen at Home Depot that’s smooth on one side and textured on the backside? I wonder if that comes in 10 foot sheets

 

[TLCObsession]

I have 2 x 3/4" ply with galvanized sheet steel screwed to the top and bent over the front. It has been great - no rust, weld spatter and oil wipe right up. The sheets were 3' x 12'

 

[matt_i]

If your garage is at a reasonable level of humidity there won't be rust. Oil that thing once (or boeshield, etc) and forget about it. Hot rolled A36 already has a "mill finish" oxide coating on it.

One of my 5/8" A36 tops is right at the 20 year mark and it looks good to me. I haven't been super aggressive with its use but it hasn't been babied either. A welding bench, will need a light touch with a flap wheel every once in awhile anyway to dress down boogers from mig welding or little arc zaps from the material being grounded to the table that raise a little burr.

I don't recommend the thin ss skin over thick A36 because of different expansion rates and the possibility that a bubble could form when the thin gets locally overheated and restrained by the thick.

If you really want to beat heavily on things, put a post under the area where you will do the most hammering. It takes a ridiculously heavy under-structure so that that won't audibly "ring" in the center of a span between two posts, under heavy blows.

 

[Falcon67]

I don’t weld often. When I do, I guess I will have to use the floor or put something down on top of the bench before I weld. The bench will be a clean work bench.

Build or fab a welding table - Extra points if it has a parking place under the main bench. I don't weld on the sheet metal bench, that's for transmission work. At the old shop the welding "bench" was...ready...a scrap of white laminated counter top. No issues.

 

[ManOnTheCouch]

If you're not going to weld, then just buy inexpensive countertop material. I recently build a 10 foot long workbench and the top was black countertop material with a built in backsplash. It was only about $60 for the top at Menards. Makes for a very clean and tidy workbench.

 

[brownsmustang]

I bought these counter tops on Facebook for 20$.

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[ericlar80]

I used the 1+1/8" sub-floor plywood that Home Depot sells, and then put hardboard on top of that. The hardboard can be replaced for about $7/sheet so no need to worry about messing it up when the job gets messy. The plywood underneath obviously provides the rigidity and flatness, and it was not that much more expensive than 3/4".

https://www.homedepot.com/p/T-G-Sheathing-Plywood-Common-1-1-8-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Actual-1-069-in-x-48-in-X-96-in-724092/202088752

 

[Stuart in MN]

Ok...is tempered hardboard that dark brown stuff I’ve seen at Home Depot that’s smooth on one side and textured on the backside? I wonder if that comes in 10 foot sheets

Yes, you can get it in 10 foot sheets, although I suppose that depends on location.

 

[John in OH]

I built my present workbench in 1973. Top is made of 2x8 planks with a 1/2" layer of dense MDF screwed on as a sacrificial surface. Every few years when the MDF starts to get nasty I just replace it and good to go for another couple of years.

 

[Negen]

Good tops can come from reclaimed wood. Semi truck beds and reclaimed bowling lanes make great work bench tops. Or for cheap a couple sheets of 3/4" osb with a liberal layer of industrial mastic with some screws every so often.

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[rburke65]

I h@ve inexpensive laminate on 2 benches and red oak butcher block...60”x 96” on another.

 

[BigSteve63]

My bench is right at 11 feet long and 30 inches deep. i had access to a lot of oddball plywood at work, so I laminated a two inch thick top, then had a local shop bend up an 1/8" thick top to set over it. Made it snug, so had to pound it down with a mallet, but there is no bounce at all when beating on stuff.

Have this and a welding table in a basement shop, but rust has never been a problem. Working for a lubricants distributor, I do have access to a rust preventative - rubbed the long top down with it and wiped it down after it dried. This top still looks like new.

Steve

 

[Hunduh]

Ok, looks like I’m doing a sheet of 1” ply with the 3/4” HDF top....I might or might not do the stainless top....thanks for the advice and opinions everyone!

 

[72Wagon]

I laid laminate flooring over mine, cheap, cleans up easily, replaces easily when damaged. put it down with silicone around the edges to hold in place.

 

[493mike]

I have 3 benches made with used school class room 1 3/4" particle board tops skinned with 16 gauge carbon steel tops and they work great. Have the front bent to wrap under the door edge a half inch and the rear bent up for a backsplash.
I also have a woodshop bench I constructed with 2x4s on edge, pulled together with all-thread rod (3/8"). I recessed the outer 2xs to keep the fastening nuts below flush and then trimmed the exposed 3 sides with 1x material screwed on proud of 2x4s enough to top with 1/4" hardboard. Very stout bench top.
Mike

 

[jeepinerdeep]

HDPE is an option rarely mentioned here. Not good for welding of course.

 

[mgilde13]

IF you choose to lay stainless steel on top of your bench, it will most likely have to be attached mechanically not with an adhesive. Stainless steel is made so that nothing can stick to with ease. Hence the name "stainless." If you choose to try and bond it, you'll have to scuff the hell out of the back side to rough up the surface so you can try and create a mechanical bond.Even then, when the adhesive fails, and it will, the failure will be an adhesive failure" where the adhesive will still be bonded to the wood and not the stainless. Ideally, you'd want the failure to be "cohesive" where the adhesive fails and is still bonded to both surfaces. When bonding stainless, it rarely fails in a cohesive manner. I've worked for one of the world's largest manufacture of adhesives (glue is for wood and paper, adhesives are for everything else) for the last 13 years and I've been well trained on the bonding properties of various substrates.

 

[Firebrick43]

HDPE is an option rarely mentioned here. Not good for welding of course.

We have a bunch of hdpe (cap over steel) inspection benches at work. They Prevent damage to the parts sliding across them. Interestingly they for some reason expand, cup, and curl really bad after maybe six or seven years?

 

[nadogail]

I use a sheet of HardeBoard as a bench cover for welding.

 

[1slow62]

I just picked up this 9/16 25x50 solid aluminum workbench on CL.

 

[Hunduh]

Nice! Let me guess, it came with a vise too?

 

[1slow62]

Nice! Let me guess, it came with a vise too?

Yes sir.

 

[audioworks04]

I use phenolic faces 3/4in concrete firm plywood or medium density overlay form ply. Both are used in concrete forming and have 7plys making them much stronger with a very durable top surface.

 

[rick carpenter]

For a small 18-1/2" x 16" table I constructed a top out of glued layers of ply-mdf-ply-mdf-ply, with 1/8" cast iron over that. I put a couple of thin coats of flexseal on the top ply layer and the bottom of the cast iron. Then I screwed it down and ground the screw heads flush. Nice and solid.

 

[Bretny]

I have 3/4in plywood on my bench. Its prob 20yrs old. Yes its oil soaked and dirty...because i work in my garage. I dont beat on it because i have a vise and a anvil. I do cover it when mixing paint. My covers are free boxes the USPS ships to you.

I do take appart carbs and rebuild things on it so its got its fair share of oil soaked in it. Still clean off with a brush well.

 

[97tj-neil]

I haven’t built my benches yet, but I found a guy on Craigslist that was salvaging an entire bowling alley. I got 4 sections of lane 10’ long by 42” wide for $100 each. They will make very rugged benchtops.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I haven’t built my benches yet, but I found a guy on Craigslist that was salvaging an entire bowling alley.

I hope you got someone to help you load those things. Old bowling alley sections are HEAVY.

 

[Negen]

I can't wait to see that bench. I have been wanting a bowling ally bench ever since I saw the reclaimed wood for sale on Craigslist.

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[97tj-neil]

I hope you got someone to help you load those things. Old bowling alley sections are HEAVY.

Guy I bought them from loaded them with a skid loader. My son and I pushed them off my truck as the two of us could not lift one. I then cut them into bench sized pieces and we were able to carry them.

On the way home, my steering was a little light.

 

[ericlar80]

I haven’t built my benches yet, but I found a guy on Craigslist that was salvaging an entire bowling alley. I got 4 sections of lane 10’ long by 42” wide for $100 each. They will make very rugged benchtops.

That was a great deal!

 

[mbunimog]

I bid at auction on a lot of work tables from an aircraft parts manufacturer going out of business. Set up 6 of them each 6 ft to 10 feet long. They are all made of maple butcher block 2 inch thick. Still have about 10 of those left. Did not cost that much because you had to clean out the room.