MDF or 3/4" Plywood, solid wood or veneers for drafting table top

[Alan Lightstone]

In the middle of building my wife a new drafting table out of sapele. Getting to building the top, and have three options:

1.) Solid 3/4" QS ribbon sapele - The wood I have will have some inconsistent grain matching. Not all with a beautiful ribbon. Also concerned about the table staying flat over time. It will need to be ruler flat to use it for drawing. This, I would assume, would have a durability advantage over the veneer routes.

2.) Commercial sapele veneer - typical 10mil thickness, over a substrate. Have some pretty veneer that I could bookmatch. Perhaps not as nice looking as the one pretty sapele board I have, but still nice. Have to get the veneer edges to perfectly mate, though.

3.) Taking the one or two pretty boards I have and resawing my own homemade 1/8" max veneer over a substrate. My concern is that the one really pretty board I have won't be thick enough for me to get 4 veneer boards out of it. Also will warping be more of an issue with thicker veneer? Durability will need to be taken into consideration too.

Also, considering that the drafting table bottom will need to have drafting table tilting hardware in it, will MDF be a poor choice for the hardware, and would 3/4" hardwood plywood be a better choice?

Anyway, lots of questions, and I'd love to hear people's thoughts as to the best route to take.

[Howard Acheson]

Drafting table tops should be made of hard, small pored wood. The most often used are maple and birch. Hard pressure from pencils will not leave impressions in the wood. I'd be leery of sapelle. My recollection is that it has relatively large pores and, unless you use a filler, the surface will not be totally smooth.

If you are going to use a veneer, I would use good, hardwood plywood as the substrate. MDF would be good but it is quite heavy.

Finally, choose your finish carefully. Oil based finishes, if applied in a thick film, will pick up impressions from hard pencils. Use an interior rated varnish or poly varnish if you elect to use an oil based finish. Interior rated varnishes are harder than exterior varnishes.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi Alan i used ply for a top on a stand up drawing table.After adding cleats to the under side it was pretty heavy.I think Mdf would not be a good choice.Heres a pic

[Alan Lightstone]

Is it a fool's errand to attempt to make the top out of solid wood and have it stay flat over time?

[Mike Henderson]

Is it a fool's errand to attempt to make the top out of solid wood and have it stay flat over time?

A lot of panels are made from solid wood. However if you're worried about warping with solid wood, put some batten boards under the top.

Mike

[Rob Fisher]

Is it a fool's errand to attempt to make the top out of solid wood and have it stay flat over time?Yes. A drafting table needs to stay relatively flat. In college I used a cheap hollow core door that I cut down, and then filled in the exposed edge. It certainly was not terribly attractive, but it was/is immentantely functional. The board is still sufficiently flat to use the attached parralell bar, 8 years later. This is just a tabletop version. If I were going to build a nicer version I would use a torsion box, for rigidity and lightweight. Regarding the surface, you want a smooth, relatively hard surface if you are not using a mat. Many use a drafting board mat, which is just a plastic (typically vinyl) mat with slight give and self healing properties. They can be clearish or colored opaque. The surface material and finish would depend on the use of an opaque board mat or not.

[David Larsen]

You didn't list it as one of your choices, but wouldn't a nice panel of masonite give you a great level and hard surface? Add a trim board edging on it to match the rest of the table and I think you would be able to pull off a very tasteful and practical drafting table. If the top were to get worn or damaged over time, you could make it so it was replaceable.

[Bill Geibe]

I'm a retired drafting teacher (among other Industrial Arts subjects) and I would not recommend doing any drafting directly on a hard surface. When we used drafting boards, they were made of relatively soft basswood. The commercial drafting tables were maple tables with a tilt top that was Formica (or some similar laminate) on all surfaces. I don't know what was under the laminate. That all surfaces were laminated would help seal whatever the base material was from humidity. We always used them with vinyl covers/mats.

The reason is that you have to have a relatively soft surface for the points of the compasses to bite into. Most any wood would work well enough but then it would be marred by countless compass point marks after a lot of use.

If you plan to use the table for sketching only then a smooth, hard, finished wood surface would be what you'd want. But if you are doing mechanical drawing with instruments (becoming a lost art due to CAD), you need a surface that lets the compass needles bite in.

Bill

[Thom Porterfield]

+1 for vinyl drafting board covers.

Over the years, I've had many drafting boards, all made of different materials, but all had vinyl board covers. I also taught drafting in a professional technical program and we had Mayline drafting tables (http://www.draftingfurniture.com/mayline/ranger.jpg), with Borco board covers (http://www.artsuppliesonline.com/catalog.cfm?cata_id=5295). The covers were installed either green side or beige side up. (I prefer the green, for production drafting, but for illustration, I like the beige.)

However, this may not fit well with your sense of esthetics.

When I built my next to last table, I reused an old top. It was a solid core door blank, covered in gray linoleum drafting surface. I liked the look of the linoleum, but it was pitted and scarred from use, plus I wanted the convenience of vinyl. (Convenient because it's easily replaced and is far more washable than any other resilient drafting surface.) Fortunately the stuff comes in clear. I liked that so much, I installed a frosted glass panel in the center of the door blank and put a couple of 18" fluorescent light tubes below that. The vinyl cover easily spans the joint between hard board surface and the glass. I'd provide a photo of that table, except I sold it.

I had some scraps left over from the roll and so I installed a piece of it over an antique school desk my daughter used when she was a little kid. It let the beauty of the old oak show through, but prevented accidents from markers or paint.

[Alan Lightstone]

The LOML will actually be using it for drawing, not true drafting (no mechanical pencils). And she is set on the beautiful look of a ribbon sapele top (I think I gave her the bug with the entertainment center I build for my son out of ribbon QS sapele.)

My plans were to fill the pores in the sapele top (whether it be veneer or solid wood) and build up a finish with Waterlox until it is perfectly smooth. I personally think that polyurethane would be more protective, but she loves the warm amber color imparted by the Waterlox. I've sprayed many test panels of other WB alternatives, but none have been to her liking as much as the Waterlox.

I'd imagine she'll be using some vinyl board cover for any work that could damage the top, self-healing mats, etc. but otherwise would like to use the wood top.

BTW, is it possible / necessary to put a few coats of polyurethane over the Waterlox varnish to add protection?

[Alan Lightstone]

A lot of panels are made from solid wood. However if you're worried about warping with solid wood, put some batten boards under the top.

Mike
Mike:

Could you elaborate a little on the batten boards? How many / thick do they have to be. Does the orientation matter (parallel to the grain or perpendicular to it)?