Effectiveness of laminate as a table/fence facing?

[ian maybury]

Hi all. Just wondering how those who have used laminate to face a fence or a machine table have found it performed in terms of wear? Does it last well in a reasonably heavy use situation? Is it OK over aluminium or cast iron?

A related question. When working with the contact adhesives typically available around here it's typically hard to brush on a coating that doesn't have ridges and irregularities in it - the adhesive tends to thicken faster than you can brush it out, and to then drag a bit. There's obviously a way around it as demonstrated by Paul G in a sequence of photos of a table lamination job a bit down in this thread from last year - but he didn't say what his technique was:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?171345-Trimming-Laminate-Help

Thanks

ian

[Todd Burch]

Plastic laminate is a great surface for facing a fence or machine table. I would not apply it to alum or cast iron - there would be no point. If I put plastic laminate down, it would be to protect a softer surface.

I typically pour and spread contact adhesive. A wide putty knife, or scrap of plastic laminate (preferred, since it's disposable) works well.

My Powermatic 66 fence sides are covered in plastic laminate from the factory. 16 years old and still in good shape. As is the side feed table.

Todd

[Edward Dyas]

Laminate works fine for fences or machine tables. This time of year you just have to be careful with the temperature of contact cement. It's best if you work it above 70 degrees but each brand of cement is different so stick to the directions of the cement. Contact cement can be brushed, rolled or sprayed. Spraying it is the best but if you can only brush it I would use a wide brush and do more dabbing than brushing. Having a texture to it will make it work better. On the wood I would use two coats of cement.

[Jim Andrew]

This new water based contact cement works much easier than the old thick stuff, you can buy it as a spray if you get from a countertop supplier. But just the quarts and a brush work ok. Use a roller to push the laminate down to the substrate, and roll both directions with plenty of pressure.

[Dennis Ford]

I have used laminate for tables and fences. I like it better than aluminum but not as much as cast iron.

[Ole Anderson]

Works fine, but watch for chip out if you cut miter grooves, be sure to back up your thru cuts if you laminate your edges. I use the water based stuff. I pour it around the two surfaces to be joined and spread it with a disposable applicator pad. Both the ashesive and pads are available from my local plywood/laminate supplier.

[Jamie Buxton]

Plastic laminate also glues down well with Titebond and the like. I use a vacuum press. I've never figured out what they do to the stuff so that PVA sticks so well to the back side, but flakes off the front.

[ian maybury]

Thanks for all that guys. It sounds (Todd and others) that maybe some of the secret is to pour out enough so that the pool stays liquid, and to spread from the pool with a blade so that it's pulled out almost instantly into a film. The problem with the brush I seem to find is that it's not really stiff enough to pull out a thin film in the first hit, and going back only messes up the already half dry film.

I have an extruded aluminium planer (jointer) fence that's cupped a bit, one fix suggested which sounds like it should work is to sand/fill it flat, and to then skin it with laminate....

ian

[Todd Burch]

Hi Ian.

If you sand/fill it (or have it machined) flat, why then still skin it?

[Ole Anderson]

Hi Ian.

If you sand/fill it (or have it machined) flat, why then still skin it?

My answer is that the laminate is very slippery and the wood slides across it with very little effort without waxing it. And it won't rust or corrode or make black marks on your wood like bare aluminum could. Hmm, think I will apply some laminate to the aluminum fence on my old King Seeley Sears jointer.

[ian maybury]

A good question Todd. There's a possibility of sorting it by sanding/scraping/using a body file - it's a high area, but not too bad as tables go - maybe 0.004 high over an area equivalent to about 25% of the table. It's already fairly deeply grooved from the OEM milling. So it's only a case of skimming a few thou off the tops of the ridges. I'll get it surface ground in the next few days if i can, but the issue is to find somebody reliable with the right equipment to do it here in Ireland. There's a few possibilities that surfaced today, so with luck one will check out.

Laminate is definitely plan B for the table, but as Ole says rather more likely for the fence which is a slightly cupped but otherwise straight aluminium extrusion....

One of the issues about this sort of stuff is that the 'why bother' question always arises. I've been running a Robland planer thicknesser for years, and never measured anything and just accepted what came off it. Trouble is I want some precision now, and have got stuck in to precisely setting up my (Hammer) machine. The tables are actually pretty good, and well inside the maker's spec.

There's a lot of talk about set up, but it looks very like in the end that when you really get down it (a couple of weeks of play/measure/think/play/measure/think etc) the bottom line is that if you want well finished and consistently straight stuff off a jointer the requirements are dead simple:

1. Two tables flat within a couple of thou, and aligned to be coplanar.
2. The knife heights set very accurately (within a thou or so again) relative to each other, and relative to the full width of the outfeed table. (the pull a stick 3mm forward all knives/at several points across each test is pretty effective)
3. The outfeed table height then tuned to catch that sweet spot where the piece is gliding through nice and smoothly, but any less height and it'll drag. Confirmed by the no snipe test. (joint a short bit of one end, mark with a pencil. Then joint the entire length from the other end. Check to see that there's traces of the pencil marks left in the area that was marked)

There's scope for a tiny bit of tuning (mostly outfeed table height versus knives, maybe a tiny adjustment of the table alignments) after that to straighten up the cut, but very little.

If the tables are not flat there may be settings that work in specific circumstances, but it's less likely to be consistent.

ian