Table top for paint grade furniture.

[Joe Hillmann]

I am building work table/shelving unit out of poplar and pine with a painted finish, nothing fancy but I still want it to look somewhat nice. For the table top I have three choices (trying to keep cost low) I could go with.....
Painted 3/4" MDF with a bullnose routed into the front and sides.

3/4 inch birch plywood, routed with a bullnose on the front and sides and leaving the plys exposed on the bullnose.

Or 3/4 inch melamine with hardwood (probably oak) bullnoses glued to the front and sides.


What would you guys recomend for the table top?

[Stephen Cherry]

Not on the list, but interior commercial doors sometimes come up used on craigslist.

[Joe Hillmann]

I thought of that but the table is 8 feet long. Actually the table I am replacing was an old solid core door.

[Richard Coers]

Depends what the work is. If it's sewing, I'd use melamine. If it's mechanical work, I wouldn't paint it. Paint and melamine will chip and look bad pretty quickly. Painted edge grain of MDF will require filling and sanding to look like something. It's a sponge.

[Joe Hillmann]

I do laser engraving so mostly it is used as a layout table for the parts being engraved and for boxing things up to be shipped out.

[Todd Burch]

I've always considered a plank board top a nice top for a table.

How come that isn't on your radar?

[Joe Hillmann]

I have no way to flatten it. It is 96" x 30"-33" depending on how much overhang I put on the front.

[Sam Murdoch]

I do laser engraving so mostly it is used as a layout table for the parts being engraved and for boxing things up to be shipped out.

Well supported MDF will do the job you describe very well. Easy, smooth and solid. Can be painted or clear coated with urethane. I do the clear coat on MDF for desk and work table tops all the time. Add a pine or mahogany edge and you are done and looking good.

[Todd Burch]

Tight splines** are your friend. After glue up, minimal sanding.

Todd

** I would typically say "tight loose splines", but that's confusing. "Loose" meaning the spline is a separate, 3rd, piece of wood, and which fits "tight".

[Larry Edgerton]

I'd go with the plywood. I have a large bench in my shop that has a 3/4" oak ply that I made to be replaceable, but I keep patching it with epoxy [has coins and pencils from lumber yards in the larger patches] and once in a while when I have some extra clear coat I give it another shot. It is now a living history of my last 15 years work and I would not trade it for anything else. Melamine and MDF have no character.

Larry

[John TenEyck]

Cheap would be MDF. Better would be two layers of particle board topped with Formica. For your work, it should work great and last nearly forever.

John