DIY phenolic router table top

[David Kuzdrall]

Does anyone here have experience using phenolic lab table top material for a router table. It seems like a ideal material but I don't see a lot of info from folks using it to build their tops.

how does it machine, how well does it take screws?

thx

[pat warner]

Tough to machine. Can be jointed with Carbide, drilled and tapped with HSS.
Stuff is not flat. Needs to flattened on one side, then thickness sanded.
Get it flat and uniform in thickness and it is very serviceable.

[David Kuzdrall]

Tough to machine. Can be jointed with Carbide, drilled ad tapped with HSS.
Stuff is not flat. Needs to flattened on one side, then thickness sanded.
Get it flat and uniform in thickness and it is very serviceable.

Sounds like I may be better off with phenolic ply attached to a stout cabinet acting as a torsion box to keep it flat.

[Keith Outten]

David,

I have several large Science table tops stored for future use. Pat is right about the material not being perfectly flat and if I ever decided to use mine for a router table I would build a seriously stout torsion box to support the material. My preference for a router table top is Dupont Corian. I have been saving a piece of 3/4" thick Corian for a new router table for some time, hope to get it built over the holidays.

When I was at CNU our budget was near zero for shop tools so I built a quick and dirty Corian table to route sign edges. It was just a rectangle made from 1/2" thick Corian that I glued a couple Corian stiffeners under the table on each side of the router motor and installed on a couple braces mounted to the wall. In spite of its simplicity it was the best router table I have ever used, smooth as silk and it stayed perfectly flat. The table is still in use after several years.

Corian can be polished to a mirror finish and if you put a coat of paste wax on the top periodically it will remain smooth as glass.
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[Alan Bienlein]

I guess I must be the odd ball as I have a piece of 1/2" phenolic that is flat and it was leaning against the wall of a shop we closed down for over 2 years. The same for the 3/4" phenolic top on my out feed/downdraft table to my table saw.

The 1/2" has the same surface texture as Nevamar laminate and the 3/4" surface texture is similar to Formica brand laminte. Just exactly how much flatter than this do you really need?


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[David Kuzdrall]

David,

I have several large Science table tops stored for future use. Pat is right about the material not being perfectly flat and if I ever decided to use mine for a router table I would build a seriously stout torsion box to support the material. My preference for a router table top is Dupont Corian. I have been saving a piece of 3/4" thick Corian for a new router table for some time, hope to get it built over the holidays.

When I was at CNU our budget was near zero for shop tools so I built a quick and dirty Corian table to route sign edges. It was just a rectangle made from 1/2" thick Corian that I glued a couple Corian stiffeners under the table on each side of the router motor and installed on a couple braces mounted to the wall. In spite of its simplicity it was the best router table I have ever used, smooth as silk and it stayed perfectly flat. The table is still in use after several years.

Corian can be polished to a mirror finish and if you put a coat of paste wax on the top periodically it will remain smooth as glass.
.

I may need to call around and see if I can find a sink cutout made from Corian....my piece of phenolic is warped as folks mentioned...at least it was free.

[William C Rogers]

I ended up buying the Jointech top from eBay which is 3/4inch phenolic. I bought the larger size (he has two sizes)and it was flat. I seem to remember he said the smaller size was not perfectly flat but could be drawn down. These are seconds as there was a small chip on the very back side of mine. One advantage is the insert is already cut out. I did install a feather board slot and the material is tough to work with. I built a table around mine and I am satisfied with this top. I remember the shipping was more than the cost around $75 total with shipping.

[Keith Outten]

David K,

I think the material he referenced was a Science Lab phenolic table top which is what I assumed. I have five of them that are 1.25" thick (5 by 6 foot tops). VERY heavy and tough as nails to work with but they make great shop table tops or work surfaces for vinyl work, cutting templates, layout work etc. They will stay flat if mounted to a solid base. They list for about $1,800.00 new, a bit pricey for a router table top :)
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[David Kuzdrall]

David K,

I think the material he referenced was a Science Lab phenolic table top which is what I assumed. I have five of them that are 1.25" thick (5 by 6 foot tops). VERY heavy and tough as nails to work with but they make great shop table tops or work surfaces for vinyl work, cutting templates, layout work etc. They will stay flat if mounted to a solid base. They list for about $1,800.00 new, a bit pricey for a router table top :)
.

that is what I have...with a slight bow. I will put some weight on it and see how much force it takes to flatten out. If it is not too much maybe I can pull it out when I screw it down.

i still like the idea of Corian, if I can find a freebie I may give it a shot.

thx

[pat warner]

Be mindlful, Phenolic laminates are rarely machined, they're cast & squished at high temperatures.
As such they are not flat, nor are they uniform in thickness. No amount of pull is going to flatten the stuff.
It has to be machined. They are subject to changing shape after machining too.
But at least you're starting with a uniformly thick and smooth surface.
For general service, very little maintenance, on the cheap, uniform thickness (better than + or - .005", Medite brand): MDF

[Loren Woirhaye]

Somebody is selling NOS phenolic router table tops on ebay from Jointech (out of business). He's in Texas and shipping can be a lot but the tops are cheap for what you'd get.

[Alan Bienlein]

Be mindlful, Phenolic laminates are rarely machined, they're cast & squished at high temperatures.
As such they are not flat, nor are they uniform in thickness. No amount of pull is going to flatten the stuff.
It has to be machined. They are subject to changing shape after machining too.
But at least you're starting with a uniformly thick and smooth surface.
For general service, very little maintenance, on the cheap, uniform thickness (better than + or - .005", Medite brand): MDF

I have got to ask but why then has this piece of phenolic thats only 1/2" thick stayed flat after at least 2 years of leaning against a wall where the bottom was a good 24" away from the wall?
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And this piece of 3/4" has had alot of machineing done on one side and was leaning against that same wall and it's still flat.
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Is this just a better grade of phenolic than the lab tops?

[Keith Outten]

Pat, I don't think the phenolic material we are talking about is a laminate. The tops that I have are not laminated, they are solid sheets.

David, I know from experience that the black phenolic table tops I have will stay flat outside in the weather.....all but the top sheet. If I don't keep plenty of weight on the top sheet it tends to bow but the good news is that properly weighted and left in the summer sun it will flatten back out.

Alan, I think your right about phenolic staying flat even when leaned against a wall for long periods of time as long as it is stored at ambient temperatures. In my case the sun beat down on the solid black top and it warped, reversing the problem just takes some clamps, weights and more summer sun.

At the sign shop at CNU we put one of the solid phenolic table tops on top of a trestle table that we kept outside. It never warped, even though it was in direct sunlight, so I expect its own weight and the fact that it was well supported made a difference. Even when it was burning hot in the sun we would put sign blanks on the top and pressure wash them so the sudden cool down didn't even affect the top. We did this day in and day out last year and the table top is still perfectly flat, looks like it just came out of the lab.
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[pat warner]

Black phenolic, whilst showing no layering like canvass or jeans, is a paper laminate (not Kraft), the cheapest of phenolics, tho quite serviceable.
Flatness: In order to observe flatness, the work has to be horizontal and at rest. And it should be resting on a claibrated/ground surface like granite.
Now with ground precision straight edges, longer than any dimension of the sample, if it can be shown that the work's flatness will not allow, say a .005" feeler gage, access (under a resting s. edge) , you have a remarkable piece of substrate.
And the observation should be made across the diagonal, on both sides of the sample and randomly or regularly along any line passing through the work. I have never seen anything close to that, especially in stock >2' in any lineal dimension. Moreover, the typical flatness specs on these materials is often >1/4"/20".

Mr.Bienlein: Your definition of flatness please.
And the spec. does vary wildly from material to material, thickness, laminate material, resin, thermal history, STP and so on.
But a near (say <.010"/1') flat piece of unmachined laminate I have not seen. And man, if I did, I would switch from precision ground Aluminum jig plate to phenolic in a NY minute.

[Mark Blatter]

David,

I have several large Science table tops stored for future use. Pat is right about the material not being perfectly flat and if I ever decided to use mine for a router table I would build a seriously stout torsion box to support the material. My preference for a router table top is Dupont Corian. I have been saving a piece of 3/4" thick Corian for a new router table for some time, hope to get it built over the holidays.

When I was at CNU our budget was near zero for shop tools so I built a quick and dirty Corian table to route sign edges. It was just a rectangle made from 1/2" thick Corian that I glued a couple Corian stiffeners under the table on each side of the router motor and installed on a couple braces mounted to the wall. In spite of its simplicity it was the best router table I have ever used, smooth as silk and it stayed perfectly flat. The table is still in use after several years.

Corian can be polished to a mirror finish and if you put a coat of paste wax on the top periodically it will remain smooth as glass.
.

Any reason a 1/2" thick piece would not work?

Where I work we use lots of solid surface and I likely could snag a scrap piece of 1/2". Might even be able to grab two pieces and glue them together.

[Keith Outten]

Mark,

Half inch thick Corian will work fine if you glue a couple of Corian stiffeners to the bottom, something like a torsion box design.
There is another thread going on right now about Corian router tables.
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[Mike Konobeck]

For the money and time you are going to have in making your own router table top it is pretty cost prohibitive to build vs. buy. You can buy an Incra top off Amazon pretty cheap for the quality you get.

[David Kuzdrall]

Be mindlful, Phenolic laminates are rarely machined, they're cast & squished at high temperatures.
As such they are not flat, nor are they uniform in thickness. No amount of pull is going to flatten the stuff.
It has to be machined. They are subject to changing shape after machining too.
But at least you're starting with a uniformly thick and smooth surface.
For general service, very little maintenance, on the cheap, uniform thickness (better than + or - .005", Medite brand): MDF

Where would a fellow get a piece of phenolic machined?

[Keith Outten]

Pat,

I'm not a fan of MDF because it tends to swell when you have humid conditions. Since I live on the east coast of Virginia we have high humidity almost constantly. MDF is so porous you can easily pull a vacuum right through it, this also makes it susceptible to swelling from the moisture in the air. I try to keep my shop closed up tight when temperatures are above 90 degrees here as the humidity will often be at 90% plus. My CNC Router spoil board is MDF, shortly I will be replacing it with PVC sheet to end the constant machining to keep the board flat. Painting all of the exposed surfaces is an option but it requires several coats to seal MDF which in my mind reduces what makes it attractive, the price.
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[Cary Falk]

Where would a fellow get a piece of phenolic machined?

Phenolic can be machined with standard carbide tooling like wood. I have some Phenolic ZCI. I cut them on a Bandsaw and cleaned up the edges with a router. I here the dust is very bad for you. You would have to find somebody with a large drum sander or planer to flatten a piece big enough for a router table.

[Keith Outten]

A CNC Router would probably do the job.
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[pat warner]

"Where would a fellow get a piece of phenolic machined? " (Mr Kuzdrall)
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An abrasive planer at those cabinet shops that have one will do.
But I'd be hittin' the high spots myself before thickness sanding.
A sander's in-feed rollers will probably squish the cup out of slab and never waste it, if you don't.
With what? 60-80# wet SIC. You'll need a straight edge or flat surface to find these irregularities.
I would never expect to pull the warp out of this stuff with hardware.
If you try the stress will be shared x every element of your router table.
&, as such, not only will the top still be mishapen but so will your framework.