Shop cabinet countertop material?

[Nathan Yeager]

My next project will be to outfit my garage with some cabinets (uppers & lowers).

The lower cabinets will be melamine, face framed, sitting on adjustable feet to keep them off the floor and allow for vertical alignment across the length. Dimensions will be ~12 feet in length and 23" in depth.

What are your suggestions for the countertop material? While my garage is a woodshop now, I need to build these so that they are presentable as standard garage cabinets when I decide to sell.

[Darroll Walsh]

May I suggest stacking a layer of 3/4 ply with a 3/4 MDF on top of that. Don't bond the two together rather edge the two with hardwood nailing and gluing into only the ply, then secure the top to the cabinets securing only the ply to the frames. This way you can have the MDF top get beat-up but have it replaceable if it takes serious damage. I hope I'm making sense.

[Paul Johnstone]

If you want cheap, try to go to habitat for humanity and buy some used countertop.. cut to fit.

If you want nice, put down some MDF or plywood and glue formica on it.

In any event, if you move, the garage might be more attractive to the buyers if you removed the bottom cabinens. Unless your garage is huge, a bottom cabinet that deep is going to take up a lot of space that they may want to put bikes or other junk in..

[Barry Beech]

Use either 3/4" plywood or mdf for a base and put 1/4" hardboard on top. Wrap with 2x1 of choice. When the hardboard gets beat up just replace it.

[Brian Penning]

I more or less did what Darroll did except used only 1/4" or 3/8" mdf. See below. Used 2 sided tape to hold the top layer down. Got plan from Norm's Yankee workshop in his workshop hutch project.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f193/Bri68/Miscilaneous/main.jpg

[Jeff Towle]

I picked up several 6' formica countertops from Lowes & HD that were in the scratch & dent bin for about $2 each awhile back.

[Darroll Walsh]

Same idea I had but I have a unit with MDF on top. Hardboard should work nicly though. I would definatly go with ply as the base though. Even the cheaper ply will hold better than MDF.

[Brian Dormer]

I use 3/4 melamine (white), laminated to 3/4 MDF. Makes a very strong (not to mention heavy) counter top. I finished the sides with iron-on melamine and the front with a strip of 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 hardwood.

[Nancy Laird]

Nathan, if you have a countertop shop in your town, stop by and ask them if you can buy some of their rejects - sometimes they trash them, sometimes they keep them. If they have any, they should let you have them cheap. You won't have much choice of color of laminate, but you can get some cheap and good tops there to convert. We got several when LOML was working at a top company, edged them with hard maple, and they've been in the shop for over 10 years and still going strong. For what it's worth, laminate countertops are made on a base of particleboard, and they are still flat and in great shape.

Nancy