Is all laminate expensive?

[Cliff Newton]

I want to build that excellent outfeed table Jim Becker has on his website, but DANG, laminate is steep. It's $40.00 a sheet at Lowes. Is it cheaper anywhere else?

[John Miliunas]

Cliff, I'll bet you can a sheet of some thick melamine and pretty much accomplish the same thing. The stuff is still pretty slick, easy to clean, etc...Just a thought.

[Dick Bringhurst]

Wow. That's $1.25 a foot (square). I paid $1.69 a foot for the stuff for my kitchen Dick B.

[Jim Andrew]

You might check with a local counter top maker. Laminate ordered by
mistake is very hard to get rid of, as there are so many choices, and you
don't really care what color it is. Jim

[Matt Meiser]

I picked up some laminate a few weeks ago in the clearance section of a local home improvement place. I ended up getting 8 2'x8' pieces for $8. They originally offered to sell it to me for $2/pc, but when said I would take 5, she said "how about $8 for all of them?" It is a bright, royal blue. What was someone thinking????

[Peter Engelmann]

I was recently at Lowe's and noticed one sheet was damaged. I checked with the department manager and he let me take it for $15.00...Poke around the stack....

[Jim Becker]

Cliff, you can substitute the melamine that was mentioned or just use plywood with a finish. The laminate is nice, but $40 is about the going rate "everywhere". The suggestion to "power shop" from Peter is also a good idea...you never know what you might find, especially if you can live with "any color" available...

[Jim Fancher]

Lowes here is about $45 and HD was $43. I got my matte black laminate for my router table (used almost the whole sheet on it) at HD along with some laminate shears. Those things are amazing.

[Dave Brandt]

Catch the right guy at HD (or your other big box store) and you might get a real deal like I did. Found a half sheet that had a crack about a foot long (and a chip here and there) and asked one of the managers about it. He let me just take it! Can't beat that, although it is ugly stuff, it serves just as well as my custiom drill press table and sliding table for my tablesaw. Can't beat free.