Using Wood Laminate Flooring for a Work Bench Top

Intro: Using Wood Laminate Flooring for a Work Bench Top

This is my first instructable so put on your rose colored glasses
I found some flooring at habitat for humanity for about a buck apiece and knew they where pretty tuff, but a bench top? So I took a claw hammer to a piece and it stood up pretty well to a minor trashing. Well I gave it a shot and in about 20 minutes it look pretty good.

STEP 1: Materials

7 pieces of flooring
Saw
3 screws
counter sink bit
drill bit appropriate for screw size
1 Beer (i would have drank more but it only took a few minutes)
1 Tamale (pork)

STEP 2: Put It Together

Put it together as you can see the layout was simple enough. I know when you do a floor you stagger the planks but I want it simple.  When it gets torn up I can replace it with another 7 bucks and 20 min. of time. I did have to trim the end pieces. They clip together into one big sheet.

STEP 3: Making It Stick

All I did was push it back against the wall and into the corner tight. Then I counter sunk three holes along the front of the counter. Pre-drilled them for the screws and snugged them up. I started to glue it down but it felt so secure I decided against it for ease of replacement.

STEP 4: Other Stuff

I had put the groove edge out because I thought it made more sense. While giving it the once over I realized that the left over rubber trim used to tuck in screen door screen would fit in perfect and give it a bit more finished look.  Perfect no. A lot nicer than my twenty year old plywood surface. Yes

STEP 5: Chemical Durability?

I sprayed an extra piece of the surface with chem tool carb cleaner and wd40 . The laminate seemed unaffected. 

Comments

[couchchangeracing]

Cool. I did the same thing using solid bamboo a while back. I also have the computer set up at one end like yours.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Tough-Cheap-Work-Bench-My-Bowling-Alley/

[bdakins]

nice idea with the laminate flooring, I have been trying to figure out what to do with half a box remaining from redoing a floor

[pfred2]

It looks great. I use smooth Masonite hardboard for covering work surfaces. At $7 a 4x8 sheet is is pretty economical and it is widely available too. Some suggest to put a raised lip around pieces you wish to cover to hold the sheets in, but often I screw mine down like you did. Hardboard isn't quite as hard as its name might suggest it is, but I've found it to be fairly durable in use. The only thing I don't like about hardboard is how dark a color it is. Being so dark it absorbs a lot of light and makes my garage a bit darker as a result. I like the nice light color of your laminate flooring. It really brightens things up.

[oakironworker]

Is that the stuff clipboard are commonly made of? I didn't plan on the brightness part but it is nice and easier to see small parts with old eyes.

[kleinjahr]

Yep, same stuff as perf/peg board only without the holes. Tempered is a bit tougher. Handy as a work surface because once the top is damaged to much, simply unscrew, flip and screw down again.

[pfred2]

Yeah the tempered, smooth both sides, is the material I prefer. The last time I bought it the dopes at the big box store didn't know what I was talking about until I said, "like pegboard without the holes". Then the dim bulbs went off between their ears.

[Bruce P]

I went to my local DIY store and asked if they had any damaged kitchen work surface. They sold me a full length for £20 (Normally £70-£80) It had a 18" piece of laminate missing from an edge. It dents and drills dead easy but I'm not bothered.
Laminate flooring is a LOT more hard wearing than my idea though. I put laminate flooring down in my hall and blunted my band saw blade and a tennon saw.
Rgds B.P.

[TheDivineImpulse]

i used old straight apartment doors got them 4 nothing ,u can see one of them in this video where i build a fish tank :) happy tinkering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DCwow1xpic