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Thread: How to protect my outfeed table top

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    How to protect my outfeed table top

    I just finished an outfeed table using 3/4 MDO for the top. I would like some advise on products that could be used to protect the surface as I do some amount of project assembly on it. I am concerned about gluing operations. I would like to keep the surface in as good condition as possible.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Whidbey Island , Wa.
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    914
    Plastic Laminate AKA High pressure Laminate, P. Lam., Formica.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Mentor Ohio
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    Hey Paul
    I did considerd that however this material has a moisture resistant resin impregnated paper surface, I was hoping for some topical application. I don't know if wax or urathane or ????? I am hoping for as many different options and reasons to use them as possible. Thanks for your response.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Escondido, CA
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    Mine has danish oil and wax. I can get stray drips scraped off pretty easily.

    I'll watch other answers because I have no idea if this is what the best answer might be. It's what Frank Klausz uses on his work bench, but he also has a blanket he puts over the top during glue-ups.

    Brian
    Veni Vidi Vendi Vente! I came, I saw, I bought a large coffee!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    San Francisco, CA
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    Titebond and its cousins don't stick to varnish.

  6. #6
    On all of my MDF jigs and tables and the like I just use up those 1/4 cans of poly then I wax them with paste wax and that has worked very well for me. Nothing fancy at all but it works and if I get some glue on them it comes right off.

  7. #7
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    I don't know that the characteristics of MDO (although it does paint well) would lend itself to my protocol. I tend to stick to BLO and wax for the bench but get pretty free-form on the outfeeds. Like Bill, my outfeed gets whatever clear finish I happen to be working with at the time; BLO, shellac, varnish, etc. however I don't wax it . . . that might interfere with the next rag, damp with 'whatever', that I am looking to rub on it ;-)
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Thomasville, Georgia
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    I applied two coats of Sealcoat, then two coats of Johnson's Wax to my tablesaw outfeed and side support tables and it has held up well. Glue drops don't stand a chance!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Bill Arnold
    NRA Life Member
    Member of Mensa
    Live every day like it's your last, but don't forget to stop and smell the roses.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
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    New Lenox, Illinois
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    Nick,
    I was trying to save the top of my new Grizzly workbench top. I was wandering thru the "Orange BORG" and noticed this stuff that they put in the bottom of showers prior to putting down tile. It's pretty thick rubber, 5 feet wide and on a large roll. I used to put it on the table (it lies nice and flat) and do my glue-ups. Any slop is just flaked off when dry.

    It has worked so well I leave it on all the time. My three year old top is like the day I got it.

    Good luck! Ken
    If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Southern Minnesota
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    1,442
    I use poly. It is harder than just about anything and takes the abuse that I dish out. I use my out feed table as an assembly table, bench, sanding table, and more. Glue doesn't stick to it and it holds up. Put a couple of coats of wax on it and it will be real slick as well.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Monroe, MI
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    Since its MDO and already has some amount of plastic (resin) in the coating, I'd just wax it.


  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    The Hartland of Michigan
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    7,628
    Just wax it. That's all I do to my router tables.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

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