Router Table Top Material? (Slick or a bit of bite?)

[Erich Weidner]

I've been looking through plans and as soon as I finish up the TS extension table, I plan to get started on a router table.
I bought a sheet of phenolic coated baltic birch plywood, of which 1/2 is being used for the TS extension. My old TS extension table and TS wing build in router table were made with while melamine coated MDF. These seemed fine at the time. The phenolic coated ply is super slick. For the TS extension I like this as the wood will just glide across it.

But, for a router table do you want a worktop with a bit of bite to it? I went to woodcraft yesterday and checked out the three floor models they had setup. All were nowhere as slick as the phenolic ply, and I know at least one had some texture on it.

Suggestions? This will be the first dedicated router table I'll have ever used. I'd just assume get it right the first time if I can.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I like mine slick. I find it hard to feed material at an even rate with a grabby material, and even feed is important on a router table. I have white melamine on my router table, but I really prefer waxed cast iron. White melamine has a bit of texture and it creates air pockets that tend to vacuum hold the material to the table.

[Rick Potter]

I will go with slick too. With a router table you should be holding it down and into the fence anyway, why add drag to it?

Rick Potter

[Kevin W Johnson]

My top is Corian, polished up nice and slick.

[glenn bradley]

+1 slick. You want material to move very easily past the cutter.

[Bill Huber]

I like my table slick, in fact I wax my router table all the time to make it as slick as I can. This way I can feel the cut of the bit and not the friction form the table. My table it phenolic and I am not sure what the surface is but I am sure it is phenolic also.

Some texture is really slicker than none at all, less friction with the surface.

[Stephen Cherry]

The slicker the better-- you want to be able to slide evenly, without any stop and go motion. Friction can cause a "stiction" effect where instead of moving evenly, the workpiece grabs, then moves.

[Neil Brooks]

Agreed.

Ideally, mine would be like an air hockey table, where the ONLY thing controlling the speed was me, and any hold-down doohickeys that I used.

[Jim O'Dell]

Slick for me too. My top is laminate, can't remember if Wilson Art or Formica. I too don't want to fight the piece with movement and prefer to only have the resistance come from the bit into the wood. Much easier to control. (IMO) Jim.

[Erich Weidner]

Thanks all for the advice, it looks like I'll make use of the leftover phenolic ply for the router table top. (Which is good, as I don't have much space for storing a 4'x4' sheet of ply anyway!)