Workbench finish inquiry

[Marvin Carle]

Good Day all,


I just completed my Paulk Workbench from 3/4” Cabinet Grade Birch plywood and was wondering what finish should i apply to protect it from elements, glue, etc. was thinking a couple coats of satin wipe on poly, and maybe some sort of paste wax periodically. I still have to drill the 20mm holes into it once i figure out the best method.


any input would be greatly appreciated.


M

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, varnish of some sort is good. Glue doesn't stick to it. My bench over thirty years old. The top gets a coat of varnish when I have a brush already wet, there's nothing on the bench, and there's time for the finish to cure before I want to work on the bench -- that's anything from six months to a couple of years. Sometimes I sand the bench before I put a coat on.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Cigarette ash and spilled cabernet. That's what I use on mine. Excellent patina.

[Jim Becker]

I only put BLO on my bench. It does the job and is easily renewable. I wouldn't use a film finish on a workbench as it will quickly get damaged anyway.

Please note that a plywood top on your bench is also going to be susceptible to chunks getting taken out the top veneer. Be prepared for that!

[Howard Acheson]

A film finish (lacquer, shellac, varnish, poly varnish) is not the way to finish a workbench top. A workbench is going to get dinged and film finishes will crack or craze or be otherwise damaged. Once a film finish is penetrated, it looses its effectiveness and adjacent areas begin to fail. No treatment is going to make a soft wood benchtop harder. I much favor an "in the wood finish". Here are two that lots of folks find effective.

First, is an boiled linseed oil and wax finish. Sand the surface to 180 grit. Mix paraffin or bees wax into heated boiled linseed oil. USE A DOUBLE BOILER TO HEAT THE OIL. The ratio is not critical but about 5-6 parts of boiled linseed oil in a double boiler with one part paraffin or beeswax shaved in. Take it off the stove. Thin this mixture about 50/50 with mineral spirits to make a heavy cream like liquid. Apply this mixture to the benchtop liberally and allow to set overnight. Do it again the next day and again the following day if the top continues to absorb it. After a final overnight, lightly scrape off any excess wax and buff. This finish will minimize the absorbsion of any water and you can use a damp rag to wipe up any glue excess. Dried glue will pop right off the surface. Renewal or repair is easy. Just use a scraper to remove and hardened stuff, wipe down with mineral spirits using a 3/0 steel wool pad (a non-woven green or gray abrasive pad is better), wipe off the gunk and apply another coat of boiled linseed oil/wax mixture.

My personal preference is for an oil/varnish mixture treatment. Either use Minwax Tung Oil Finish, Minwax Antique oil or a homebrew of equal parts of boiled linseed oil, your favorite varnish or poly varnish and mineral spirits. Sand the benchtop up to 180 grit. Apply the mixture heavily and keep it wet for 15-30 minutes. Wipe off any excess completely. Let it dry overnight and the next day, apply another coat using a gray non-woven abrasive pad. Let it set and then wipe off any excess. Let this dry 48-72 hours. To prevent glue from sticking apply a coat of furniture paste wax and you're done. This treatment is somewhat more protective than the wax and mineral oil as the varnish component adds some protection from not only water both some other chemicals also. The waxing makes the surface a little more impervious to water so you can wipe up any liquid adhesive. It also allows hardened adhesive to be scraped off. Repair and renewal is easy. Just go throught the same scraping, wiping down with mineral spirits and reapplication of the BLO/varnish/mineral spirits mixture and an application of paste wax.

Both of the above treatments are quite protective but are easy to maintain and renew. They do not fail when the surface takes a ding.

[Prashun Patel]

Personally, I think any finish is fine on a bench as long as it's not built up to a thick film that you want to keep looking good.

I wipe most any old finish I have on my rags from projects on my bench in order to make the rags a little dryer before putting them out (safely) for disposal. When done like this, the coats are so thin - and get worn down so quickly through use that a film hardly ever builds up and I never get incompatibility - even between water and oil-based finishes and waxes. But then again, I'm wiping them on with the mindset of SEALING the surface, not making a layer on top of it.

I think the choice of finish comes down to your aesthetic preferences. If your preference is strictly utilitarian (like me) and want a flat, clean (or easily cleanable) bench, then I would wipe on any excess clear finish you have lying around. Errant saw and chisel marks that don't compromise performance do not bother me (much).

[Pat Barry]

I did BLO, followed by the BLO paraffin wax combo like Howard described it, and then just for kicks i finished it off with Johnson paste wax. Its pretty slippery which I like since the bench often doubles as an outfeed table for my table saw, plus, I use it for glueups and the glue slobber cleans up really easy. Some people think that waxing the top makes it too slippery - I suppose it all depends on your needs.