Tweet
For those of you always looking for a bargain, Like I am, you might consider the road less traveled, like I did.
Used office furniture.
I know it sounds crazy but bear with me.
I picked up a "desk" which was really just a 4' x 6' X 1.5" laminated particle board sheet on some metal legs for ~ $10. The legs and top had some minor damage, which would probably precluded it for use as a desk by most people. But by judiciously picking my pieces I was able to salvage enough material from the desk to produce an extension/router table for my BT. The benefits of this, so far as I can tell, is that it is already a perfectly flat, and relatively durable surface. No monkeying around on my part required in order to get it flat, straight and smooth. If the finish on the laminate is destroyed at some point I can always slap another piece of laminate down.
After I made use of the "desk" tops I threw the legs in the rafters of the garage for later use. I will probably end up disposing of them in a few months when I clean out the garage again and wonder why I kept them. But I didn’t want to just toss them today and then next week wonder why I hadn't kept them.
The pieces, obviously, came laminated which might imply a problem when finishing after cutting to size. I however, didn’t experience any significant challenges with it. I simply cut the piece to size with my Circular Saw, sanded lightly to clean up the edges, applied some left over laminate to the exposed ends and then trimmed. I suppose that if laminate were not handy that one could also finish the ends with any material including left over hardwood.
So I guess the moral of my story is, check your local used office furniture stores, good will centers and other likely spots for throw away or scratch and dent. You might get lucky like I did.
YMMV
Dale
Used office furniture.
I know it sounds crazy but bear with me.
I picked up a "desk" which was really just a 4' x 6' X 1.5" laminated particle board sheet on some metal legs for ~ $10. The legs and top had some minor damage, which would probably precluded it for use as a desk by most people. But by judiciously picking my pieces I was able to salvage enough material from the desk to produce an extension/router table for my BT. The benefits of this, so far as I can tell, is that it is already a perfectly flat, and relatively durable surface. No monkeying around on my part required in order to get it flat, straight and smooth. If the finish on the laminate is destroyed at some point I can always slap another piece of laminate down.
After I made use of the "desk" tops I threw the legs in the rafters of the garage for later use. I will probably end up disposing of them in a few months when I clean out the garage again and wonder why I kept them. But I didn’t want to just toss them today and then next week wonder why I hadn't kept them.
The pieces, obviously, came laminated which might imply a problem when finishing after cutting to size. I however, didn’t experience any significant challenges with it. I simply cut the piece to size with my Circular Saw, sanded lightly to clean up the edges, applied some left over laminate to the exposed ends and then trimmed. I suppose that if laminate were not handy that one could also finish the ends with any material including left over hardwood.
So I guess the moral of my story is, check your local used office furniture stores, good will centers and other likely spots for throw away or scratch and dent. You might get lucky like I did.
YMMV
Dale