Official Luthiers Forum!

What is the best finish to use on a workbench? I am using good one side plywood, and mainly just want to seal it so nasty stuff does not seep into the wood. Will any varnish do?
Thanks a bunch

Whatever you put on it wax it. If you get glue on it - and you will - it will chip off easily.

Polyurethane with wax over it.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

No finish is also a viable option.

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of tung oil. I looked on the waterlox website and I see their original sealer is a tung oil product. Would this be any better than regular tung oil? I found a place in the city that sells it and my dad just so happens to be going down to the city tomorrow and will be near that store. But I have regular tung oil on hand if its all the same.

I like oil on my benches- easy to renew/touch up. Periodically I clean up the bench top with scraper or ROS sander and slap on more oil. Any Danish oil/tung oil seems to do. It's also a good place to get rid of the last of the oil when working on projects.
I keep wax far away from my wood projects, except for a very well-buffed, thin coat on the tablesaw.

Cheers
John

Alright I will just use regular tung oil, sounds good. For my go-bar section I am using melamine for the countertop, wood glue wont stick to that will it?

Once the melamine surface gets a bit scuffed up, glue will stick to it. Hide glue and polyurethane are both pretty 'grippy'.

Just to be inconsistent (see my previous post about waxing the bench-top) I use wax paper where I want to keep things from getting accidentally glued together.

As an aside- don't make the 'upper plate' of your go-bar deck slippery. Those sticks can be nasty if they slip out of place.

Cheers
John

That is a cool idea.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Mine isn't finished, but the next time I replace the (plywood) top I'm probably going to finish it with polyester.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Like I said, mine is unfinised now, but I may finish my next with polyester. Polyester is tough as nails. An invisable repair wouldn't be necessary on a bench top. If I dropped a chisel and put a gouge in it I could just fill the gouge with CA. If I spilled something on it I could just clean it up with acetone or lacquer thinner.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I have a large roll of heavy brown wrapping paper that's 3 feet wide. I tear off a length ~ a foot longer than my work bench and fold all four excess dimensions under the 3/4" plywood sheet that's my work bench. Beautiful, clean surface that also doubles as a notepad and sketch board. When the paper gets glue bits and so forth on it, time to tear off a new sheet...

aloha,

_________________
David C. Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. Through the Looking Glass by L. Carroll

"Since my house has burned down, I have a much better view of the moon"

Fillipo, I love your island bench, I wish to build one very similar if not the same. Can I ask, is that some sort of metal frame that holds up the top? Do you have any pics of that?