On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:07:15 GMT, Walter
wrote:

I am building a router table top and had planned on using Formica for
surfacing the top and bottom. That is until I saw the $43 price tag on a
sheet of Formica! That's a lot to pay for a sheet of material I only need
about of a third of for my project. The only thing I found close at Lowes
was some wall board that appears to be hardboard with a white plastic
coating. 1/8" thick. Will I regret trying to substitue this for Formica? I
didn't see any other types of laminate. I plan to attach this stuff with
contact cement and flush trim the edges.

Home Despot uset to carry cut sheets of laminate for a reasonable
price, but they seem to have discontinued this for some reason, at
least locally. Might want to check.

Beyond that there are a couple of online options.

McMaster has a whole range of laminates intended for industrial use--I
doubt you'll save much over buying a sheet of Formica though. They've
got a sampler (5331K3) for $18.52.

Woodcraft carries 3/4 inch phenolic-faced plywood in 2'x4' sheets for
about 40 bucks. Rockler uses the same stuff for their $600 router
table tops. The stuff is known as "PSF" and is intended for use as
concrete forms--you can probably find it locally but getting it in
single-sheet quantities might be problematical.