Have a much loved low table, which is well made; 'but' it has an imitation
wood grain formica top that is now quite worn. It's quite a big table and I
have often looked out for a nice thin sheet of wood to lay over the formica,
but have never seen anything for sale. (in North London, U.K.).

The Formica seems to have worn in rather an unattractive way, with lots of
small patches of matt finish and the rest quite shiny. I'm thinking of
sanding the whole thing to get an overall matt finish with a fine grade 'wet
and dry' carburundum paper, although I dont know whether this is advisable?

Any other suggestions on what I might do with the formica top? (no rude
ones, I know this group is for wood work.... but hey I need help here).
Thanks.

JWBH wrote:

Have a much loved low table, which is well made; 'but' it has an
imitation
wood grain formica top that is now quite worn.

snip

A heat gun and a 3" spatula are your friends for this one.

Remove the old Formica, sand surface flat and apply a new piece of
Formica.

Lew

I believe your problem here is not how to remove the existing Formica
and replace it with more Formica. If I also read you correctly, it
would be too costly to replace it with some sort of veneer.

I would recommend sanding it with a random orbital sander such as a
Dewalt with the 8 holes. You don't need wet or dry paper. Start
around 220 grit and finish with 400. Sand off all of the glaze. No
matter what you do next to finish it will make it get darker. Stain
it if necessary or just apply some sort of polyurathane that will
stand the abuse of a table top. I have no idea what you have
available in the UK.

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:53:41 GMT, "JWBH"
wrote:

Have a much loved low table, which is well made; 'but' it has an imitation
wood grain formica top that is now quite worn. It's quite a big table and I
have often looked out for a nice thin sheet of wood to lay over the formica,
but have never seen anything for sale. (in North London, U.K.).

The Formica seems to have worn in rather an unattractive way, with lots of
small patches of matt finish and the rest quite shiny. I'm thinking of
sanding the whole thing to get an overall matt finish with a fine grade 'wet
and dry' carburundum paper, although I dont know whether this is advisable?

Any other suggestions on what I might do with the formica top? (no rude
ones, I know this group is for wood work.... but hey I need help here).
Thanks.

"JWBH" writes:
Have a much loved low table, which is well made;
[...]
Formica [...] worn in [...] small patches of matt finish and the
rest quite shiny.
[...]
Any other suggestions

Options:
make matt areas shiny
Paste wax
Envirotex
Perhaps something as simple as mop and glow?

Make shiny areas matt:
steel wool,
fine grade sandpaper,
deglosser?

Cover top
Hard enamel paint?
wood laminate.

If you like to look of the table, try going with the paste wax.
Better to try and protect/match the worn area than risk sanding
through the formica "picture". Text the wax in a small area... not
sure how the solvants will interact with formica.

good luck!
--
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