Workbenches take a beating — that’s what they’re made to do. As you may have noticed in some of our photos, ours certainly go through the wringer. Every now and again we take the time to clean them up and flatten them. However, as Benjamin Franklin said in regards to fires in Philadelphia, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
To protect our benches, we use a variety of materials, or “toppers.” The ones I’ll discuss here are my go-tos. However, protecting my bench isn’t the only goal: many of these surfaces are also preferable to a benchtop, depending on the work being done.
TOPPER TYPES
There are plenty of options for workbench toppers — anything that protects your bench from your current shenanigans could count — but there are four kinds I’ll showcase here. Although this isn’t a comprehensive list of possibilities, these four are a good starting point.
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|The type of workbench topper you need will differ depending on the task; these four cover most of my work.|
HARDBOARD & MDF.
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| Thin hardboard and MDF provide solid support, making them great for chisel work or routing through a workpiece. |
The first option to look at is hardboard (or MDF). While their surfaces are nearly the same as a workbench (depending on how marred your bench is), they provide some meat to protect the top from cuts that will go through a workpiece. For something such as chopping out the sockets of a dovetail like you see above, I would use 1⁄4" hardboard. When removing more waste, as when routing out a circle for instance, I might go for something thicker, like 1⁄2" MDF.
Additionally, if your benchtop is a little worse-for-wear, hardboard and MDF provide a stable, flat worksurface.
ROUTER PAD.
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| Routing pads create a forgiving, non-slip surface on your workbench, great for orbital sanding or small routing tasks, like adding a chamfer or roundover across an edge. |
Second on the list are router pads. These are pretty much the same material as many shelf liners and non-slip rug mats: a urethane mesh. However, router pads are often made of a denser urethane to provide better support to a workpiece.
In spite of the name, I find these pads are most often used for sanding. They provide a stable, non-slip surface to work on, plus they’ll protect the sanded face from getting marred by any debris sitting between it and the workbench.
As far as routing goes, routing pads are good for details, but I would certainly use clamps and benchdogs for anything such as joinery. However, if you’re using a palm router and you can keep one hand on your workpiece to steady it, router pads make for a quick set up that can simply be rolled up and put aside when not in use.
CUTTING MAT.
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| This “self-healing” composite cutting mat maintains its composure even after taking more than a few slices. |
I use this to cut materials such as fabric or leather. Leather itself can be a sufficient mat, but there’s a reason I like the one shown here: it’s “self-healing.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean this mat actually heals. Instead, it’s made of a composite plastic. As a blade cuts into the mat, it isn’t cutting apart a single material (as it would with a sheet of leather), but rather separating the plastic particulates. This minimizes the score marks that get made in the mat.
KRAFT PAPER.
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| Kraft paper is an efficient, low-cost way to keep finish off of your workbench. It also works great for glue — just be sure to use a few scrap pieces to keep the assembly raised. |
The final topper I want to discuss is an oldie, but a goodie. Rolls of kraft paper are cheap, and it’s hard to find a better option for protecting your bench from finish and glue.
“Kraft” isn’t just a fun spelling — it’s the German word for “strength.” Unlike most kinds of paper, the kraft process preserves more cellulose in the wood pulp. This results in a coarser, tougher, and distinctly brown paper. Along with its polyethelene coating, one sheet of kraft paper is often enough to keep any slopped finish or squeezed-out glue from soaking down to your workbench.
Protecting your benchtop is largely a matter of what you have available. Most of the toppers here are fairly easy to find, but if you turn the page you’ll see my source for the self-healing cutting mat. However, this list doesn’t need to be the end of the discussion. Even if you don’t use the toppers shown here, hopefully they’ll serve as inspirations for you own shop solutions.
