I’m all for this and grey is a great choice. In our lease those main tables belong to the landlord however they were bashed up when we moved in so replacing them is a win all round. Will also look great for culture crawl. Hopefully we can encourage more use of cutting mats and silicone mats etc to try and keep the new tops in good shape.
Aside: if possible it would be great to also replace the cutting table cover which has been heavily damaged as well from general space use. This would spruce things up for the crawl.
if we splurge on a 4th sheet, we could get that seam straight down the middle too, even on both sides. lol and with the outlet strip on top you would barely even see the seam.
I think it would be cool to 3d print some organizers for the table to since we’re at it, like some fun pen holders and trays for phone chargers. They get left on the table all the time may as well organize them for easy access
another note about the black and white options. The black melamine is a shop grade. So there may be some defects on the edges and such. That’s why its more significantly discounted than the white melamine.
Edit: maybe it was different colours in my head it was black when i saw it. Maybe it was grey… whatevs.
Recommend taking a photo and swapping out the white for grey to see how it will look. White may be easier to clean because you can see the dirt. Also white may be less claustrophobic in the space as a whole.
Having not seen these melamine sheets I don’t know what the edges are like. However, the melamine I’ve used in the past chips easily, see the existing bench picture. I would suggest that we ensure that any budget includes enough money to add some wood edging to finish off the table tops and to protect peoples’ clothes as they work at the tables. I’m thinking that this edging can be made from cutting down 2x4’s.
IMO the white option would be more aesthetically pleasing. As a small bonus, a lot more random things (like small electronic device screws and brackets) tend to be black, so it could help towards trying to ensure they don’t get lost during frenzied reverse engineering, as I almost did to the poor thermal printer tonight (but got busy with other stuff)
@Brad has dropped off the melamine at the space. I think the plan is to install it on Saturday. I initially thought it was community maintenance day but i was wrong after looking at the calendar again. But whatever. I think the plan should be to still install it on Saturday regardless so the melamine doesn’t take up too much space longer than it has to. If you’re available to help that’d be awesome.
I’m going to throw up a quick poll about what to do about the edges so we aren’t cutting up our wrists when we’re working at the table. We can get some white melamine edge banding or we can get some 2 pine 2x4s and rip them down and put a bit of a round over on it. Neither option is terribly expensive but the 2x4s will be a bit more and i think they will be a bit more durable over time.
Whatever is going to protect the sides and arms that interact with each other would be best. The edge banding is cheaper, but the wood could have accessories attached or routed to make arms happier…
Agree with @Weas3l. Regardless of price, whatever will result in a more durable edge is good, plus how much time you want to put into this. Feel you lot know best.
Personally, I am ok with the time investment which will be small in comparison to the yielded benefit especially for how much of a central piece this is
