# phenolic sheet



## shawnr (May 6, 2010)

Where can you find large sheets of phenolic? I was looking for a sheet either 1/2 or 3/4 and 4'x8' if possible. I want to build my own router table top but also make a few jigs and use left over for sled runners.


----------



## Quillman (Aug 16, 2010)

Nearly any local source that supplies plastic, supplies laminate phenolic; it's not a hidden commodity but its specs' are! 
Watch out for this stuff; it's not flat nor is its thickness uniform. In my view, for that, it is a lousy surface or jig substrate.
See mcmaster.com for a start.


----------



## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

Hi Shawn

My experience of machining them is that plastics normally don't come in 8 x 4ft sheets - the base size is much larger (often 3 metres x 1.5 or 2 metres) - although most phenolic stockists I've dealt with will saw to size. I'm not in the USA, but I'd suggest looking for "Engineering Plastics" or the like in Yellow Pages. Over here we have a manufactured brand called Tufnol and they do have distributors in the USA, including Complex Plastics Inc, although a quick email to Tufnol may furnish you with a nearer distributor.

One thing I will say is that you must have deep pockets because an 8 x 4ft sheet of 3/4in thick Tufnol is not going to be cheap (hundreds of dollars). It is more normal to use Tufnol to face another cheaper material, say a 3 or 6mm (1/8 or 1/4in) thick skin on 19mm (3/4in) plywood

Good luck with your searches

Regards

Phil


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Counter top laminate works as well as anything you can find. It also makes good runners. The first set of cupboards I made for me and the missus was on a lean budget so I glued strips of laminate to the drawer bottoms and the drawer supports. Worked great. If they started getting sticky I just rubbed a little parafin (candle wax) on them.


----------



## allbarknobite (Sep 15, 2011)

*Sheets of Phenolic Plywood for table tops*



wintersedge said:


> Where can you find large sheets of phenolic? I was looking for a sheet either 1/2 or 3/4 and 4'x8' if possible. I want to build my own router table top but also make a few jigs and use left over for sled runners.


Hi Shawn,
I bought my phenolic top from Rockler.com. Should do the job. The photo shows the current pricing. The thicker 3/4" version would probably be flatter. A full 4x8 sheet would be hard to ship, would be expensive, and really hard to find.
Mark
ps
Rockler.com currently has free shipping for purchases over $25.


----------



## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

allbarknobite said:


> The thicker 3/4" version would probably be flatter. A full 4x8 sheet would be hard to ship, would be expensive, and really hard to find.


Hi Mark

Sorry to say it isn't. Quillman has it bang on. I used to CNC machine components out of it and where any real flatness was required I always had to surface mill it one side, then flip it over and do the other side before routing out components. I machined a replacement matrix bed for an old Wadkin CNC router that way on one occasion (50mm paper-re-inforced Tufnol) and what I did there was to bolt it onto the cast bed on the machine then face off the upper surface before milling all of the grooves out because of this flatness issue

Regards

Phil


----------



## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

allbarknobite said:


> Hi Shawn,
> I bought my phenolic top from Rockler.com. Should do the job. The photo shows the current pricing. The thicker 3/4" version would probably be flatter. A full 4x8 sheet would be hard to ship, would be expensive, and really hard to find.
> Mark
> ps
> Rockler.com currently has free shipping for purchases over $25.


Hi Mark - We got apples n' oranges goin here. You have phenolic *faced* plywood. Solid penolic is available from McMaster-Carr, largest I could find was 3' x 8' but the flatness spec is +/- 30 to 40 thousands. You are right in that it would be tough, read expensive, to ship - that stuff is heavy. Price, depending on the quality of phenolic, for that size is from around $300 to $2500, not including the shipping. I'm not one to tell someone how to spend their money, but IMHO, a couple of pieces of MDF and some High Pressure laminate is a much better value.


----------



## allbarknobite (Sep 15, 2011)

*Laminated tops work fine on a Router Table*

John,
I have built 4 router tables from scratch to do specific things. And laminated tops and phenolic laminate all work fine. I don't have an idealized Super Incra setup, so I will never need the hundredths of a millimeter flatness that is suggested.
The words I homed in on were *"router table"*. 
Not CNC or a something needed to make a Hologram Table.
For all the fuss, I would opt for a laminate top as you suggested, for making a "Router Table".
And Cherryville Chuck also hit the nail on the head when he posted that "Counter top laminate works as well as anything you can find."

Mark


----------



## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

jschaben said:


> Hi Mark - We got apples n' oranges goin here. You have phenolic *faced* plywood. Solid penolic is available from McMaster-Carr, largest I could find was 3' x 8' but the flatness spec is +/- 30 to 40 thousands. You are right in that it would be tough, read expensive, to ship - that stuff is heavy. Price, depending on the quality of phenolic, for that size is from around $300 to $2500, not including the shipping. I'm not one to tell someone how to spend their money, but IMHO, a couple of pieces of MDF and some High Pressure laminate is a much better value.


Solid phenolic is dense heavy malarial made up of woven fabric bonded together with special epoxy type resin, similar to fiberglass build up, except the tolerances are held very close during manufacturing. We used it in the aerospace industry for spacers and shims and also used it for runners and small fences on our tools. We made edge guides with phenolic rollers and adjustable phenolic mounts for hand held routers and roller bearings for large router bit to achieve different profiles from the same bit. It cuts well with a table saw or router but will dull the blade quickly. It is dense so you have to feed it slowly. *Also IT STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN WHEN CUT !!* Anyone around while it is being cut will complain about the smell and you should use a respirator when you cut it, you will still smell it around the area that it was cut for a while. The cost is very high even without aircraft certification documents and due to its weight, freight charges are high. It would make a good router table top but they would be really expensive.

If I were you I would stick to readily available materials.

Work safe, Have fun, Cut some wood,
Mike


----------



## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi

Phenolic is great for the router table, here's one that's all setup..
I have two of them and they are dead flat..

Amazon.com: CMT 999.501.09 Phenolic Router Top With Insert: Home Improvement


===


----------



## alan23 (Jan 3, 2012)

you can buy 2'x4' sheets from woodcraft 3/4or 1/2


----------

