Re-using old formica - or metal table edging?

[hilldweller]

Hello all
Hope you and your vans are high and dry and unaffected by the NSW floods.

Now, table edging. Has anyone successfully removed and re-glued old formica? I've cut down an old kitchen table to make the dinette which means one half still has the original formica strip along the edge, and the other is now freshly cut. Managed to pull the edging off the waste piece - in three pieces - and am wondering if it's possible to reshape and reglue? It seems very dry and brittle.

Alternatively there's a metal edging I've noticed on pics of heaps of old vans on both sides of the ditch but I've tried everywhere I can think of here and no-one stocks it anymore. Is it available in Aus? I'm thinking that if it's flexible enough to be wound up into a coil it might be possible (ie affordable) to order some and get it sent over.

I could just go with a painted edge but as one of the old tables is ply and the other chipboard neither is going to give a very smooth surface for painting. The chipboard one is actually already painted and looks pretty crappy.

Any other ideas welcome.

[JBJ]

Hi Hilldweller

I would have thought even you guys had aluminium suppliers. I think nearly every extrusion company in Australia would have a section that can be bought cheaply, & used for your need.

I suggest ( if you havent already tried that is) you look up Ullrich Aluminium, or google Aluminium Suppliers. They are in NZ, & pretty well have everything. The section you want is called a table edge moulding over here.

I would hate to have to straighten out a section that had been rolled up, as it stretches as you bend it. When you try to straighten it you then have a real problem.

JBJ

[hilldweller]

Thanks JBJ. I tried Ullrich a couple of weeks ago. They have flat bar thin enough to follow a curve, and heaps of useful-looking profiles for other things but not the table edge I've seen on older vans which had rounded edges. Interesting about the formica stretching - hadn't thought of that but it sounds like that might not be the way to go!

Perhaps the flat bar would be best.... It's not expensive and it comes in nice long lengths. Cupboard and drawer handles are going to be round chrome ones from an old kitchen so a bit of co-ordinating bling wouldn't go amiss.

[greedy53]

my table in my little van had no edging so i went to repco and bought some chrome edging that is used on cars it comes in half inch and inch self sticking i will get a pic morrow and show you
here it is should have taken a better pic sorry

[hilldweller]

Hi Rod thanks heaps for such a specific reference. The second one doesn't seem to exist in the on-line catalogue but the first one does. Planning to take an offcut of the table and both numbers into Ullrich soon - possibly tomorrow.

The stick-on stuff sounds interesting too Greedy53.

[Rattles]

If the Formica is fixed to Particle board I can be soaked in water over time it will expand and the Laminate only needs to be sanded and then it can be re used.
This works as I had water damage on a bedside table in a 1980 Viscount and was able to recover the Laminex to glue to the new ply top.
rattles

[seeshell]

Hi Rattles

A very practical tip on salvaging formica - thanks for sharing that!

Cheers
Seeshell

[Franklin1]

If the Formica is fixed to Particle board I can be soaked in water over time it will expand and the Laminate only needs to be sanded and then it can be re used.

Same can be done if the Laminex/Formica is attached to plywood, but you have to be a bit more patient.

I put an old table top against the fence beside the house about a year ago. Over the months, the layers of ply progressively got wet and lifted off layer by layer. It took about 12 months for all seven layers to buckle and lift off one by one. The laminex was left pretty clean except for the glue layer.

Just don't leave it where the TV Aerial installers can tread on it, otherwise you'll get a crack in the laminex (D'oh!!)

I've got another one on the go, but this time I've stuck it down behind the shed where everyone fears to tread! ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[hilldweller]

Thanks for that pic Greedy - I didn't know such stuff existed. I'll investigate further as I'd like some edging for the 'armrest' bits at the ends of the seats/beds.

Went to Ullrich yesterday Rod and found the table edging but it wouldn't follow the curve at the corners. So got some flat bar instead - very cheap - and will give that a go. I suppose that means I'm now on the hunt for some little slot head screws.....

For those of you patiently waiting for ply or particle board to disintegrate, I wonder if you could speed up the process (if you wanted to) with one of those steam things used to strip wallpaper. I say this because some years ago I was stripping wallpaper from a lathe and plaster wall and discovered too late that one wall had been modified and replaced with particle board rather than gib. It bulged out pretty much instantly and was never the same again!

[hilldweller]

Nice to see someone restoring the old tables


That 808198 is the profile I had in mind. Bugger! Why can't I get that here? Ran out of time to make the table before the Easter trip but might get onto it this weekend. Found some new slot head screws lurking in a dusty corner of a metal supplies placee They're much too long but I'm hoping I can cut them down.