Preparing an old counter top for making into a workbench

So, today I log onto blogger, and what do they announce? Auto-save! After I already lost this post once to a storm, of course! Anyhow, I'm glad to see it.


So, here we have an old plywood counter top sitting upside down on the sawhorses (with a bunch of the wood I salvaged from that old shop stacked in the background). I'm planning to use the top layer of this, with the laminate still on it for a workbench. My normal procedure here is simply to clip off the nails on the bottom, and file them flat. On this one, however, there's a good possibility that I'll want to be drilling some special-purpose holes in it, and, since I don't want to ruin any good wood drill bits, the nails have to come out.

In the pic above, we see the tools for this job- a good, sturdy hammer, a pair of vise-grips, and a bucket for nails. Note the piece of plywood poking out under the left end- this is another piece of old countertop (with pink laminate, of all things!) that I've already made into a workbench. When I'm done, I'll have three built-in benches in my shop, and one portable, all made from recycled materials, and all sporting vintage vises.

Here's the procedure- grab the pointy end in the vise-grips, and use the hammer to pull it out.

I'm lucky her, in that when it was build, they used finishing nails, so they come out easy. An added advantage of using the vice-grips is that when a nail goes flying into the grass, it's easy to find with the pliers attached to it :).

Older countertops often have a strip of wood glued to the side, and laminate applied over it and the top at once- to remove that strip, it's necessary to cut the laminate where the two meet, to avoid tearing it up. I usually do this with the circular saw set for a 1/16 or so cut, then just knock the side strip off with a hammer. This was a cheaper, and/or less professional installation, and they simply put a strip of laminate on the edges of the stacked plywood. This came off pretty easily with a stiff scraper blade (and a tiny bit of persuasion with the hammer). I tossed the laminate scraps- then dug a couple of them out a couple of days later to use for spreading paint remover on another project (instead of using a brush and discarding it).

The bottom layer is almost never applied very well, since it's just a filler. Usually just some nails and a bit of construction adhesive. Just slam the claws under the edge and start prying- they usually come off pretty easily.

Here are the filler strips turned upside down. Note the globs of adhesive. When I remake the top layer into a workbench, it will get glued to another full layer of plywood, with wood glue, clamps, and screws all around, and will be very stout (and heavy! Oh, my back!).

Also, I removed the nails from the filler strips, and made them into shelves in my shop, so pretty much this whole item is going to get used.