Lately I've set up a small bench dedicated to soldering and microscopy. Nothing special, though building the shelving above it, and a major building rewiring project that got started off with some extra power outlets for this bench took a while.
What I thought may be worth mentioning is this idea for a working surface in a soldering area.
The little table in the pics is actually quite old - it was made by my grandfather when I was a small child. It's been kicking around, and turned out to be just the right size for this use. But it's an heirloom, and I don't want to mess up the surface. So what to cover it with?
First I bought a sheet of cheap MDF, cut it to size and estapolled it. That would do to take the burns and stains that go with hot irons, fluxes, hot air guns, etc. It's not pretty, and I'm sure its anti-static properties leave a lot to be desired, but I'm not fussy.
Then a few days ago I was at Bunnings (major hardware store chain in Australia), and came across a pallet load of huge ceramic floor tiles. They are 60 x 60 cm (almost 2 feet square), 9mm thick, hard vitrous material with a mirror finish on top. And a pleasant enough ivory colour. I've never seen tiles so big before.
The amazing thing is they are $16.50 for a pack of 3.
I don't know how that price works. Of course they are from China, but they are really heavy. Hard to imagine even shipping them here for that much. Still, I don't care. About $5 for a super tough, glass-smooth heat-proof work surface sounds good to me, so I bought a pack. One of them is on the bench top in the photos.
Perhaps this may turn out to be a dumb idea. But didn't cost much. We'll see how it goes.
The tile surface is definitely just the bulk tile material, polished to a mirror finish. No glaze. It's impermeable too, so suction cap hold-downs will work on it. Something that's been a nuisance with all my other wood benchtops, which are not airtight so small suction vices and such just fall off them immediately. Not with this.
Obviously a ceramic tile wouldn't be good for a surface you might want to hammer on. But I think a soldering space is the least likely place to need hammering, in my whole workshop.
How prone it will be to scratching, remains to be seen. It appears to be a very hard ceramic, not at all like earthenware tiles.
Anyway, if it breaks or gets horribly scratched up, I have two more!
There's some kind of oily film on the tiles, that ignored cleaners like spray & wipe. It took Ajax and a scouring pad to get it off. Perhaps some kind of silicone oil, from the polishing process?
I still can't get over how perfect the surface on these tiles is. No visible gaps with a straightedge, and reflections show no perceptible distortion. How the hell did they make them for so little? Maybe it was a going out of business disposals deal or something.
It will be interesting to see how it takes local heating from a hot air gun or gas torch. Usually I do that kind of work on a small sheet of fibro. Perhaps it might still be a good idea.