How to protect a nice table from spills?

I bought a wobbly. scratched, beat up coffee at a garage sale for $7. I put the coffee table in the dumpster  and kept the 4 x 2 ft piece of beveled  tempered glass top to use on my workbench.

I placed a rather large shipment on kits with Scalehobbyist.com last year, and one of the three boxes that showed up included the Revell 1:48 B-1, so it was a lengthy and wide box.  I chopped the side of the box off, and fit it to roughly the size of my kitchen table.  I have a 475 dollar solid oak kitchen table, so I was under the gun from the wife on whether or not I could keep it clean.  I had tried trash bags, newspaper and everything else before this, and always had close calls that made me readjust the strategy.  To this day, I still have that very same piece of cardboard that I work on.  It's had thinner, glue, paints, and god knows what else spilled on it over the course of 25 builds in the past 12 months, and it's still not showing a single leak stain through the other side, so I think this is probably your most cost effective method.  When I'm done with clean up, I just throw it in the closet with all my kits, and call it a day.  The only issue that I have had is cleaning the table thoroughly after a heafty airbrushing session so that you don't allow the dust to begin to build up and harden on the table surface, because that stuff manages to get everywhere if you don't stay on top of it.  But outside of that, my table is just right as it was the day I decided to set up shop.  

Even if your bench top is cheap plywood, I recommend a cover of some sort.  Spilled paint, glue, etc. can leave a rough surface. It leaves a pattern of colors and textures that make finding small parts difficult.  There are many cheap materials that can be laid over a table/desk surface, including the contact paper I mentioned in a previous post, but I know folks who use oil cloth, hardboard, cheap vinyl tiles, cardboard, and various household mats.  You need something you can remove and replace when those spills get too messy.  A lot of building supply places have sales on remnants of vinyl covered particle board.  The stuff is a bit heavy, but pretty cheap.

A cheap dollar store table cloth (vinyl with cloth backing), many layers of those free newspaper circulars, a cutting mat, a block of wood I drilled different size holes in to hold open paint bottles - super glue, bottle of thinner, etc... and a roll of paper towels standing by.

All so I can spend quality time with the wife.

If I'm building solo in my quite space - a metal work bench.

what about a TV tray.  Don't know where the wife got them, but she has 2 that have lips around the sides and folding legs.  If I'm not hidden in the basement on the bench I'll use one of those t the kitchen table.

Counts as "spending time together" when she is watching tv.

I'm among those who would recommend that you set up a dedicated work bench - having said that, I am guessing that you don't have room for such an item at the current time.  If that's the case, I would get me a smooth surfaced piece of 3/4" plywood (cabinet grade) between 20" to 24" wide and about 30" long. I would add 3/4" 1/4 round to all 4 sides of the work area (flat side in), then seal the inside with either spar varnish or resin. I would then add rubber knobs to the four corners on the bottom (so you don't scratch the good table).  The last thing I would do is to go to an auto salvage yard and find a piece of flat automotive safety glass big enough to be cut to fit inside the work area. (the widow out of a hatch back or mini van should work - shouldn't cost you more than 10 bucks and a maximum of 5 more bucks to have it cut to size - mine is 20"x40" and cost me about $12 all told) - HTH

1. Don't use a good table.

2. My bench is 24'X78"X3/4" plywood so I don't care if  a liquid gets on it or not. I DO have a Testors plastic cover that is under what I'm working on most of the time. Bought it YEARS ago & it has lots of tips printed on it that are still good to use today.  

El Taino

Is GARAGE SALE season in the Midwest. I got a 60'' folding table last year for $5.00. I was also going to suggest a pane of glass from Ace Hardware but glass or plexi glass will set you back as much as a new folding table at Walmart.

I've noticed they are coming out with all kinds of shapes and sizes of those white folding tables.

I saw one a few days ago that was curved!

Is GARAGE SALE season in the Midwest. I got a 60'' folding table last year for $5.00. I was also going to suggest a pane of glass from Ace Hardware but glass or plexi glass will set you back as much as a new folding table at Walmart.

How about a sheet of plexiglass cut to tabletop size. It could be removed and stored behind something when not in use. A sheet of glass would work too but much more likely to be broken if it were to be frequently removed for storage.

I think a vinyl tablecloth should be enough to protect your table from spills and falling tools like knives.

Even newspaper will catch most paint spills if you move fast enough to replace the paper---the real culprits are thin, liquid glue and thinners...everything else is thick enough to not soak through so fast...

Simple answer is never work on a nice table, but if you do cover it with something that those things cannot penetrate.   I use an asbestos cloth...

I cut apart the boxes my orders from Squadron and Sprue Brothers come in and lay them down on the table. You have to spill something pretty serious to get through those.

I use a cutting mat for knife work.

Q: How to protect a nice table from spills?

A: use an old table

I used to work at plant nurseries and every year during bare-root rose season, we would get these large plastic or vinyl posters advertising the new rose varieties (these posters look like tarps). They are nice and durable and aren't bothered by paints or glues, and because they are printed on one side, you can put them face down on the workbench so that the white side is up. If you need to, you can quickly take it off and roll it up (don't fold it!--that causes wrinkles) for easy storage. I've had mine for years and years and it's still going strong. Even the old mulch ad I once used (made from the same material) is still perfectly good and when I take my modeling tools and the model on a drive to California, the mulch ad comes along, too. For some silly reason, most hotels and motels aren't fond of tenants cutting up the tables or dressers with knives!

How about plain old newspaper?  If you don't get a paper, maybe a friend or neighbor does, and almost everyone gets those free "shopper" papers.  Sometimes grocery stores have stacks of them.

lucky it was only paint. I managed to knock over a 30ml pot of thin ca with the top removed as the tube was gunked up. i had some paper down luckily but in the scramble to save the instructions and bits of model i knoched it into my lap: being extra thin ca it soaked straight through my jeans. It was excruciatingly painfull, like being blowtorched, and in the process of ripping off my clothes i removed quite a bit of skin and had burns that lasted weeeks, not fun. i do not recommend it as a side hobby.

I just had it happen!  I had a bottle of Model Master Black Chome sitting on the bench.  Apparently the cap was not on tight enough.  The bottle got knocked over, and I didn't notice until maybe an hour or so later!  I big patch about six by eight inches has a thick coat of black paint (the surface is white contact paper.  I will just cut a rectangle a bit bigger from my supply of contact paper, and since it is dry now, just put that patch on top of the black mess.

I used the spandex table cloth from sculptwareonline. They were quite cheap and best part is you just need to swipe the table cover with wet cloth and its ready for next use. They work fantastic.

Don't work on a nice table...... seriously, work somewhere else,buy a folding table,

On my workbench I have a piece of white plastic sheet that was a fluorescent light cover. The cover was very large so I cut off a 2x2 section. Its great cause anything you spill on it wipes off. Home Depot or Lowes have this in the lamp/lighting dept.  

I just don't spill stuff.....no worries!!!

My main work surface is a piece of 1/4" glass (14"X24"), so if there is a spill...let dry...scrape up with a razor blade.....good as new!

I cover my workbench with contact paper.  When it gets too messy I pull the stuff off and put down a fresh sheet. I use white.  Actually, the stuff I use is not real Contact brand, but a different brand of self-adhesive shelf lining paper- I could not find plain white in the Contact brand.

What about a clear poly painters' tarp?