Cutting Table question

[jolly_john]

I hate to seem like a total moron, but what's the best way to affix my cutting mat to my table?
After ruining my wife's dining room table, a wooden church table and a plastic table, I figured it was time to actually build a real work space.
I'm starting with a 4x8 mat, but wanted to know how to nail/glue this thing down.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jolly_John

 

[nutrends]

I would recommend returning the mat and getting a thick piece of tempered glass. The mats don't seem to last very long, and the glass is great for cutting (dulls your blade quicker though)

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Don't nail or glue it, you can use both sides of the mat. We just built a lip around the table that is half the thickness of the mat, so it prevents the mat from moving but we can still easily flip or replace it.

Tempered Glass is nice but incredibly expensive.

 

[Mosh]

We have 5'x16' tables and have 2 5x8 cutting mats. They don't seem to move around
much. Better than glass, I can pound and walk on these, like to see you do that on glass.
We have some wild after-hours parties in the shop and for some reason girls are allways
up dancing on the tables....

 

[The Big Squeegee]

Welcome from OK

 

[signmeup]

We have 5'x16' tables and have 2 5x8 cutting mats. They don't seem to move around
much. Better than glass, I can pound and walk on these, like to see you do that on glass.
We have some wild after-hours parties in the shop and for some reason girls are allways
up dancing on the tables....

A perfect argument for glass tables if I ever heard one.

 

[mrfern]

We have 5'x16' tables and have 2 5x8 cutting mats. They don't seem to move around
much. Better than glass, I can pound and walk on these, like to see you do that on glass.
We have some wild after-hours parties in the shop and for some reason girls are allways
up dancing on the tables....

I wanna work for MOSH.. I have thick skin and don't mind dead skunks. LOL

mrfern

 

[The Big Squeegee]

Those that have glass say great things about it. I don't know if they ever tried to dance on it though. I have a glass top and the really nice thing about is that it cleans up real good and don't desolve with solvents. I don't try to dance on it either.

 

[d fleming]

Wooden work tables, galvanized tops, 15 + years and still going. Xacto blades are cheap.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Thumbs down to glass over here, we tried it but then you have to be really careful about breaking it and it dulls knife blades almost instantly. We use mats, just hold them in place with banner tape, flip them over and use the other side when side 1 wears out. We are able to get two years out of ours, 1 year per side, before they're pretty much useless.

 

[WrapperX]

Glass is nice if you can afford .25" tempered glass at 4'x8' or larger. However I've used one matt for 4 years. Got 2 years out of the one side and decided to flip it and worked the other side. You can secure it with a table lip like suggested above or you can Duct Tape it alont all edges but that looks rather tacky.

Back in my print shop classes we used glass because it was nice and easy to clean inks off of but for what most sign guys do glass is excessive.

 

[njshorts]

Mine came with adhesive on it, if yours doesnt have any- use banner hem tape.

 

[Tony Rome]

We have 5'x16' tables and have 2 5x8 cutting mats. They don't seem to move around
much. Better than glass, I can pound and walk on these, like to see you do that on glass.
We have some wild after-hours parties in the shop and for some reason girls are allways
up dancing on the tables....

I disagree, I think mirrored glass is the way to go for this application.
:ROFLMAO:

 

[Mike F]

We have 5'x16' tables and have 2 5x8 cutting mats. They don't seem to move around
much. Better than glass, I can pound and walk on these, like to see you do that on glass.
We have some wild after-hours parties in the shop and for some reason girls are allways
up dancing on the tables....

they're probably used to being on a stage about that size, must feel like home to them.

 

[Sign Works]

I would recommend returning the mat and getting a thick piece of tempered glass. The mats don't seem to last very long, and the glass is great for cutting (dulls your blade quicker though)

I'll have to disagree 110% with your opinion. My mat has been in use for over 8 years with absoloutly no problems what so ever. I think the only way you could wear it out is if you were using a utility knife on it with way too much force and actually cut through it or used a grinder on it or some other unpractical application for a cutting mat. Glass table tops are great unless you actually want the primary purpose of your production table to be for cutting, glass dulls the blade instantly.

In response to the op, my cutting mat is not attached to the table in any way. The table is coated with Zinsser primer and the mat just sits on top of that without sliding around at all, kinda like a mouse pad.

 

[signmeup]

I disagree, I think mirrored glass is the way to go for this application.
:ROFLMAO:

 

[nutrends]

Well we cut down about 30 sheets of coro a day (we do mostly real estate signs) and mats don't seem to work too well for us at all. I have 2 pieces of glass that were off cut sizes from a job for someone else from our local glass store that were free and we have been cutting on them for 4 years. My mat lasted me 1 month and went to cut down decals and it just follows the grooves in it. Yes I'm sure we cut to hard through it, but I sure don't wanna cut 4 times through a piece of coro. As for the girls dancing on it, I couldn't tell you.... I have it on my pool table and we remove it when we have people over, but they can dance on the pool table just fine

 

[CES020]

Why are you cutting 30 sheets of coro a day by hand, with an xacto knife? They make tools that cut it a heck of a lot easier and quicker.

 

[nutrends]

double sided registration sucks on coro and 72" colorspan. Had a fletcher a few years ago and just a pain. Ended up recutting most edges by hand. Also have a sawtrax and same thing, more headache than its worth for coro at least.

 

[JR's]

Pictures please.... :Big Laugh

yes pictures or we wont believe you. lol

JR

 

[The Equipment Guy]

There are 2 types of cutting mats, re-healing type (remember Borco board?) and then what most sell today which is a cuttable surface that will allow your knife to cut straight and not follow a previous cut. Most of the current crop are not reversible and the second side is a little slick, some still use it though.

The frame or border type system is good if you are sure you are buying from a vendor whose boards are guaranteed square, at my previous job, ours that we sold were not...

Best system I ever used was simple to drill and screw down with a recessed hole.

Craig