Assembly surface

We recently discovered old release paper. Of course we go through more table covers than drymount release paper, so we are toying with the idea of (gasp!) actually using virgin release paper...
 
In oz a product call Wonder wall it is also used for my corner sample wall as velcro sticks to it. It's main use is those moveable office dividers. I find it works well nice dense pile easy to vacuum not expensive looks good too & this is important as my assembly table is in full public view.
 
We have been using slip sheets from our mat cutter. We use crescent #33 (cheep)but if the employee does not lift the moulding when they turn it can still mark the surface (especily black)
 
Coroplast
 
We use a sheet (or offcuts) of foamcore as a "turntable" or "lazy susan" ... once placed face down on the foamcore the frame does not move ... the foamcore is rotated as necessary to finish the back ... hence the probabilty of marring the face of the frame is avoided / reduced. Various offcuts of foamcore are kept handy to suit different sizes of frames. The bench itself is covered in brown kraft paper. This approach makes it real easy to handle assembling the larger pieces.
 
A layer of thin polyester batting covered by cotton muslin.
 
We use 3/4 foam (upholstery type) and then a canvas cloth liner. We don't do any cutting here, just assy. Works awesome.
 
I use Vyco or Borco drawing board cover. This is the vinyl board cover used on drawing tables to create a softer surface for drafting or drawing. It's available from many art and drafting supply stores. Soft, pliable and easily cleans up with glass cleaner or acteone for tough marks.

I also put work on a piece of board (either fom-cor or Cor-X) and lift the board with the piece on it to turn. It also allows for easy removal of the piece from the fit-up table to slip into a flat file or lateral bin if the surface is needed for something else.

Dave Makielski
 
I am 100% in love with polyflute - coroplast! This stuff is fantastic on the fitting table - dust free, has a slight give to it, reflects light back so the area is brighter, cleans off putty, tape, or glue gunk easily if it gets on it, washable. Doesn't trap glass or metal particles like carpet. Cheap - about $10 - $20 for a 4 x 8 sheet. Easy to cut to smaller sizes. Can flip it over when one side gets too dented or scratched to use. Can put another smaller piece on top, just like Dave wrote, and spin the frame around without picking it up. Love it!

Can't cut on it - can't iron on it.

But nothing is perfect in life, anyway!

You can buy an 18 x 24 blank at a sign shop for under $1 to try it out - or ask a tow truck driver for a tow sign - cause that is what the tow sign is printed on.
 
Interesting. 14 framers... and not one asked "Which Assembly surface?".

Assembling frames.. flawboard
Final assembly upsom wrapped in kraft.
 
I use the same thing on all my tables, Baer, except for my customer counter, ........ indoor/outdoor tight pile carpeting. I also have built my moulding carousels and covered the faces of them in the same carpeting. The front and sides of my customer counter are covered in the same carpeting. It is easy to clean, I use a "Shark" to vacuum my worktables, has a nice professional finished appearance, and is more than soft enough to slide the most delicate frame finish on without marring it. I am very careful (some might say anal) about finding any stray brads, framer's points, or wire ends as they fall and disposing of them. If you lose something like that in the weave of the carpet you are going to have trouble down the road so I got in the habit long ago of finding and pitching any stray debris before it has a chance to do damage.

My framing table isn't covered in carpet. I generate too much junk on that table to make carpet a feasible covering. And my customer counter top is a salvaged formica kitchen counter top that I removed the splash rail and front roll and trimmed in half inch oak. All of my tabkes have been seen on this forum many times through the years and have served me quite well.

Framerguy
 
Like Jim Miller I was a lover of Coroplast until William Parker extolled the virtues of Sintra. It's smoother than Coroplast lasts absolutely forrever, cuttable on a wall cutter, comes in a variety of colors--the blue is way cool--and thicknesses. Plus when I'm done mucking with it I can use it for backing for someone's cheap poster.

Seriously tho if you have a plastics supplier around you, check it out. I BELIEVE--and I dont' really know--but I believe folks like Fast Signs use it for commercial signage and silkscreen work.

Love the stuff especially when I buy a coupla colors and really jazz up the backroom
 
Mike, I am using Sintra for my design tables. You are correct, it is smoother than Coroplast, but it doesn't have the give of Coroplast.

It seems to attract dust more quickly than Coroplast, but this might have to do with these tables being closer to the front door. It scratches quite easily. It dents under the ball feet of the crescent wire mat racks.

You can "heal" cuts somewhat by heating the surface and smoothing the cut, but it shows a little. Sintra will do wierd warpy things if you put it in a heat press - it shrinks and warbles.

Like Coroplast, it is easy to clean. When the UPS driver smears oil and dirt from the package bottom over the surface, I can easily clean it with paint thinner or laquer thinner. Water or soap and water are great for everyday wipeups. The blueberry cobbler one customer brought in did stain it a bit.

The way cool thing about Sintra is that you can heat it with your shrink wrap blow gun and then form it into shapes! You can make curves, rolled edges, columns, displays, hooks - it is so much fun.

And it comes in GREAT colors! Black, white, lt. grey, dk grey, bright green, bright yellow, bright blue, dk blue, beige, dk red. A couple of the colors (beige and a couple of others) are not very fade resistant and need to have a coating if they are being used in bright areas. It is used in the sign making trade for indoor and outdoor signs and displays.

I bought my Sintra through my glass supplier out here, they also carry the Coroplast. Sintra here costs about $35 for a 4 x 8 foot sheet.
 
yeah Terry, lets stick you in a heat press and see if you don't shrink and warble too....ROTFLSH

Man this Fabricalooza Funfestilia is gonna be fun... can't wait to see you warble and Lynn crow... :D

Framer guy:
I use the same thing on all my tables, Baer, except for my customer counter, ........ indoor/outdoor tight pile carpeting.
and then you go on to say,
My framing table isn't covered in carpet. I generate too much junk on that table to make carpet a feasible covering.
and
And my customer counter top is a salvaged formica kitchen counter top
It must be that Florida heat.... :D

Isn't it easier to just say "I use carpet on my fitting tables, formica on the design table and the usual Conk cr@p everywhere on my framing table." :D I would have understood.....we're brothers.
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Here's to the upcoming Stone season. I hear I'm going to miss the best Grouper year in the last 20.
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Baer,

It's an old habit, after being awarded a trophy for the "Master of the Art of Confusing Diction"

(There are so few of us around anymore, I feel I must keep the fires of confusing speech kindled.)
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FGII
 
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