Show off your work space!

[2fancy]

Also try looking at the material used for covering drafting tables.  I have a smaller piece of the same material that I use as the work area on my bench. One side is the classic green the other size a cream color and it's about 1.3 mm thick. I'm not entirely sure where mine came from it was left over from when my father used to to cover a drafting table a very very long time ago.  looking on Amazon gives you the link below kind of the starting point.
 
https://www.amazon.com/drafting-table-cover/s?k=drafting+table+cover

Ohh, and the parts dont bounce much on this? The color green is available on amazon for this.

[jdm]

1 hour ago, 2fancy said:

Ohh, and the parts dont bounce much on this? The color green is available on amazon for this.

They surely bounce on hard material, that is also a reason why a bench mat is used. Another trick is to have a large drawer and keep it opened.

[spectre6000]

Bounciness is directly correlated to hardness. Soft things absorb energy by deflection/bending, so less is dissipated through reflection/bouncing. Drop a cotton ball on a pillow, and it doesn't bounce (soft/soft = mutual absorption). Drop a cotton ball on a steel plate, and it doesn't bounce (soft/hard = cotton ball squishes and absorbs the energy). Drop a steel bearing on a pillow, and it doesn't bounce (hard/soft = the pillow squishes and absorbs the energy). Drop a steel bearing on a steel plate, and it'll bounce nearly to the height from which it was dropped (hard/hard = no squishing, and all that energy has to go somewhere, so it is converted to kinetic energy in the opposite vector in the form of a bounce). Newton's third law of motion.

The converse to this is that softer materials are less durable, and more difficult to work on for other reasons. A flannel backed vinyl work surface would be pretty soft, but wouldn't last very long at all. Also, you'd probably find it difficult to write on. If you're looking at materials, look at the durometer. I've seen SBR sheet rubber used successfully and over a long period of time (same stuff as car tires). I have some newer stock of the same in my shop, and it's good stuff for a lot (once the new tire smell is gone), but it's probably as soft as you'd want to go while still being durable.

[2fancy]

Thanks for the informative reply. Sorry i didnt see the notif.

Yes i know the bounciness is related to the surface hardness. But i meant is like does laminated or formica tops reduce somehwhat of the small parts bouncing and flying?

Im making a new bench so thats why i asked

[spectre6000]

Reduce the bouncing/flying compared to what? If the laminate/formica is softer than whatever you're comparing it to, it should. Neither are especially soft though. If you use a work mat, the composition of the bench top matters much less. Additionally, with softer materials being less durable, replacing a worn mat is much lower impact than replacing a worn bench top.