Two weeks ago, while I was driving through the neighborhood, I saw a large, dishwasher-sized, chest of plastic drawers by the side of the road. It was on caster wheels, and the wheels looked really nice. So after driving by it a few times, I stopped to wrestle it into the back seat of my car. It was smelly. It had been in a flooded basement or something. But the wheels were nice, and I noticed that the top was in really nice shape. It was about an inch and a half thick particle board covered with melamine on both the top and bottom, and all the edges were finished with a nice plastic or rubber molding. And most importantly, it looked like it was the exact same size as a band saw table. So I took it all apart. Saved the wheels. And saved the top, and pitched the rest of the smelly mess away. The top cleaned up very nicely and had no odor. When I got the top into my shop with the plans in front of me, I could see it was 2 cm wider than the plans called for. Close enough. I'll keep the 2 cm, and save that finished edge. The length though is about 6 inches too long. So that's the only thing I have to cut to make it the finished size.
While I had it on the table saw to cut that edge, I cut a notch for feeding a band saw blade into the hole in the center as I change blades in the band saw. And I use a router in the center to form the lip that a blade insert will rest on.
Then I moved it to the band saw to cut the hole for the blade in the center.
I squared the corners with a chisel.
