Many years ago my husband had a lady working in his crew
who had worked before in a cleaning/dry cleaning shop. She said
that there they had big ironing boards covered first with metal, then
several layers of old wool blankets, then a linen cover pulled tight.

That's the same way I've done my own ironing board ever since,
with no problems, except for minor scorches not bad enough to
actually remove the cover. Maybe once every few years...but the
ironing goes smoothly. And a sprinkle of water on the board does
wonders for ironing starched fabrics, clothing as well as quilting
fabrics.

I, too, never heard of an ironing board cover melting. I use an old sheet blanket for padding, cover it with the silver stuff, then make the actual cover from an old sheet. this workd really great for me.

Sounds silly but...Did you put the silver side up? The foam on the underside will do exactly what you said.

The pattern side was up with the foam layer under it. There was no silver side. I went back to my old one which had the silver on top.

I don't remember where I bought the stupid thing, but I threw it out. The melting wasn't the worst of it. It was cleaning all the gunk off my iron, which is fairly new.

I wanted to make a new cover for my ironing board and started to use canvas. I washed it and pressed the canvas and then tried to press the folds out of it. The iron imprinted on the canvas on the first try, leave marks like a burn/scorced mark and the iron wasn't even hot. Skipped the canvas and went to an outdoor uphostery fabric, that worked much better. It worked Ok...until I tipped over my iron and didn't see it soon enough and it left a scorch mark. I then decided to made a "removeable" cover for it that can be washed. The removeable cover is made from fabric from my stash and lined with muslin.

Maybe that's what happened to my 60 degree triangles for my one cloth wonder quilt. I have lots of peaks and valleys and nothing matches as it should. Guess the ironing board could be the reason, huh?

I looked online for a reflective ironing board cover and found a do-it-yourself version - cover the board with aluminmum foil and then put the cover on. I couldn't find the reflective cover at WalMart the other day. My husband was going to our local hardware store and he asked if I need anything. I said, yeah, ask for a reflective ironing board cover. He was surprised when told they are normally in stock but a new shipement is coming on Tuesday! I was surprised too! Now I have to find my receipt and take this one I did buy at Walmart back~~~