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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
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    Canberra, ACT, Australia
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    38
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    92

    Default Kitchen Renovations - Redgum Benchtop DIY, what are the "gotchas"?

    Hi Guys,

    In the coming weeks/months we are going to be tearing out our old laminate benchtop and getting new cabinets fabricated for us. I've got a cheap supply of good quality, very old (> 20 years between being felled and being slabbed, then > 15 years post slabbing) Murray River Redgum and I intend on making the most of this relationship by making up a ~35mm thick benchtop for the renovation. I am well versed in biscuit/dowel joining, laminating strips of timber, I've got all the deep sash clamps at my disposal and can use my router sled to surface everything, so I am confident I have the right equipment, and since the vanity top I did for a customer earlier in the year was such a success I am also confident in making something big, flat and pretty.

    I'd like to throw this topic open to the floor to anyone who has done or considered doing something similar - what were the difficulties/stressors/failures/generally things to watch out for? Thankfully I only need to do one corner join and I was planning on installing section A, biscuiting along the mitre, installing section B and then clamping. Is this the right approach? The benchtop will be ~650 deep so cutting with my sliding mitre saw is sadly out of the question - what's the next best thing? Track saw/circular saw with a clamped straight line/something else I'm yet to consider?

    I've got a good plunge router for cutting out the sink. I'm also keen to retain the wood feel so I don't want to waterproof it with 2 part epoxy like I did with the vanity top, I'd rather use oil for a natural feel if possible, or is this asking for trouble?

    Thanks for any and all suggestions!

    Putty

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Central Coast, NSW
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    3,330

    Default

    I started doing the same thing as you with some big, laminated karri slabs. The main issue I faced was whether to do a simple mitre right across or a masons mitre. I didn't really have a foolproof way of doing a long mitre cut and I wasn't confident it would be done with hand-held. Also, going from inside corner to outside corner would not have been 45% so I wasn't confident it would look right. Eventually I decided on the masons mitre as most of the cut is parallel on one board and perpendicular on the other. I also felt aligning most of the cut with the laminations would look better and any small issues would effectively hide themselves.

    I also chose to use a knock-down fitting specially made for countertops which are like bolts embedded from below and you simply screw the two parts together (Bunnings). I figured this would be much more tolerant then a fixed biscuit join - get it wrong, no problem, just unscrew and retighten.

    In the end I never finished the work. I had surgery on my arm which meant I couldn't wrangle the heavy slabs, and while they were in storage I was unable to access them and keep them oiled. They split. Money and time wasted.

    Cheers
    Arron
    Apologies for unnoticed autocomplete errors.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    San Antonio, Texas, USA
    Posts
    3,070

    Default

    A good track saw is your friend. I recently installed 38" X 80" X 2" laminated hickory and 36" X 25" laminated sugar maple countertops. The hickory rests on a set of cabinets formed as an island. The maple is on a steel frame over a wine cooler and beverage cart in a small carrel. The manufacturer warned that the tops should be varnished within 10 days of receipt or the warranty was void.
    The manufacturer also strongly cautioned against the use of adhesives and/or silicone as one would use for stone or synthetic and mandated, under warranty revocation, the use of cabinet screws. Finished on all six sides with marine varnish X2. They've been installed two months now and are looking good.
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    moonbi nsw Aus
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    69
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    2,065

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    Speaking from a career in kitchens....the mitre on the tops just needs a cut that is close to your line. Then use your plunge router to "crisp up" the cut. The redgum will be bloody hard so no matter what you use take small amounts off at a time. For your sink cutout you don't need a finished cut that the router gives, I would use a circular saw freehand for the cutout.

    Rob is on the money with completely finish all faces AND edges. There is a local laminated bench top company LoganLee (? if my memory serves). Doing the top manufacture your self you can get the mitre perfect in your workshop before it gets to the kitchen. Once you have gotten the mitre together and tight, use a sander to finesse both pieces together then pull apart and do your finish. Also when installing on top of the carcasses drill a hole about ½" diameter in the top rails and put the screw through a flat washer to secure the top. This allows the top to move with the weather. You will only need these screws at 600mm spaces and only "nip" them tight. Don't go silly.
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Bundaberg
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    54
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    3,402

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    Last august I constructed my own benchtops using QLD redgum; the post is HERE. As it was over 5m long it had to be constructed in situ, one plank at a time. Once assembled it was hand planed and scraped to a fine finish; then sanded and finished with hard burnishing oil using directions provided by forum member LGS on his website "Damn Fine Furniture". The finishing took the best part of a week to achieve but nearly a year on and although the finish has dulled slightly I have had no problems. I will be posting a "one year on" thread next month as there were a couple of members who were interested in seeing how it coped over time.

    Here are a few pointers:

    Once each plank has been thicknessed leave it to settle for several days before jointing.
    Orientate each plank so that the growth rings are in alternate directions to avoid cupping.
    Use a high quality glue; probably polyurerhane or epoxy. I used Titebond III and there is slight glue creep in some areas.
    Use biscuits to aid alignment; one every 300mm is fine.
    Whatever finish you put on the top you need to replicate on the botom; ie varnish, epoxy, glasscoat or oil.

    I used a mason's mitre joint for the corner using a proprietry router jig but a simple mitre will work if you can aford the wasted wood. Cut using whatever method you have available but finish the joint using a router running against a battern to take off the last millimeter.

    Remember; it's in a kitchen. Water will be spilt and forgotten about, salt will be sprinkled liberally and only discovered when something heavy is dragged over it and at least one person will assume that a chopping board isn't needed "just this one time". An oil finish means that these defects are very easily repaired but you do need to give it a touch up now and again; this consists of merely rubbing a very thin coating of oil into it.

    Probably the one thing this project really gave back to me was my planing skills; each plank was jointed by hand using a No. 7 and the finished top was smoothed using hand planes; a 3, 4, 4.5, 5 & 6. What little tear-out I experienced was first removed using a Stanley 80 cabinet scraper followed by a 112 scraper plane all over. When it came to sanding I started at 400 grit but probably could have begun with 600.
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Dungog
    Posts
    273

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    Have a look at "dgi.com.au" look for "fabrication of bench tops" has good explanation of what you want to do. Good luck with the project

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Canberra, ACT, Australia
    Age
    38
    Posts
    92

    Default

    Thank you everyone for your advice, I have learned a lot from the responses and am looking forward to sharing pictures as I make some progress.

    Cheers again

    Putty

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