Alkahestic
2nd January 2018, 07:34 PM
So DomAU's new year's resolution thread (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/happy-2018-projects-ww-resolutions-218835#post2062493) got me thinking... I should probably ask here and see if there any suggestions and ideas on building spotted gum counter tops.
The largest counter top will have a finished dimension of 3300x900x38mm. I would like to do a continuous grain waterfall edge, so the boards will be 4200 in length before the mitre is cut. This does seem awfully long, so I may cancel the waterfall edge idea or just trim the boards before milling and possibly lose a few cm of wood and not have the grain be as continuous from top to side. I know cutting a long mitre is going to rely on a lot of things being perfect, but I'm also open to cheating a bit as only one side of the mitre will really be visible.
What I do want to avoid was the look of the thin, short strips of wood laminated together available from Bunnings - so I've opted for 200x50mm rough sawn boards. I considered a solid slab but the logistics of moving such monolithic pieces of heavy timber and the potential wood movement issues from a plain sawn slab steered me towards boards. I plan to rip the 200mm wide boards into two, then finish milling them S4S, so each board should be 95x38mm. They'll then be laminated back together to keep the grain matched up. 95x38mm boards will hopefully make wood movement a non issue and will also be a LOT more manageable to move around (right?).
For the lamination, I'll be working off the floor, I know my garage floor isn't level so there will be some shimming involved. The plan is to setup my panel clamps so they form a level bed for the spotted gum. A pair of panel clamps every 500mm, to try and keep the counter top flat. I've got a cabinet scraper and hand planes to do the final leveling, the hope being that the counter top isn't so badly out of level that I need to use a router sled or other means of leveling it. If it's that badly out of whack, I'll screw some tube steel onto it and call it a 'rustic' table. :no:
Fortunately only one of the short ends of the largest counter top meets a wall, so scribing won't be incredibly painful, just marginally painful. I plan to make a template and use a router to cut the counter top.
I am going to do a smaller counter top (1700x600 with a 900x600 waterfall) this weekend as a proof of concept and to work out all the things I'm sure I haven't even thought of yet. As always though, the advice of my betters would be much appreciated.
The largest counter top will have a finished dimension of 3300x900x38mm. I would like to do a continuous grain waterfall edge, so the boards will be 4200 in length before the mitre is cut. This does seem awfully long, so I may cancel the waterfall edge idea or just trim the boards before milling and possibly lose a few cm of wood and not have the grain be as continuous from top to side. I know cutting a long mitre is going to rely on a lot of things being perfect, but I'm also open to cheating a bit as only one side of the mitre will really be visible.
What I do want to avoid was the look of the thin, short strips of wood laminated together available from Bunnings - so I've opted for 200x50mm rough sawn boards. I considered a solid slab but the logistics of moving such monolithic pieces of heavy timber and the potential wood movement issues from a plain sawn slab steered me towards boards. I plan to rip the 200mm wide boards into two, then finish milling them S4S, so each board should be 95x38mm. They'll then be laminated back together to keep the grain matched up. 95x38mm boards will hopefully make wood movement a non issue and will also be a LOT more manageable to move around (right?).
For the lamination, I'll be working off the floor, I know my garage floor isn't level so there will be some shimming involved. The plan is to setup my panel clamps so they form a level bed for the spotted gum. A pair of panel clamps every 500mm, to try and keep the counter top flat. I've got a cabinet scraper and hand planes to do the final leveling, the hope being that the counter top isn't so badly out of level that I need to use a router sled or other means of leveling it. If it's that badly out of whack, I'll screw some tube steel onto it and call it a 'rustic' table. :no:
Fortunately only one of the short ends of the largest counter top meets a wall, so scribing won't be incredibly painful, just marginally painful. I plan to make a template and use a router to cut the counter top.
I am going to do a smaller counter top (1700x600 with a 900x600 waterfall) this weekend as a proof of concept and to work out all the things I'm sure I haven't even thought of yet. As always though, the advice of my betters would be much appreciated.