Mutley2003
11th July 2007, 08:32 PM
Now, I dunno if this is a stupid idea or what .. I have asked about some other approaches (namely building it in situ and I got the good drum there), but now I am considering another idea.
I have a bunch of weathered eucalypt hardwood (which I asked about, re thicknessing etc), and I have cleaned up some boards with a flap disk (aka razorback) and they have come up nicely - lots of character.
These are approx 20mm thick, by 90 and 140 wide (approx, they are rough sawn) and I THINK that I can get the local sawmill (which supplies Rozelle Recycled Timber in Sydney) to dress them for me and thickness to consistent say 16mm thick and maybe 85 and 130 wide, nice and straight and flat. I hope they will do this for a reasonable price.
Now my idea is that maybe I can then glue them to a few large pieces of about 20mm (marine) ply for my U shaped kitchen benchtop. I'd like to do this on the angle (say 37 degrees to the long axis of the bench), maybe incorporate a few concentric rectangles, a sort of parquetry approach. No good reason for this, just that I'd like it to look "different" . It would be about 36mm thick, but if I have this worked out in advance (ie have the boards remilled) I can adjust bench and cabinet heights to suit - I don't suppose there is any good reason for it to be 40mm exact. The appearance of the edge is an issue, but I figure I can make a nice cover strip.
My main worry is moisture induced movement and hence cupping/warping.
In answers to my previous questions it was made very clear to me that fixing the hardwood boards to the frame as I originally proposed to do was asking for trouble.
So, am I going to have the same problem if I glue (and/or screw from beneath) these hardwood boards to a ply base? (assuming the ply base is only fixed at the ledger to the wall, and so it itself can move a bit).
Well, I dunno. I guess I don't feel comfortable with the physics of it all. If boards expand, do they do so along their length more than across their width? And isn't the point of composite boards like ply that the grain of one sheetlet runs opposite to the grain of the next, so the whole thing doesn't move? And if the ply base does not move at all, what is going to happen to my glued on boards on top .. are they going to try to move independently of the ply, and if so would that not be likely to break the glue bond?
Would it be any better if I used MDF instead of ply?
well, I dunno.
I have a bunch of weathered eucalypt hardwood (which I asked about, re thicknessing etc), and I have cleaned up some boards with a flap disk (aka razorback) and they have come up nicely - lots of character.
These are approx 20mm thick, by 90 and 140 wide (approx, they are rough sawn) and I THINK that I can get the local sawmill (which supplies Rozelle Recycled Timber in Sydney) to dress them for me and thickness to consistent say 16mm thick and maybe 85 and 130 wide, nice and straight and flat. I hope they will do this for a reasonable price.
Now my idea is that maybe I can then glue them to a few large pieces of about 20mm (marine) ply for my U shaped kitchen benchtop. I'd like to do this on the angle (say 37 degrees to the long axis of the bench), maybe incorporate a few concentric rectangles, a sort of parquetry approach. No good reason for this, just that I'd like it to look "different" . It would be about 36mm thick, but if I have this worked out in advance (ie have the boards remilled) I can adjust bench and cabinet heights to suit - I don't suppose there is any good reason for it to be 40mm exact. The appearance of the edge is an issue, but I figure I can make a nice cover strip.
My main worry is moisture induced movement and hence cupping/warping.
In answers to my previous questions it was made very clear to me that fixing the hardwood boards to the frame as I originally proposed to do was asking for trouble.
So, am I going to have the same problem if I glue (and/or screw from beneath) these hardwood boards to a ply base? (assuming the ply base is only fixed at the ledger to the wall, and so it itself can move a bit).
Well, I dunno. I guess I don't feel comfortable with the physics of it all. If boards expand, do they do so along their length more than across their width? And isn't the point of composite boards like ply that the grain of one sheetlet runs opposite to the grain of the next, so the whole thing doesn't move? And if the ply base does not move at all, what is going to happen to my glued on boards on top .. are they going to try to move independently of the ply, and if so would that not be likely to break the glue bond?
Would it be any better if I used MDF instead of ply?
well, I dunno.