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Thread: Gluing my own hardwood benchtops
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5th September 2019, 03:25 PM #1Intermediate Member
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Gluing my own hardwood benchtops
Hi Guys,
I need to make or buy 4x 2.1mm long benchtops, two 600mm wide and two 700mm wide. The cost for the dressed blackbutt timber is roughly half the price of the glulam benchtop made from the same material and by the same company selling the timber. I'm therefore considering doing the job myself, but want to first double-check what's involved, as I've only glued together smaller table tops usually out of pine which is more compressible and generally more forgiving.
Besides using plenty of clamps and the right glue for hardwood and waterproofness (e.g. titebond 3 or polyurethane), what else do I need to consider. Obviously the faces to be glued need to be (almost) perfectly square to create a gapeless seem and strong joint, and I'll likely need to constraint the benchtop across it's width to keep it flat, but anything else, or that about it?
If the edge faces aren't straight ot square enough, is it possible to use a router to joint if one doesn't have a jointer?
Any tips or advice is much appreciated.
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5th September 2019, 03:52 PM #2
If the timber is properly dressed all round (opposing faces parallel and all corners 90 degrees) it should be doable. Titebond 3 would be ideal.
How thick are the boards going to be? if there is a lot of boards needed to make up the width then consider laminating together in lots of 3 to 4 at a time then laminate the laminated blocks together the next day to ensure you don't extend the open time of the glue.
There is still likely to be a bit of variation in height among boards somewhere along the process so you still may need to level the completed glued up slab. Are you handy with a plane? If not you will sooon find out why the already laminated product is so much more expensive.I got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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5th September 2019, 04:38 PM #3Taking a break
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As a rule, don't expect to be able to join "dressed" timber without re-dressing it. They dress it and then it sits on the rack for months; it's unlikely to be straight, smooth or square enough to just use as is.
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5th September 2019, 04:38 PM #4Intermediate Member
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Sorry, should have mentioned. The boards will be 90mm to 140mm wide. So should only need 5 to 8 boards per benchtop depending on board width.
If I had to re-dress the boards, I'm assuming I'd need at least a thicknesser to do it properly?
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5th September 2019, 08:33 PM #5GOLD MEMBER
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5th September 2019, 09:05 PM #6Taking a break
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Couple of issues with the glueup video (aside from the table saw with zero safety equipment )...
"While you want to mill your lumber as flat as possible, it's just not realistic to think you're going to get these long, thick planks as straight as an arrow"
Machining prior to glueup also makes everything afterwards easier because your panel is going to be straight and at a consistent thickness, so your sanding time is reduced.
"Believe it or not, it isn't difficult to force a bow out of a thick hardwood board like this"
I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I don't think it's the ideal way to deal with the problem unless you have a particularly bent board that you can't dress flat.
End rant.
Other than that, the rest of the video sounds pretty much on the money.
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6th September 2019, 08:28 AM #7SENIOR MEMBER
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no you don't need a thickener if you have a router there are lots of videos on how to join the edges with a router. As for the top for a small cost you would be better off getting them dressed at a machine shop.
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6th September 2019, 03:01 PM #8
If you were to do your own machining, you probably need a jointer and a thicknesser so that you one edge and one face straight flat and at right angles with the jointer, then get the second face parallel to the first with the thicknesser, and the second edge parallel with the first either by batch thicknessing a number of boards fastened together and run on edge, or trimmed on a well set up table saw.
As suggested you could do the jointing and thicknessing with a router and jigs, butnot get a perfectly smooth finish.
If you have a thicknesser, you can use a sled to get the first face flat and straight, then thickness conventionally to get the second face flat and parallel to the first, but you would be reliant on jigs for a table saw or router table to get the first edge straight and at right angles to the face.
Whatever approach you take, you need the gear and something way cheaper to practice on before you start on your final timber, the DIY economy benefit soon disappears if you need to buy a second lot of material because something new to you didn't work first time round.I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.
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6th September 2019, 03:26 PM #9Taking a break
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6th September 2019, 11:26 PM #10
I'm relatively new to woodworking so take the following tip/advice with a grain of salt: When you edge join boards, unless they are quarter sawn, alternate their orientation in such a way so that the cupping of adjacent boards cancel each other out instead of having a multiplying effect. Look at the end grain and note the growth rings to determine which way each board will tend to cup.
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8th September 2019, 02:48 AM #11
Wouldn't you know it, a day after writing the previous post, Matt Estlea posts a video explaining exactly what I'm talking about. It's about 6:35 minutes in and he's making a box lid but the principle still applies. In fact, the wider the panel, or benchtop as in your case, the more susceptible it is to cupping.
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8th September 2019, 09:50 AM #12SENIOR MEMBER
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I’d suggest just buying the pre-made bench tops. Your project sounds significant with 8 metres of benches so buy them and focus on the rest. Is the material exactly the same in pre-made vs loose boards ? Ie the company is not selling off the planks that they didn’t find suitable for gluing up into a bench top ?
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