Counter top

One might think that there is not that much involved with a counter top. It's just a big flat piece of material that you set things on. The counter top here has been quite a process however, taking place over a period of a couple of weeks. I'm finding that I quite enjoy doing this kind of thing though, and seeing the finished product emerge from the rough wood from which it originates.

The process starts with fir boards of varying widths. The thickness of the boards also varies a bit from a bit less than an inch to slightly more than an inch. I started by cutting them into 2 1/2 inch strips, and sorting out the parts that were cracked, had bad edges, or were otherwise unsuitable.

 A selfy of me with my full complement of various coverings, including ample dust...

Some of the strips, ready for the next step...

...which is to select five strips to glue together, run them on edge through the thickness planer to give them good gluing edges, arrange them with best sides facing one direction and try to get the grain orientation to vary to prevent warping as much as possible. I used five strips each time because this made a glued piece that was just under 12 inches (since each strip was thinned by the edge planing before gluing). 12 inches is what will fit in the planer that I'm using.

Once all of this is done, I run a wavy bead of glue down the edge of four of the boards push them together and clamp them. I also used some 2 by 2 boards with screws at each end to help squeeze the strips together and keep them more flat while the glue sets.

General wisdom is that one should not use a great deal of glue to prevent dripping. I found, in my situation though, that it worked better to just gob the glue on and wipe off excess later. My edge preparation equipment wasn't perfect and the extra glue helped to fill any small imperfections between boards.

The above process was repeated many times in order to make enough pieces. Each glued piece then had to go through the planer repeatedly and be finished to the exact same thickness so that they could be glued to each other.This picture shows the main length of counter top, which is two sections like the above picture (but longer) planed, glued together, and then sanded with the belt sander.

This is the frame for the window seat. More on this later, but it also required laminated pieces to act as the top.

My friend Deirdre came for a visit and very kindly volunteered to help with some sanding. She is stubbornly refusing to look at the camera here.

The two main sections of counter top, ready to glue together. You can also see part of the window seat in the lower corner. The counter hangs 11 inches over the edge on this side to act as a bar for sitting, eating, etc. I had originally thought I would hinge this section so it could swing up or down. In the end, however, I decided to just leave it solid. Two stools will live under the overhang. The rectangular space at the edge of the cabinet is intended to hold a small Asian style folding table that I have yet to make.

To be continued...