Both are very nice Leo.
Tom
Tom
Onsite: Making a curved backsplash.
Years ago I did this little bar setup for a client. When I did the countertop it was scribed nice and tight. Now, years later, things moved, things shrank and there is a not so nice 1/4" gap between the wall and the countertop. She wants a backsplash. But she wants it small and not obtrusive.
Originally I was going to use Kerfkore but a few trials in the shop and I found that it wasn't feasible. The glue holding the core on wasn't strong enough when I cut it to 1 1/2". I needed to glue to lengths together and the joint always pulled from the substrate at that joint.
So I needed to come up with a way to do a laminate glue up. I came up with an idea, and it seemed to work well. Of course it took longer than I thought.
1st step was to make a cardboard template of the countertop/wall junction. Earlier I had asked her to take some measurements for me so I could bring the correct size materials.
I had a 32 x 96 pc of cardboard that I planned on using for the template. I walk in and first thing I notice was the sink and faucet. Oopsie, forgot about that. No bigee, that'll just make it harder :sad:, I mean...more challenging.
So in about 45 minutes I had the template fitted, including the sink cutout. Had to creep up on it because it was trapped and then when I got as far as I could I made the cutout in the front and added it to the back, scribed that and taped it on.
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Then I transferred that to a pc of 5/8" MDF that I brought from the shop. The cardboard and the MDF were the same size so I had to do the same cutout on the MDF that I did on the cardboard and add it to the other side to continue the curve.
I traced and cut the MDF, put the hole for the sink. I put the cardboard back on the counter (for protection) and then put the MDF on top of that.
I had precut 4 strips out of some Curly Maple. 1/8" x 1 1/2" x 130". I took each of these and slid them into place, put a pencil mark on it and cut it 1/16" longer. Slid it in place, then did the next one and so on until the 4 were done.
Now here's where the MDF comes into play. I had cut some styrofoam into 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 19" blocks. It was 19" so that why it was that length. I placed those in front of the strips and then I had one last strip (scrap cherry) that I put in front of the styrofoam. Then I screwed blocks into the MDF that were 1 7/8" away from the wood strip-styrofoam build up. I made blocks that were 1 7/8" x 2"
I rolled glue onto the maple strips, I put a pc of 2" tape on the backside (against the wall) so I wouldn't have some stray glue adhere everything to the wall. I slipped everything back into the jig and put the blocks in and then some shims to tighten it up.
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That's as far as I got. I left it there for an overnight dry. I was planning on 2 hours but since it was after 4, I didn't want to interfere with their Friday night plans.
Originally I was going to use Kerfkore but a few trials in the shop and I found that it wasn't feasible. The glue holding the core on wasn't strong enough when I cut it to 1 1/2". I needed to glue to lengths together and the joint always pulled from the substrate at that joint.
So I needed to come up with a way to do a laminate glue up. I came up with an idea, and it seemed to work well. Of course it took longer than I thought.
1st step was to make a cardboard template of the countertop/wall junction. Earlier I had asked her to take some measurements for me so I could bring the correct size materials.
I had a 32 x 96 pc of cardboard that I planned on using for the template. I walk in and first thing I notice was the sink and faucet. Oopsie, forgot about that. No bigee, that'll just make it harder :sad:, I mean...more challenging.
So in about 45 minutes I had the template fitted, including the sink cutout. Had to creep up on it because it was trapped and then when I got as far as I could I made the cutout in the front and added it to the back, scribed that and taped it on.
Then I transferred that to a pc of 5/8" MDF that I brought from the shop. The cardboard and the MDF were the same size so I had to do the same cutout on the MDF that I did on the cardboard and add it to the other side to continue the curve.
I traced and cut the MDF, put the hole for the sink. I put the cardboard back on the counter (for protection) and then put the MDF on top of that.
I had precut 4 strips out of some Curly Maple. 1/8" x 1 1/2" x 130". I took each of these and slid them into place, put a pencil mark on it and cut it 1/16" longer. Slid it in place, then did the next one and so on until the 4 were done.
Now here's where the MDF comes into play. I had cut some styrofoam into 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 19" blocks. It was 19" so that why it was that length. I placed those in front of the strips and then I had one last strip (scrap cherry) that I put in front of the styrofoam. Then I screwed blocks into the MDF that were 1 7/8" away from the wood strip-styrofoam build up. I made blocks that were 1 7/8" x 2"
I rolled glue onto the maple strips, I put a pc of 2" tape on the backside (against the wall) so I wouldn't have some stray glue adhere everything to the wall. I slipped everything back into the jig and put the blocks in and then some shims to tighten it up.
That's as far as I got. I left it there for an overnight dry. I was planning on 2 hours but since it was after 4, I didn't want to interfere with their Friday night plans.
