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Butcher Block Countertop


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A parent from my kids soccer team wants a new butcher block countertop for a cabinet .. 

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going to be about 49x19” and 1 1/4” thick. White oak will be used. 

Will more than likely need some scribing work based on talking with the dad. 

plan to attach will be some silicone and then like 3-4 figure 8s. 
 

Should get going tomorrow…. 

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also, been going back and forth on this ... as far as the sizing goes ... is there a rule out there for how wide each strip should be?

Like if this is 1 1/4" thick, should it be 1 1/4" wide strips or can you go 1 1/2-2" and just depends on what the customer wants? Have not seen anything generic out there for at least a starting point. I know in the end its all up to the customer but not sure what a good starting point would be ... 

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I don’t think there is a rule of thumb, I think having a few random widths would be good, or whatever uses less material.  Since your width is 19”, at some point your going to have a different board, so I would incorporate 1 or 2 random widths.  So if you went 1 1/2”, that would be an even number to 18”, that would leave a single 1” board, which may look like you just ran out of boards and added an extra to make up for it being short. 

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I haven’t been there lately for obvious reasons but several years ago one of my brothers bought a butcher block counter top from Ikea to replace one on his sailboat. It was great quality and cheaper than I could have made it. 

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5 hours ago, Bushwacked said:

also, been going back and forth on this ... as far as the sizing goes ... is there a rule out there for how wide each strip should be?

Like if this is 1 1/4" thick, should it be 1 1/4" wide strips or can you go 1 1/2-2" and just depends on what the customer wants? Have not seen anything generic out there for at least a starting point. I know in the end its all up to the customer but not sure what a good starting point would be ... 

I think @Woodenskye (Bryan)is correct in that there is no "rule of thumb".    When I did the coffee bar, all of those strips were of the same size and looking at it now, I wish I had mixed up the widths a little bit.

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7 hours ago, Coop said:

I haven’t been there lately for obvious reasons but several years ago one of my brothers bought a butcher block counter top from Ikea to replace one on his sailboat. It was great quality and cheaper than I could have made it. 

I have used butcher block in 2 kitchens.  I ordered from Grizzly, Search (grizzly.com).  Even with a little waste the final cost was $13.23 a lineal foot, compared to over $60 for any other surface.  When you factor in your time + the cost of the wood to make one, you might want to consider going this route.  

 

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3 hours ago, Bob said:

I have used butcher block in 2 kitchens.  I ordered from Grizzly, Search (grizzly.com).  Even with a little waste the final cost was $13.23 a lineal foot, compared to over $60 for any other surface.  When you factor in your time + the cost of the wood to make one, you might want to consider going this route.  

 

Had no idea they even sold them haha ... although for the size I need I dont see white oak as an option. Also, looks like they are only coming in 1 3/4" size, so I would need to trim off 1/2" as well.

will keep an eye on them for the future though

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2 hours ago, Woodenskye (Bryan) said:

Looks good

Thanks!

now just to slowly glue them up haha .. gluing each strip up on its own, then going to glue a little more than half up so I can still plane them, then glue those 2 together .. at least thats my thought on how to go about this 

Edited by Bushwacked
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3 hours ago, Bushwacked said:

Got first round glued up and ready to glue together. 2nd round in the clamps .. 

happy the first round came out pretty good. No crazy bends or issues! 11DE3F5A-B8E9-4C7B-97DB-EC5784AC695E.thumb.jpeg.e3f56bbaab7dd9d3cb3bab1a7c29629a.jpeg
 

got some dominoes for alignment 

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Did you use loose tenons for the end to end glueups in round 1?

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2 hours ago, Kev said:

My scraper is so old and worn!  Time for a replacement for me!

ya I am not sure how long the blade is supposed to last, but I have been pleasantly surprised with it ... still going strong after quite a bit of scraping on several projects 

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1 hour ago, Coop said:

The scraper is pretty neat. Where did you get it? I still use an old chisel. 

Pretty sure Home Depot? It’s been awhile haha. 


ok so my rollers on the planer left black marks on the wood  I figured I could sand it out and I got most out. However now I am down to final height after sanding and still have some in some of the more grainy pieces. Any idea how to get it out? Also any idea what to clean my rollers with? Or what’s the deal with them? 
 

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Clean the rollers with rubbing alcohol.  I would also run some different lumber through the planer to ensure it's the rollers causing this or if that's in the wood you've got there.  See if this happens with a chunk of maple

 

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51 minutes ago, Kev said:

Clean the rollers with rubbing alcohol.  I would also run some different lumber through the planer to ensure it's the rollers causing this or if that's in the wood you've got there.  See if this happens with a chunk of maple

 

ok, will give that a go tomorrow ... thanks! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Now that spring break is over and the family is back in town… got over there today to scribe it …

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overall… seemed straight forward with just the walls not square but they were at least straight’ish so my scribe lines were straight lines and not wavy. 
 

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the contractor that did the shelves above it used this stuff to give it a greyish type look to it. So now need to take a look at what type of top coat I should use with it. Need a flat finish that hopefully won’t yellow the wood too bad?? 
 

anyone have experience with that haha 

 

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2 hours ago, Kev said:

General Finishes High Performance should do the trick for your top coat.  Preferrded application method would be to spray but, I've seen people apply with foam brush..

ok I still have plenty of that but wasnt sure how water based top coat would work with oil based stain ... never tried it before 

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