There is a space between my kitchen and the living room that was setup to be used as a bar type counter, a place to put 3 tall chairs in front of for eating or drinking. It currently has a piece of subfloor I put there as a temporary fix in lieu of having just the top of the wall there.
I am read now to build the top I want. The overall dimensions will be
25" x 74" and the front will be curved, I haven't decided yet exactly what that will look like. I am making a template out of MDF and chipping away at it until I find the best look that maximizes the space.Anyway, I purchased 4 Birdseye Maple boards of varying lengths and widths, but all between 7 and 9 inches wide. I also purchased 1 10 foot Paduk board. What I want is a Maple surface with 1 or 2 1/2" or
3/4" stripes of Paduk in it. This means edge joining it all. I am planning on ripping each piece of Maple to a little over 6" wide, cutting the strips of Paduk and gluing it up, then using the MDF template to cut the final shape. I am also thinking of mounting the wood on top of the 1/2" MDF in order to get a little thickness (the Maple is 3/4") to it, then trimming the edge with a thin strip of Paduk.Will edge gluing be sufficient in this application or should I go with biscuits?
A couple of the boards, especially the Paduk is bowed, that is if you lay the board down on it's face and butt it up against a straight edge the ends hit first, leaving about 1/8" of gap in the middle. The other way the middle hits and the ends have a gap. I seem to remember there being a jig I saw to fix this kind of bow on a table saw. Anybody have good advice on this?
Once I am done would it be good to just roll on glue to the MDF and clamp the wood onto it in order to use it for a base?
Thank you for any thoughts.
-Jim