as subject, are they easy? I see a Jig at QVS for under £ 30 (usually seen elsewhere for much more) but by the time I've bought the router bits etc, is it worth getting a kitchen fitter in just for the worktop fitting?
I hired my router and Jig from HSS Managed to do a pretty good job with little experience (helps if you have enough spare worktop to do some practice runs 1st). And the instructions were pretty poor But mungo is right, definitely not worth buying (unless you plan to do a lot of routing) Note if you buy a router for the worktop, it needs to be a pretty heavy duty one - not cheap
Thanks for the info Andy I think I will ask around fitters and see how much they want to get involved i.e. other post re: supply and fit rather than just fit Thanks again
Cutting two lengths of worktop at 45 degs to form a corner joint is not how it's normally done because it gives you a longer joint than is necessary and, certainly in kitchens, looks slightly odd.
If the overall joint is at 90 degrees then one doesn't mitre.
However if it is one 45 degree joint followed by a straight section then another 45 degree joint (i.e. first and third sections are at 90 degrees) then each joint ends up being mitred. The first and third sections will each have the joint at 45 degrees whereas the middle section will have each joint perpendicular to the front edge.
Time for doing the job properly with a router.
I wouldn't even use my Festool circular saw (high quality and very high quality blade) for this job. It isn't the right tool and you can't postform the joints.
I did mine with a circular saw. There's about a 1" cut at 45 degrees to correctly mitre the rolled edge, followed by a parallel cut to take the rolled edge off. It's hard work as the cutting is all from the back, but you really need someone looking at the other side to tell you when to stop, where the mitre meets the parallel cut. I bought a new relatively fine TCT blade for the job. The only chipping of the edge was caused when I bash it as I carried it back into the kitchen after cutting and glueing it;-)
Looking at worktops done with a router jig, the mitred part through the rolled front is curved, not at 45 degrees, so the rolled edges can't match up perfectly. (Maybe all the ones I looked at were done wrong?)
The main reason a full mitre is a bad idea with wooden worktops is that any shrinkage results in a tapered gap, tight at the back and open at the front. In a 90 deg join one part can shrink without creating a gap, and the other part will create a uniform gap, which is easier on the eye. Plus it's a shorter join anyway.
One wonders what you consider the circular saw useful for
.. and the issue of supporting the worktop properly while they do so.
I'm not sure why that would be. I just followed the instructions onn which slots to use and the positioning of the router in the slot and the joins were correct at the front edges.
I wasn't thinking of that sort of cut .... I have a couple of w/tops joined and they are at right angles and the guy used a router . First cut is at 45 degrees to get over the edge and then a cut parallel to the board edge .Looks great after a few years .
There shouldn't be significant shrinkage in a good quality worktop left to condition in the room for a while.
For a 90 degree join that may be true, although appearance of a gap at all can easily be avoided by permitting small movement of one worktop in the direction of shrinkage.
That's the norm with round fronted worktops. All the fuss of hiring routers and jigs is about how you deal with the front 5mm. Probably cheaper overall to buy wooden square fronted tops.
Shouldn't...significant...good quality...for a while. They all sound like the vague terms a timber merchant might use. A wooden worktop may take several months to acclimatise and, unless you know the initial moisture content, you can't predict the eventual movement. Given that one rarely knows this figure, why use a joint which, by design, cannot accommodate movement?
Not with mitres. When a 100mm width in a mitre joint shrinks to 95mm, the inner edge moves towards the outer (can't happen the other way round), and a gap appears on the inside because your angles are now less than 45 degs, and there is no way to allow for that.
I agree, but then neither can a 90 degree one on that basis. Something will need to move if there is significant shrinkage so it is better to accommodate that in other ways.
.. and you would want a gap of several mm at a 90 degree join?
But the components of a 90 deg join remain 90 degs after shrinkage, giving you options to reduce or correct the situation. Mitres cease to be 45 degs, and have to be re-cut if 2 of them are to add up to 90 degs.
In theory there would be less than half the overall gap for the same area of timber, and it would be uniform. The only use for a mitre is when the wood is moulded, when it's a necessary evil
How did this debate even start. Routers are the way to get the best results in any joint of a worktop using a good quality jig. My jig will do all desired angles with the rolled section matching perfectly. I wouldnt even entertain a cheap jig. I have seen some fitters using jig saws and circular saws. I have only come across one fitter who does this with any success. Router the joint using a good jig and you end up with perfect joints each time.
By the way, for those who dont use a router, how do you clamp the worktops tightly together (surely you need to cut out the dog bones underneath using a router to get the worktop clamps in???
Calum Sabey NewArk Traditional Kitchens 01556 690544
But with an L shape you are talking about two separate things moving in different directions. You can minimise cracks on a table top but you can't do anything about the gap between it and another table top at right angles to it
Well, yes, a window sill round a bay window for example, but there would be no 90 deg cuts
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