Project Information
Buy an ikea counterop for less than the price of the birch. Such a great idea I bought a few. I even got free shipping with a friends pickup (the nearest ikea is 2000 km away).
After a month sitting inside they all warped like crazy. After building the base and ignoring the problem I finally clamped them down intending to start handplaning. With a very little pressure it flattened out. Eureka. So after cutting a fir plywood layer to add some thickness I lag bolted some pine 4×4's to it and it seemed to flatten significantly. I oversized the holes in the pine and fir to allow for wood movement. No glue. The skirts are maple and add alot of mass. Took very little (four hours or so) planing to get it flat. Bought a new lee valley iron for the no.8 and no.4. Highly recommended.
All seems to be going well after a month. I used the pine because it was local wood and I bought a lift of it ten years ago and this was the last of it. After building the base out of it and having to straighten a bunch of hockey sticks down to 3×3's the top seemed to just be more of the same.
It needs more closely spaced dog holes. The twin screw is great, but I can't really recommend the lee valley quick release vise. It was a nightmare to install. Works ok though. The birch is soft and the glue is bad. I popped off some of the outer laminations when handplaning some of the other smaller slabs I bought.
Ah well I got a LOT of practice with a new old number 8 joining plane my father had just sent me. About two weeks of handplaning and I've got lots of new tops for the rolling workstations.
I can't really recommend this route, but I really enjoyed it. I don't think I would have done it if I had read the posts on other forums. New rule. Research all harebrained schemes on the net beforehand.
After a month sitting inside they all warped like crazy. After building the base and ignoring the problem I finally clamped them down intending to start handplaning. With a very little pressure it flattened out. Eureka. So after cutting a fir plywood layer to add some thickness I lag bolted some pine 4×4's to it and it seemed to flatten significantly. I oversized the holes in the pine and fir to allow for wood movement. No glue. The skirts are maple and add alot of mass. Took very little (four hours or so) planing to get it flat. Bought a new lee valley iron for the no.8 and no.4. Highly recommended.
All seems to be going well after a month. I used the pine because it was local wood and I bought a lift of it ten years ago and this was the last of it. After building the base out of it and having to straighten a bunch of hockey sticks down to 3×3's the top seemed to just be more of the same.
It needs more closely spaced dog holes. The twin screw is great, but I can't really recommend the lee valley quick release vise. It was a nightmare to install. Works ok though. The birch is soft and the glue is bad. I popped off some of the outer laminations when handplaning some of the other smaller slabs I bought.
Ah well I got a LOT of practice with a new old number 8 joining plane my father had just sent me. About two weeks of handplaning and I've got lots of new tops for the rolling workstations.
I can't really recommend this route, but I really enjoyed it. I don't think I would have done it if I had read the posts on other forums. New rule. Research all harebrained schemes on the net beforehand.