How do I round off the edges of my worksurface.

[darrenh]

Hello all

I plan on fitting a work surface made out of 5cm thick beech wood. I'll use a jigsaw for the sink hole but I need to round off the corner of the work surface.

I'm happy to go and buy a router to do this but have no idea how to actually do it.

ANy advice appreciated before I take the plunge and buy it?

I also will use the router to cut out a bolt hole to connect the work surfaces (again, any advice on this appeciated).

Darren

 

[MATTBONNEY]

A ROUTER IS FINE FOR THE JOB BUT A EXPENSIVE WAY OF DOING IT IF YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO USE THE ROUTER AGAIN, SO WHY DONT YOU USE YOUR JIG SAW AND A SANDING BLOCK AND SOME GOOD OLD GLASS PAPER...

 

[MarlowJoiner]

Seems you WILL need a router for the bolted joint. Get a 1/2 inch one - I have 1/4 and 1/2 routers and find the bigger one easier to control. Anyway for a 50 mm. thickness you will certainly need the 1/2 inch.

The MacAllister 1200W Router COD127R from B&Q @ £50 should do OK.

Last week I bought 50 mm. cutters from pvptools on eBay at a very good price. Also get a No. 20 biscuit cutter (1/4 inch shaft should do) £12.99 from Screwfix, though I bought for less on eBay. You will need biscuits to align the joint to ensure the faces are flush.

It is easy to make your own jig to suit the follower plate of the router to make the cut-outs for the bolted joints. Use thin ply, mdf or hardboard.

The router can pull itself into the workpiece quite forcefully so I always screw rather than clamp my jig to the underside of the workpiece.

For the corner, again make a jig to use with the follower plate and screw it to the underside. Depending on the radius you require you may find that a stack of a few old (freebie) CDs would give you a ready made perfect circle to form the basis of a jig. Make sure the jig is large enough to support the router adequately over the whole of the working area. Saw off the corner first so that the router doesn’t have so much to do. I’m not sure about the best “angle of attack” to avoid any tendency to split. Obviously this could be a problem depending on whether the cutter is rotating into (on the right hand side) or out of (on the left hand side) the end grain. So go gently !

As it happens I'm just in the middle of doing the same job on 40 mm. oak, though it's a galley kitchen so no bolted joints this time, just 130 mm. additional width, biscuit and dowelled to the edge, to go into the window recess.

Let us hear how you get on.

Marlow

 

[MarlowJoiner]

Just following up on my earlier reply. Looking back I see that in the title of your post you refer to the edge and in the main text to the corner of your worktop.

I think that you mean the junction of the face edge with the face side.

Personally I think that this edge is best left almost square and in my case (the oak I’m fitting at the moment) I shall probably just relieve the corner with a fine set smoothing plane and finish by sanding.

If you really want to round off the edge then get a Rounding Over Cutter (which has a follower bearing). Screwfix have a good range for £10 or so but I expect that the smallest radius you will find will be ½ inch. Far too “round” in my opinion.

Marlow

 

[Dogs]

Just bought the Macllister router mentioned - great value for money which is a first for B&Q!!

My old Bosch had the straight edge on the front, the Mac has it on the back. Can you reverse the bottom plate? I like to use a straight edge clamped in place to do edges of boards. I had to use the router the wrong way round today - not the safest procedure.

Doing a worktop. For the clamp cutouts I used two 1 1/2" woodbits One marked to reach 35mm into the 40 mm then a second with half of the guide pin removed to make a 25mm deep hole. Then just cut out the straight bits. Crude but perfectly effective.