'71 Starcraft Wanderstar- "The Hilton"
Thought I should post this up because the "Search" feature doesn't return any results and there might be some useful info for older Starcraft owners or those that are mad enough to embark on a complet...
Forum Discussion
It's kind of rainy and cold up here in MN, today, so I am working on things inside the shop. I thought I'd post up another "How-to" deal and this has to do with the edge-glued board panels that UPbuilder introduced us to and make for nice, inexpensive countertops.
I bought a 6 ft. edgeglued panel at my local big-box store, Menards. I went through the stack and selected one that was fairly straight and had the least knots. I decided to apply a piece of 1/4" fir plywood to the underside of the panel to keep it straight and to offer some more rigidity. To do this, I applied thinned wood glue and brad nailed the plywood onto the countertop. The next day when I looked at the panel, I noticed it had started to cup in the middle, probably as a result of my gluing efforts and the grain of the edgeglued boards in the middle. What to do?
And here's the "how-to"---I used my router to cut a dovetailed dado into the under side of the panel after I had clamped the panel very securely with large steel angle iron to bring it back to straightness.
The dado was easily cut using a clamping straightedge and the router set to the depth of the spline I was going to insert. Three passes with the router and the dados were done.
To cut the spline, I removed the router from the fixed base and mounted the motor with the same bit into my router table, adjusted the height and amount of cut and ran two pieces of 1/2" plywood through the bit.
I could have cut the spline using just the router and the fixed base but the router table is easier for small pieces. Here is the spline being test fitted into the dado:
There's no guarantees that that the panel will remain straight, lumber always likes to try and become a tree again, but this method should help keep all the boards in alignment. The finished splines:
I bought a 6 ft. edgeglued panel at my local big-box store, Menards. I went through the stack and selected one that was fairly straight and had the least knots. I decided to apply a piece of 1/4" fir plywood to the underside of the panel to keep it straight and to offer some more rigidity. To do this, I applied thinned wood glue and brad nailed the plywood onto the countertop. The next day when I looked at the panel, I noticed it had started to cup in the middle, probably as a result of my gluing efforts and the grain of the edgeglued boards in the middle. What to do?
And here's the "how-to"---I used my router to cut a dovetailed dado into the under side of the panel after I had clamped the panel very securely with large steel angle iron to bring it back to straightness.
The dado was easily cut using a clamping straightedge and the router set to the depth of the spline I was going to insert. Three passes with the router and the dados were done.
To cut the spline, I removed the router from the fixed base and mounted the motor with the same bit into my router table, adjusted the height and amount of cut and ran two pieces of 1/2" plywood through the bit.
I could have cut the spline using just the router and the fixed base but the router table is easier for small pieces. Here is the spline being test fitted into the dado:
There's no guarantees that that the panel will remain straight, lumber always likes to try and become a tree again, but this method should help keep all the boards in alignment. The finished splines:
