Joining wooden worktops

[HarryM]

I need to join two sections of wooden worktop at a 90 degree angle. I would like to do this using my existing tools without buying a biscuit cutter or router. Also the worktops are only 26 mm thick which seems very little for toggle bolts.

Can I just butt join them, using battens near the edges with holes drilled through to take toggle bolts? The joint is above a corner unit so there is plenty of space underneath.

Also can anyone advise what is the best product to seal the edges of cutouts for the hob and sink?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Jasonb]

If the worktops have square edges (no bull nose, roundover or chamfer) then a butt joint will be fine.

Worktop bolts can be fitted into drilled 35mm holes for the headwith a slot cut by saw & chisel for the bolt part.

The cut edges that will not be seen can be sealed by spreading a layer of clear silicon over the wood or use Casamite(now Extramite) adhesive.

Don't forget to oil the undersides as well as the top.

Jason

 

[Scrit]

Might get shot down for this, but I've sealed edges in the past with boiled linseed oil. The advantage is that it can be repaired/renewed easily. For an absolutely permanent seal you could always use something like Bonda-Voss Wood Hardener, a moisture reaction polyurethane which will turn your wood edges into a waterproof plastic. I tend to use this on hidden edges, etc, but I did an entire kitchen worktop, L-shaped 2-piece, with this three years back and it still looks good, despite the lady of the house steaming everything that moves (makes her kitchen more like a sauna than a kitchen). Remember to run a small drip groove round the underside of the cut-out to stop drips from running under the worktops too far and make sure that you seal the undersides with the same number of coats as the top.

For the joint make only one fixed screw connection at the centre of the joint, the others will need to be through slotted holes - timber expands and contracts at different rates with and across the grain, so if you make a rigid joint sooner or later it will probably break. Same goes for fixing your worktop to the units - use slotted brackets (or at least brackets with some free play around the screws) or attach turnbuckles to the underside of the tops. Last tip is top breadboard worktop ends where they end next to something like an Aga. This is a piece of worktop secured across the end of the worktop run - it mounts onto a tongue machined into the end of the worktop and is pinned in place through the centre of the tongue using a screw or wooden dowel.

Scrit

 

[HarryM]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpfull.

Harry

 

[Deluks]

Last tip is top breadboard worktop ends where they end next to something like an Aga. This is a piece of worktop secured across the end of the worktop run - it mounts onto a tongue machined into the end of the worktop and is pinned in place through the centre of the tongue using a screw or wooden dowel.

Scrit

Sounds interesting but I can't picture what you're going on about! Do you mean a piece of worktop fixed vertically on the end of a run? To form a type of upstand?
Whats the advantage of such a joint?