Maple Kitchen Island Top - Start to Finish - Pictures

[John Moody]

I few weeks back I began a commissioned job to build a Kitchen Island Top out of Maple that would be 41" x 51" x 2". We finished it this weekend and it was picked up for it's final delivery today in Naples, Fl. I thought I would put all of the pictures in one post in case anyone was interested. I know it is a pretty simple project but I will share the process I went through.

First was to bring into the shop about 25 maple boards from my Wood Stash.

was going to need about 52 pieces 2 3/8" thick to get started and I need to cut around any bad spots on the lumber.

With all of the pieces cut to the 2 3/8" and 53" length I was ready to bring them into shape to glue together.

So after a run or two across the jointer they were ready for the the planer.

I ran them all till all sides were flat and smooth. I didn't worry about keeping the all the exact thickness as I thought it would look good to very the thickness. So as they became flat I removed them from the stack.

So then I did a dry layout to see about clamping them up and realized there would be too many pieces and not enough working time if I did three different glue ups so I make four glue ups with each having about 12 to 14 boards.

When gluing I made sure I got good clamp pressure by putting clamps on the top and bottom.

When these panels were taken out of the clamps, they were run through the planer again (thankful for the 15" Planer), and then I put my Frued Glue Line blade in the table saw and ran the panels through the table saw to get matching edges to now put the four panels into two panels.

So now it was time to put the two panels together and make one large top.

For this glue up I pulled out the Bessey K-body clamps and used them on the top and bottom to get really even and good clamp for the final joint that would be right in the middle.

After removing from the clamps it was the final sanding. I used a Porter Cable 4" x 24" belt sander to go over the top and make sure it was really flat. Then we sanded with 120 on the ROS and the final with 220 on the ROS.

The top got a wipe down then a final run with the 220 ROS, one more wipe down.

I put my Bora clamps on the ends and took my circular saw with a Freud 60 tooth blade and the top upside down to square up the ends and then the sides and bring it to the final size of 41" x 51" x 2".

Putting the top down when cutting ensured a nice smooth edge and no tear out on the top.

Wipe it down one more time and then we put the Mineral Oil on just like the cutting boards we do.

Here you have one of the largest (Cutting Boards) I have made to date.

 

When it arrives in Naples and gets installed and I get the pictures, I will post the finished, installed top.

[Allen Worsham]

The top turned out great John!

Thanks for posting the photos of the process.

 

[lew]

Really beautiful (and heavy) top!

 

[Ron Dudelston]

Hey John, how much does that bad boy weigh?

 

[John Moody]

Ron, I would guess it weights about 150 to 175 lbs.

[Cliff]

You did that  with a track sander? 

Now that's control.