Long counter top

[Bill Kingman]

I need a long counter top an inch thick by 25" wide 146" long with a bull nose on the front and one side to go on top of some cabinets I am building out of poplar. I will be adding book shelves on top and all will be painted.

How would you make such a long counter? Solid boards glued up? Plywood some how pieced together to get the full lenghth? All suggestions greatly appreciated!

[keith ouellette]

Where is the counter top going. Is it in a kitchen or ....

[Jay Jolliffe]

I did a counter in my kitchen which was 136" x 19''x 7/8" made out of poplar. I glued up 7" boards to what I needed, sanded, routed the edge & painted it both sides. I put it on a base of cabinets & there are open shelves above for dishes. It's been 3 years & it's still flat.

[Bill Kingman]

Its going in the den/family room.

[Mike Cutler]

If you can get through all of the doors in your house. I would just do one large glueup.
Pick your wood carefully, with an eye towards Qsawn for stability. Design in the ability for the top to expand and contract across the 25", a nd you should be set.

Find a helper to move it.

[Joe Chritz]

If you are painting it anyway I would use MDF or plywood. Granted you would have to seam it but some drywall compound and good primer should hide it so it is undetectable.

You have the added advantage of not having to contend with wood movement issues and it is most likely cheaper to do. Two thicknesses of 1/2 build like a kitchen counter assembly for formica would do well.

MDF has its problems but use in a paint grade project isn't usually one of them.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

I'm about to do a similar thing in my new office and despite the cost, I'm ordering a 10' piece of cherry plywood to construct the 9' 6.5" top in one piece. That's about $250, but with no seam to deal with in the middle.

For 146", it's a bit more involved and I suspect you'll need to seam. The technique I did for the large mantle in our great room was to join the two pieces with biscuits and then I routed a shallow strip over the joint and glued in a thin piece of solid stock to "mask" the actual joint in the plywood veneer. The same thing could be done at the ends and the rear, creating two framed areas once your solid bullnose facing is applied to the front.

[Rusty Elam]

You might look at Lumber Liquidators. They have 25" x 12 feet Maple and Cherry butcher block tops for $299...$329 respectively. You might have to add a couple of pieces to the ends and do the bull noses yourself but they look like nice tops and no seams.

[Peter Quinn]

I've made 15' long tops for window benches by splicing two pieces of C-2 maple ply with an 1 1/2 half lap at the seam. The joints were carefully cut with a router, using a 3/4" top bearing mortising bit, a straight edge and a gauge block to set the length. The seam is very strong and nearly invisible, and it stays that way down the road.

I used heavy bowed cauls top and bottom to apply downward pressure and screwed blocking on either side of the joint on the blind side to pull it in with clamps. I have also used biscuits or splines for similar things but they occasaionally swell enough to telegraph at the surface with plywood or mdf and offer considerable less strength during transportation.

I typically make an applied bullnose thicker than the finished top with a rabit in the backside to accept the top material and glue this in with biscuits. For a 3/4" top I usually go 1 1/8". The 1/2" plywood lamination will give similar results if you stagger the seams but usually leaves a more visable witness line at the joint which must be filled and sanded. It also typically costs more if done in plywood.