Well, maybe we ask that you don't stick a fork in our new counters. We're still basking in the glow of their newness, and aren't quite ready for wear and tear just yet. If you stopped by yesterday, we left off covering our ongoing butcher block install and related “quick fix” kitchen upgrades, and took you through the process of how we successfully brought our crap cabinets to level and were able to cut a consistent 45 degree angle and join the two largest pieces of butcher block together. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world by any stretch of the DIY imagination, but we're happy with the results.
Wendy and I were actually discussing the whole ordeal over the weekend, and about how “DIY friendly” a butcher block countertop is. Our assessment is that, well, it depends.
We'd classify it to be a beginner level DIY project if you’re just replacing an existing counter top or adding a new one with a single piece of butcher block that is about the right size. Like our "wine bar," it's easy when you don’t have to alter it all that much. A little trim, some sanding, and oiling and you’re good to go.
On the other hand, it’s more of an intermediate level of effort if you need to do anything complex with the butcher block. This includes significant trimming, scribing, joining multiple pieces, routing the edge, etc. It’s still very doable, obviously, but it’s not quite as easy as just slapping a piece in place.
And finally, it's our feeling that that it should be considered an advanced DIY level project when you’re trying to do all of the above and you’re also dealing with significantly out of level and poorly built cabinets.
No, we’re not just patting ourselves on the back here and talking about how hard the project is, but we are being realists. We feel like, though it was looking great, the whole process was turning out to be a whole lot more difficult and involved than we thought it was going to be. And that brings us to the final few items before we could officially put a check next to “Install Butcher Block” on our kitchen work list.
To give the new counter tops the diagonal piece that would sit in front of the sink we needed to employ a little bit of wood working trickery. We had plenty of remnant pieces of butcher block from the trimming of the other pieces, so I selected a piece that I could easily cut into a nice triangle. My plan was to then put the same edge detail on the front (hypotenuse) of that triangle, then cope the back sides of the triangle (its catheti) to match the edge of the two pieces of counter we were installing it against.
Easy enough, right? Yeah, it took me almost the whole evening to knock this piece out. If you’re not following my explanation, that’s ok, I’ve got some photos to help.
Remember the router bit we’re using for the front edge of the counters? If you notice, it’s actually perfectly symmetrical and fits within itself. If you flip it upside down it's actually the perfect mirror image.
This means that all I have to do is to flip the triangle piece of wood over and slowly take off enough material to make the back side of the cut a perfect cope of the front. Like routing the front edge, it’s best to take off a little at a time, making several passes to get the desired amount of wood removed.
Starting low and slowly raising the router bit in the table, you can eventually achieve the perfect complement to the front edge cut.
I think this was a case of "measure 45,729 times and cut a little at a time until it's just right." I must have made 100 trips up and down the stairs to test fit this piece. One final thing I did was to trim the very back corner off of the piece I was fitting. This would end up under the sink anyhow, and I just didn't want the corner getting in the way of a perfect fit.
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