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Worktop corner joints
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as subject, are they easy?
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They are provided that you follow the instructions carefully, clamp
the jig securely and use a decent router and bits.
If you have a length of old worktop it can be worth practising on that
as well.
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I see a Jig at QVS for under £ 30 (usually seen elsewhere for much more) but
by the time I've bought the router bits etc, is it worth getting a kitchen
fitter in just for the worktop fitting?
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If you're only going to do it once, ever, get someone in, I would.
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I hired my router and Jig from HSS
Managed to do a pretty good job with little experience (helps if you
have enough spare worktop to do some practice runs 1st). And the
instructions were pretty poor
But mungo is right, definitely not worth buying (unless you plan to do
a lot of routing)
Note if you buy a router for the worktop, it needs to be a pretty
heavy duty one - not cheap
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It may be.
You need to have a decent and powerful router. Hint: the sub £100 ones
often claim good power ratings but the poor motor efficiencies result
in poor mechanical output. Something like the Freud at around £160
marks the start of decent 12.7mm routers.
A decent kitchen fitter's set of router bits (e.g. Freud or CMT).
If you plan to do other projects that can involve a router then there
is justification to buy one, otherwise all of the above and a jig can
be rented.
If you're going to get someone in to fit the worktop, an obvious thing
is to get confirmation that he will replace it if he cocks it up. He
may not want to do that if he hasn't supplied and made margin on the
worktop, so it may be that supply and fit would be a better option if
you are looking to hand over responsibility.
I did a fitting of some wood worktop to make a fitted desk in my
office a couple of years ago. This is L shaped, fitted into a corner
with the inside corner of the L cut across at 45 degrees to form a
place to locate monitor and keyboard. To make this involved making
two cuts at 45 degrees with symmetrical post forms and because of the
depth in the corner it was necessary to attach a triangular section at
the back. This was all done using the items mentioned above. I
bought a jig from Screwfix for the purpose (it had the markings and
location holes for a 45 degree join - not all do) and subsequently
sold it on Ebay, thus recovering much of the cost.
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Why would you want to mitre worktops? There are good reasons why that it
isn't done in kitchens. And, if you did want to, why not use a circular
saw? I must have missed something here
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I took probably half a day doing the whole job including test cuts.
The other thing was to arrange suitable support for both sections when
making a cut. I did this by using the bench and laying strips of
timber to raise the work slightly allowing space for the cutter. This
way, nothing will want to move as the cut is completed.
The dog bone type connectors typically used are effective for pulling
the sections of worktop together horizontally. They do little to
nothing vertically. For that I used a biscuit joiner and biscuits to
ensure precise and stable vertical alignment. Another option would
be a biscuit slot cutter in the router. Again something to do or to
check if employing someone to do the work.
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