Walnut Mantel w/ Live edge need to add more depth question....NEWBIE

[Dan Bracy]

Hello everyone. First time post. I have been lurking around here for awhile and found out that I don't know jack compared to 90% of you!!! So I guess I am wondering if someone could make a few suggestions for my project.

First, a little background.... I am just a hobbyist and not exactly new to woodworking or projects, however I am a perfectionist and what would take a professional 4-5 hours takes me 4-5 days or even weeks for that matter!!!! They both look nice, but it just takes me considerably longer. I built my own 30x44 three stall garage that my "shop" is in the 3rd bay of. So I basically have a 20x30 area of my shop. Nailed every nail and screwed every screw of the garage, I poured all the concrete but did pay someone to power trowel it for me to a smooth finish so sawdust would be easily swept up.

I have a 2hp General hybrid table saw, a 14" Steel City band saw, and a Bosch glider 12" scms, and a GI Dust collection. I have lots of different blades and such for the table saw and scms, however I only have the original 1/4" blade on the band saw.

Okay, so here is the project:
I have a piece of walnut with a live edge with a beautiful knot and worm holes on the live edge. It is about 8 ft long, 1 1/2" thick, and the left edge is about 19" deep, towards the center it is only about 14" deep and then the right edge it is about 18" deep. The fireplace has a chase above it and the fireplace is 23" deep. So I am planning on adding walnut to that back of the mantel board to achieve the amount of overhang that I want for the mantel and to make that live edge mantel board appear to be one solid board.

So, I want a minimum of 4-4 1/2" of mantel overhang in that middle part. So with the fireplace being 23" deep and I want at least 4" of mantel overhang that puts me at 27" of needed depth at the middle of that live edge board. So I am going to need somewhere between 13-14" of attached walnut to the back of that live edge walnut.

My question is what is the best way to attach walnut on to the back of it and what walnut material. I was leaning towards some 3/4" walnut and then just build a "backer" frame under it for support to get me to the 1 1/2" thickness and dado that to the mantel board. However then I would have to basically glue 2 3/4" boards together to get me out to that 14" of thickness and then I would have 2 glue lines showing.

Or should I use say a 3/8" or 1/2" veneered ply and dado it to the walnut mantel and build a support frame under it to get me to the desired thickness of the original mantel board?

I do not have a planer or joiner.... so I plan on hand sanding everything. I do have a neighbor who has helped around the farm before putting in doors and such and I know he has a planer, but I don't know how big his Dewalt planer is....

So basically how would you guys attach more wood on to the back of the mantel board to get the desired depth that you want? I will get some pictures up soon of what I am working with. But it is time for me to go pick up my lil hooligan and spend some time playing tractors and tearing apart the house before mommy gets home.

Thanks guy. Much appreciated

-Dan

[Danny Hamsley]

I would rip the back of the mantle piece to give a straight edge. Then, I would find another piece of 1 1/2" thick walnut of the width you need, then cut biscuit slots to align the two pieces, then glue and clamp. I bet that the glue-line will not be an issue. Not sure where you are located, but if you were close to me, I could do it for you.

[Chris Padilla]

Build yourself a saw guide that you can either guide a skilsaw and/or a router along to get a nice crisp edge and then do the same with some other walnut board and glue 'em up.

If you're careful matching grain and with the edge, you should be able to get a near invisible glue-up. You have the benefit of walnut being dark. Further, you could dye the walnut to help disguise things even more and to even out coloring if needed.

[Don Sundberg]

Iowa is way too general to see if there are any possible resources available.

At 1.5" you can do that with a saw guide and a circular saw if you get the saw dead nuts square. The old school guys would use a jointer plane to get it very straight probably use dowels or splines to join the extension to the front piece. If you have a good glue line rip blade you should be able to screw a piece of plywood to the bottom parallel to the back edge to use against the fence to get your initial cut. Biscuts, dowels, cauls, or splines could be used for alignment.

Don

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Danny above...get some walnut of the same thickness; do a rip cut on your natural edge board using a track saw to get a straight surface that you can glue up an additional piece of walnut to fill out your mantle piece to the required depth. Be sure to match your additional material for color and grain so that it visually merges into your natural edge piece as best as possible. You'll want to calculate your cut edge back from that narrower area so it's effectively "parallel" to the front of the natural edge board if it had a straight front. That way you don't have to deal with a wedge shaped glue-up. If you do this carefully, your "board stretching" should be relatively invisible and pleasing.

[Dan Bracy]

Thanks guys. I actually have two of the 8 footers but was planning on finding another project to use that one for. I was going to do a pocket shelf above the mantel. But I think I can still make it work. So the second board should match because they were cut from the same slab. I will get a straight rear edge cut and get some pics up. My neighbor should have a biscuit cutter. Thanks for all the help. I sure appreciate it!

[Jamie Buxton]

When you're gluing the add-on piece to the live-edge piece, clamps may dent the live edge. Consider running screws in from the back side instead of clamps. If you're offended by screws in your mantel, remove them after the glue cures.

[Danny Hamsley]

If the pocket screws pull the joint tight, they will act as clamps for the glue.