Screwing together boards for butcher block style counter

[cody michael]

I am building a butcher block style counter / work bench for my shop. Any reason not to screw the boards together as I glue them? Just thinking it would help alignment. Is this a good idea or bad idea?

[Jim Becker]

For the workbench I certainly wouldn't because..it can cause interesting problems when locating things like additional dog holes, etc., in the future. I wouldn't do it for the counter, either...it's not needed. Embedding metal can always raise risk with a work surface in certain situations. If you want something for alignment, use a few biscuits, Dominos, dowels or splines indexed off the top faces while you are assembling with glue in the clamps.

[Richard Coers]

Explain how screws help alignment? You would get better alignment with a saw kerf and spline between the boards.

[cody michael]

Explain how screws help alignment? You would get better alignment with a saw kerf and spline between the boards.


I can glue, clamp vertically one or 2 at a time. Build up to full size.


Thanks everyone I will pass on the screws, when I've used biscuits I've not been impressed. Maybe I'll just build some cauls.

[Tom Bender]

You could rout half round grooves lengthwise and fill them with dowels.

[Bill Dufour]

You could shaper a tongue and groove or glue joint to hold alignment. You will need more wood to do this.
Tip is to do half the boards on both edges then the other half of the boards do the mating edge on both sides. So half male and half female boards.
Screws will make using a metal detector problematic. To my mind screws will cause localized stress and cause warping over time compared to a full length joint
Bill D.

[Dave VanDewerker]

Glue up the top in pieces. I did my counter top in three pieces, each about 8-10 inches wide. I then ran each of these thru my planer to get them all the same thickness and one side nice and flat. Them I glued each of these together one at a time with lots of cauls. When I was finished I just used a ROS and hand sanded the top.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

A Friend used a technique that I keep planning to try. He made a drilling template and drilled a series of matching 1/2 holes in each piece of wood (he used nice fir 2x4s). He assembled the pieces with 26 inch long pieces of 3/8 threaded rod without glue. His plan was to tighten the rods every month for a year while the wood continued to dry. Then disassemble, glue, re-assemble, tighten the rods again, and drive them out when the glue dried, then plug the holes with dowels. It has been several years and he is still using the bench with nothing holding the top together but the rods. I think he got the idea from a magazine or book.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Pocket screw them together for clamping while gluing. After glue cures, remove pocket screws. This way, you are only aligning two boards at the time. Here we have a guy who builds custom dining room tables using this technique. Once glue is cured, he runs top through wide belt sander.

[mike calabrese]

My methods are generally off the beaten path but that is where i am the happiest so here goes...
I guess you are trying to manage the clamping of the assembly.
Why not simply use several threaded rods nicely spaced. depending on how thick your stock is simply counter bore the first and last piece to keep the nut and washer sub surface . align a series of thru holes in all other boards cut the rod to length thread through and draw up on all the nuts. You most likely will not be able to remove the rods after the glue is dry but the recess on the first and last board should be deep enough to use a correctly sized dowel to cover up and add some style.
Alternatively leave the first and last board out of the assembly . If you stock is too thin to completely sub surface the nut and washer then half deep counter bore the second and second last board and add the same threaded rods as clamps. On the glue side of the first and last board counter bore deep enough to allow the board to make up the difference of depth to cover the nut and washer.
The first and last board will not show any alteration on the outside edges and Bob is your uncle !!!!!!
You can clamp the first and last boards with good quality masking tape several pieces you will be surprised how tight you can pull and stretch the taps to apply a bunck of clamping force. ask any questions
calabrese 55