bar top question

[Brad Morse]

Howdy everyone,

First post here, so I want to say thanks for all of the useful information and knowledge that is shared here.

I'm going to be making, finishing, and installing a bar top, about 15" wide in cherry. It's a straight section about 9' long with a 3' section at 90 degrees on one side.

My quick question is on joining those two pieces at 90 degreees. I really don't like the idea of mitering a 15" piece, it's hard enough to keep the 4" wide miter on door trim tight through the seasons. The client has no objection to butting the pieces together--I was then going to put a return on the visible ends to hide the end grain. I'm still a little concerned about fixing a 15" wide slab (I was thinking with pairs of biscuits) across its entire width. Do you think it would be OK to biscuit and glue only one side of the slab, and let the other side float?

Many thanks,
Brad

[glenn bradley]

You don't mention how thick the top is but these come in different flavors:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10770

[Scott Banbury]

Brad,

I recently did this bartop with a miter. The tops are 25" wide--the joint so much longer. I used dowels for alignment, glued the miter with epoxy using clamp blocks on either side of the joint. Fter it was set, I routed and chiseled the butterflies. The shorter leg of the top has a floating connection at the end to allow it to move as the angle of the miter changes ever so much though seasonal humidity changes.

If you use a butt joint, you will still have to accomodate the shrinkage in width of one of the pieces just like you would with a breadbaord end.

Scott

http://www.scottbanbury.com/umaibar02.jpg

[Rob Bodenschatz]

Scott, you need to show more pics of that bar. It looks awesome.

Do you have a thread out there? If not, make one.:)

[Scott Banbury]

Thanks, Rob, there's a little more here http://www.scottbanbury.com/umai.html

[Brad Morse]

Thanks Scott. That's a nice bar top. I actually did change my mind and will be using a long mortise and tenon (like a breadboard), fixed on one end, with room to expand on the other.
Thanks,
Brad