Glued up Bartop Slab Attachment... Help?

[Brian Holcombe]

I flattened a 48" wide by 72" long slab two-three weeks ago with hand planes (I'm the only professional in my area that does this as far as I'm aware). It was a 5 hour job. I

You'll have to joint by hand for the finished edges. What I would do is to buy rough lumber, have it machine jointed on one face and two edges. Hand plane, glue up into wide sections (16") have someone with a wide machine joint and plane those sections, then glue those two sections in place and hand plane the result.

OK, good luck.

[Erich Weidner]

Any reason not to do the above with 4S stock? (vs rough cut). Since the substrate and bar height were built assuming a 3/4" slab going on top, height is fine. (Another inch won't matter if it is taller). I'm just curious.

[Brian Holcombe]

I like some margin, so I don’t use S4S. It’s produced with a molder, so I don’t think it’s going to be perfectly straight over 20’. I’d rather have something jointed by hand fed machine and checked/paired with another board to ensure that the two edged match.

[Erich Weidner]

I've put down stair treads with silicone dots to allow some movement, but for a wide countertop like you are describing, I would stick with screws and washers through oversized holes.

For enlarging the holes after the fact, why not just drill through the steel and plywood with a larger diameter bit and use a bigger washer?

So, late reply.... but I tried this with my Milwalkee Heavy Duty corded drill and it just jerks my arms and binds up. Short of loading my drill press into my truck and taking to the job site, not sure what to do to widen the holes...

[Erich Weidner]

Well... two months later, and we are almost to deadlines with construction. I've stepped in to be the bar builder....

I already have the red oak for the bar. (too late, the guy I fired had already bought it, and it is what I originally speced).
The boards are S4S 1x6 red oak. I now need to flatten and square up for glue up. I built a bit of a work bench on top of the espresso bar... plan on attacking this tomorrow with my hand planes. (I don't own a power jointer).2019-07-03 21.48.42.jpg

[Erich Weidner]

Sorry for the rotated image. The software here doesn't auto-rotate stuff I guess. Unlike on my PC.

[Bill Space]

Not sure what size holes you are trying to make, but you might try a hole saw rather than a drill bit...hole saws can grab too, but I personally find them easier to handle for larger holes in steel.

[Don Stephan]

My understanding is that mitered corners open seasonally when surrounding a solid interior field. An L shape will not be surrounding a solid interior.

My understanding of solid wood flooring is that the individual boards (6" wide? 8" wide?) might be glued to the subfloor but not to each other, so individual boards can expand and contract in width seasonally but the annual movement over 6 or 8" is easily hidden by the chamfered edges.

Put down a temporary bar top, explain the situation to customers, and find a qualified person to make the permanent top without an impossible time constraint.

The concerns about red oak are confusing. Yes, the pores are open, but it's hard to imagine a permanent bar top that is not covered on all surfaces with a durable film finish. If enough moisture reaches the open wood pores to cause issues, it will have already caused damage to the film finish, won't it?

[Erich Weidner]

Well, we are now two years into using this bartop. I'll need to take some pics. The Red Oak has held up fine so far. It was finished with about 6 coats of GF Arm-R-Seal. I should probably clean it and add another two coats to keep it performing great.

Now, the back bartop which is under the taps has not fared terribly well. It was made of plywood, with same finish and coats. After constant exposure to moisture from drying glassware and the condensation dripping off of the draft tower, it was looking rough. I cleaned and dried it and applied an epoxy coat. But it looks like there must have been some places at the base of the draft towers for water to get under the epoxy. Not good. Now that I have some experience, for this back bar, if I had it to do again, I'd have done the epoxy on day one, and much thicker. At this point, I'd have to have the draft towers removed to redo the top. That is an expensive proposition, so I'm just going to have to let it go until it gets really bad.