Jointing oak worktops in an acute corner

[rupertrawnsley]

I'm building an L-shaped workbench out of two 3000mm x 620mm x 40mm oak-stave worktops. I understand that the best way to connect them is a simple butt joint with metal ties in routed holes and have the ties and router jig to do this. The walls are lime rendered stone and very bumpy, but I have an upstand that is deep enough to cover any irregularities if the worktops are pressed nearly flush to the wall.

My problem is that the corner is a little less than 90 degrees, so I appear to have two choices:

1. Join them at 90 degrees and pull them about 40mm out from the corner
2. Cut the end of one of them at an angle to match the corner and join

[1] is going to need more "making good" and leave an uneven gap at the back whereas [2] means the inner angle of the bench might look a bit skewed and I risk damaging the worktop during the cutting (this is the biggest woodworking project I've ever done and I've never even used a router before).

Can anyone tell me what best practice is in this situation and what will give the best finish?

 

[Zeddedhed]

Option 2 is the one you're looking for.

Lay one worktop over the other to mark the angle right on the end of one of the tops then using a router and a straightedge with a long shank kitchen cutter rout the angle cut. Hope that makes sense. Not very good at explaining myself sometimes (ever)

 

[rupertrawnsley]

@Zeddedhed Thanks for the super quick response. I thought [2] was the way to go, but I wanted to measure twice and cut once ;-)

I guess I will overlap the worktop by slightly more than the router offset distance and that should give me a line to clamp a "fence" against and guide the router. I'm going to practice on scrap for a while though to build my confidence!

 

[mseries]

One of the simplest ways perhaps it to make a zero clearance guide for your router. I have loads of old laminated flooring planks which have straight edges. I screw/bolt one of these on top of another with about 3" of the bottom board exposed. The amount needs to be larger than the offset from your cutter to the router base - I chose 3" arbitrarily. Then cut the bottom board with the router cutter by running the router against the top board. With a pen mark on the guide the router and the cutter because it's specific to these

To use this, mark up your workpiece where you need the cut to be. Place the routed edge of your guide on the cut line and clamp the guide to the workpiece. Route by running the router along the top board. Such a guide removes any measuring errors caused by calculating offsets.

But yes, practice on some scrap first

 

[Zeddedhed]

One of the simplest ways perhaps it to make a zero clearance guide for your router. I have loads of old laminated flooring planks which have straight edges. I screw/bolt one of these on top of another with about 3" of the bottom board exposed. The amount needs to be larger than the offset from your cutter to the router base - I chose 3" arbitrarily. Then cut the bottom board with the router cutter by running the router against the top board. With a pen mark on the guide the router and the cutter because it's specific to these

To use this, mark up your workpiece where you need the cut to be. Place the routed edge of your guide on the cut line and clamp the guide to the workpiece. Route by running the router along the top board. Such a guide removes any measuring errors caused by calculating offsets.

But yes, practice on some scrap first

Definitely do this. It's a genius idea.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

=D> I took me a minute, but I got there ...

 

[rupertrawnsley]

Just a quick follow up to say thank you all for the advice: the result is a very neat fit in the corner.

I ended up clamping a fence to the piece at the desired angle and making the cut with a circular saw. I found it very difficult to make a flat, straight cut with the router, which refused to run smoothly without jumping or leaning slightly. This is probably because of my lack of router experience, but it is definitely harder to cut when you don't have a jig that supports the router on all sides, such as the one I used to route the metal tie slots.