Unique Countertop Commission - WIP w/ pics

[McRabbet]

I have been asked by friends of the people for whom I built the Wine Cellar Project last October (see pics in my Photo Gallery) to build a special Countertop/Bar in their new home under construction in the suburbs of Hendersonville. Last month, I picked up the materials from Steve Wall Lumber -- the main part of which is a 10 foot long slab of Bubinga, also known as African Rosewood. For the past few weeks, I've been involved in other activities, but I've gotten enough done to show some progress pictures.

This is where the counter will go -- atop this 100" long wall and hanging out 21" over the chair rail you see...

The slab of Bubinga: 22" wide, 2" thick and 119" long! 5" 8/4 piece at left is for the supports.

I took the slab over to the well-equipped shop of Sammy Samotis, a professional finish carpenter and we surfaced the slab in his 37" dual drum Grizzly sander -- about 15 passes per side.

With the help of some neighbors (including the "Wine Cellar" owner, Kevin), we got the slab into my basement shop and I finished the edges and sanded both sides to 180 grit.

This is one beautiful piece of wood! And it's not even got a finish on it yet! Next, it was time to build the supports -- three hefty angle braces made of 8/4 by 4" Bubinga.

I knew they must hold up a 200# slab and be rock solid -- so I made a vertical and horizontal member (The "Ell"), held together with a large dovetail, and a diagonal brace of 8/4 stock that will join the two other members with mortise and tenon joints. (Left member is 19" long). Here is one ready for the mortises, but cutting those tenons was fun -- here's how I did it:

Two braces clamped together to Miter Gage to saw the tenon ends and then,

Make the cheek cuts with a dado blade in two passes. Tenons are 1" thick by 3" in the top member and 1" by 4" in the vertical member.

Here is one angle bracket showing the dovetail that attachs the top member to the vertical one. Ready to cut some mortises!

More to come... Thanks for looking. Rob

Don't know how I missed this thread. But that is really nice all around work there Rob. The wood is stunning, there is a tremendous amount of attention to detail and it looks so solid that is could almost support an elephant.

Very nice