Those butcher blocks with under-mount sinks make me pucker. If itās a porcelain sink itās a little bit tighter. Gimme a copper washer and Iāll give you back a penny. Prolly a Canadian penny but still a penny. I love the challenge, the brain is working, but one wrong move and weāre out a few hundred bucks plus a days worth of labor and whatever time it takes to get new product. That can add up. Never mind that crap, I just donāt wanna hear it if I do blow it. Isnāt that what weāre all really trying to avoid? You know how it goes, one wrong move and thatās the story youāll have to listen to every Christmas until the day you die. Back in ā10 or maybe ā11 I got some dirt in a vinyl seam and Iāll be damned if I didnāt hear about that **** for a solid 5 friggin years. Never mind the fact that the customers were pissed off before I even knocked on the door AND I told the boss I didnāt wanna do the job because I knew it wasnāt gonna end well. Too bad, I did the job, I got dirt in the seam and I never heard the end of that **** until I finally left the state in ā16.
Hereās one I did with Corian, I musta measured and remeasured a bunch of times to get it just right before I set the countertop and cut out the sink n stove openings. I like to leave maybe 1/4ā overhang to route flush after itās all said and set in place. On the butcher blocks that fluff room jumps to 1/2ā because the jigsaw blade can go wonky while cutting through 1 1/2ā of material and I canāt risk hitting the sink. Iām ok with leaving more material but when routing 1 1/2ā of solid wood, thereās a lot going on there and routers can jump. 1/2ā by 1 1/2ā is a lot of material to route off. You ever had a router jump? I have and it clenches me right up. Donāt laugh cus youāld pucker too! Iāll throw the router before I let it bite me so if youāre holding the shop vac nozzle you better watch out cus a hot router with a big bit might be coming your way.
This is where the oversized bearings come in. Itās either that or I fasten shims for my first pass, who knows, maybe that is the answer. Iām still working on it before I dump 2 bones on a bit. Anyway, I put on an oversized bearing on my router bit for my first pass. This takes off all the inconsistent crap and leaves me with a consistent 1/4ā? of material that needs to be removed. Now I put on the regular bearing for the bit and do a flush trim pass. When I have a consistent amount of material to remove the router performs in a consistent, predictable way and is much easier to control. Then when thatās all said and done Iāll remove the blue tape from the sink and make a last final pass that will completely flush me out with the sink.
Iām working my way up to shear bits and spiral bits but finding one that cuts 1 1/2ā makes them a bit more spendy. Such is life, right. Palm routers wonāt cut it for removing that much material so hereās router #6 for me that I got yesterday. I like the Bosch 1617, something about the wood handles and parts are readily available on ereplacementparts.com. That and if it aināt broke, buy another one. Itās just one click away and was only a buck fiddy, before tax, which means $169 or something like that. So much to do and so little time to do it.