A trivial job

[Mike G]

Between proper projects, I have the opportunity to tick off a few minor things which I should have done years ago. The first of those is for the kitchen. I started by ripping up an old teak board I had, and planing the 6x15mm strips:



It wasn't a convenient length, there wasn't enough of it, and there were a number of holes which I needed to cut out. This meant doing some scarfing:



I ran a little rebate in the edge of some scraps to act as a guide for gluing it up. I waxed these thoroughly:





They came out rather well:



.....and were added to the pile:



I also have a piece of greenheart or ipe, and I cut some strips to form the base runners. Here marked at 19mm intervals:



To mark the other side of the lap joints I slid one of the pieces along the width of the cross pieces:







......and cut the sides with a gent's saw:



Those pieces had been held in their marking, sawing and housing positions with holt-melt glue. The difficulty I had getting them apart again afterwards led me to use it in the final assembly.

It took longer than it should have done to chisel out the housings:



I did the same with the cross pieces, but without using hot melt glue:



I chamfered everything, then dry assembled it all first, and it all fitted well without any fettling. It pays to have your glasses in the workshop when doing these fiddly little jobs. I then took one cross piece out at a time, and glued it back in with melted plastic:



In situ:

 

[Malc2098]

Nice.

 

[AndyP]

Right up until the last photo I thought you were making an elaborate trivet.

 

[AJB Temple]

Mike. Nice work. May I ask, is the reason why you have made this because the ceramic sink is very easy to break crockery and glassware in?

We have a similar double large ceramic sink in the main kitchen (without the V shape part) and it is a devil when something gets knocked against it. Just before we went away I broke a Kitchen Aid glass mixer bowl (expensive to replace) in the sink, through a moment's inattention. Stainless steel or copper is a lot more forgiving.

 

[Mike G]

We drain our washing up in the second sink, and have always had an awful plastic-covered-wire draining rack, which simply didn't fit. This wasted space, and risked everything moving, and thus breaking. If I could have found that piece of teak 7 or 8 years ago I would have made it then, but I stumbled across it last week which triggered me into action.

 

[Doug]

Good solution Mike

 

[Cabinetman]

Nice little rack, and I tend to agree that using that in the bowl is a much better idea than a draining board.
I’m sure you were aware how messy that glue can be, which is a real shame as it’s SO handy. I’m sure the melting point isn’t anywhere near that reached in a Dishwasher so that should be ok.
Just wondering if it could be cleaned up with a hot knife. But then you have threads again, maybe best to just trim them cold?
Ian

 

[Mike G]

I cut them off cold, Ian.

For me, the big disadvantage of hot melt glue is how quickly it goes cold. You get one go at getting everything in the right place......maybe 10 or 15 seconds at most. You need all your ducks in a row if it is to work successfully.