DIY disaster

[Halo Jones]

Well, it's a new year and I have probably just made my biggest DIY disaster to date!

Last year I posted about making an island unit with a stainless steel top.

Yesterday I was doing the final touches routing the oak lipping so it was flush with edge of the stainless steel. All was going well and was doing the final edge when I caught the corner and the router kicked up across the top causing:

Now, a huge part of me is just very happy and relived that it was the stainless steel and not any of my fleshy parts that got caught. My better half doesn't quite see it like that at the moment :? .

At the moment I do not have the heart to scrap the top and start again, so I have to try and at least minimise the impact. Does anyone have any ideas about the best way forward?! I have seen kits like http://www.repairingproducts.co.uk/product/stainless-steel-scratch-b-gone-homeowners-kit/, perhaps used in combination with steel putty like JB weld for the deeper gouges. Or, if anyone knows of a company that might be able to fix dings like this and they are in the Edinburgh/Fife/Dundee area then please let me know! The last thing I want to do is take abrasives to the area and make a big patch that doesn't match the rest of the top. Perhaps we just live with the scar - at least we won't have to worry about making the first mark in the top :eusa-whistle: ........

(I have posted this on another well know forum to try and maximise my chances of finding a solution that will at least improve if not totally fix things!)

 

[AJB Temple]

I have successfully refurbished stainless steel appliance surfaces using the professional techniques shown on you tube and various grades of nylon type pads for the purpose. However, you have a big ding there and a very deep scratch. I would expect that to be impossible to remove invisibly.

Stainless steel (as I think I said elsewhere when you first mooted this) marks horribly. No one cares in the catering trade but in a home kitchen it's a different story. I fear your options are replace it, or fit a thin quartz top over the island, or live with it.

Adrian

 

[AJB Temple]

PS - you can't just grind a bit of a commercial stainless steel top or surface. You have to do all of it and only working with the grain. It cannot remove deep marks anyway, but even when using the special pads you have to go strictly with the grain only - not back and forth. It takes forever even for fine scratches. I know because I spent hours and hours (and hours) getting fine marks out of a Gaggenau tepinyaki hob that I bought second hand (unused but shop marked).

 

[novocaine]

answered elsewhere and same comments stand, hiding to nothing, you could polish it out to an extend but not completely.

as with most of these things, if you can't fix it, make it a feature, replace with something like a ceramic tile and tell people it's intentional. :lol:

 

[AndyP]

How about cutting it out and replace with a drop in removable feature chopping board?

 

[Halo Jones]

How about cutting it out and replace with a drop in removable feature chopping board?

I think design HQ will consider this before a tile trivet type arrangement.

I just want to wake up and "It was all a dream"

 

[AJB Temple]

The chopping board is an excellent idea. Make a butchers block to to go over the whole end of the island - at a different level (higher) that will was over the end and parts of the sides. If it fits with the kitchen layout it will be a great design feature.

 

[AJB Temple]

PS: I see the other forum is suggesting welding. Listen to Novocaine over there. You will chuck money at a guaranteed failure.

My brother was until a couple of years ago a design engineer for the outfit that makes Aga, rangemaster etc cookers. He could weld stainless, ally etc professionally to showroom standard. So I sent him your picture of the damage by whatsapp. He bluntly said: Scrap it. Irrepairable.

 

[Halo Jones]

Thanks for all your ideas. We have accepted that we are not going to make anything like a seamless repair. So, with the idea that at some point in the future I may pick up the courage/will to make a brand new top for the time being we will just hide it!

The part that is damaged is above where our food waste bin is going to be and the cooker sits right behind that spot on the island where the damage is. So - I will make a "feature" end grain chopping board that is designed with a lip to sit over the edge of the island and allow the veggie off-cuts to be scraped straight into the compost bin.

 

[MattS]

The chopping board idea seems a good one. You must have painted the air blue when it happened, feel your pain!

 

[Chris101]

Thanks for all your ideas. We have accepted that we are not going to make anything like a seamless repair. So, with the idea that at some point in the future I may pick up the courage/will to make a brand new top for the time being we will just hide it!

The part that is damaged is above where our food waste bin is going to be and the cooker sits right behind that spot on the island where the damage is. So - I will make a "feature" end grain chopping board that is designed with a lip to sit over the edge of the island and allow the veggie off-cuts to be scraped straight into the compost bin.

Eminently sensible respone HJ. Feel your pain at the last minute ding! Ouch. Best solution seems to not repair and as replacement is clearly not an option the wise move is to bypass it altogether. Can't fit the food waste bin in the cupboard below can you? I'm thinking chopping board with big wooden removable plug and a bit of downpipe sunk into the worktop base.... Could be a stroke of genius.

 

[Mike G]

Is anyone else not seeing the images?

I have a friend who makes stainless steel kitchens for a living. I am absolutely certain he would just fill the ding with weld and grind and polish. He made the cabinet for a small portable 12V fridge for me a few years ago, and know where he joined a sheet edge-to-edge. No way can you find it now. Much of the grinding and polishing is done with a belt sander, BTW.

 

[Trevanion]

PS: I see the other forum is suggesting welding.

What is the obsession with welding over there? I saw someone there asking what to do with a cast iron saw tabletop that had something really minute like a 0.25-0.5mm dip at its centre and someone honestly suggested welding or brazing the top where the dip was and grinding it back down, someone else suggesting covering the top in filler and sanding it all back down flat.

I felt kind of sick after reading that and needed to lie down, to be honest.

 

[AndyP]

Is anyone else not seeing the images?
.

An offsite hosting issue I am afraid. I can see them from here.

 

[novocaine]

Is anyone else not seeing the images?

I have a friend who makes stainless steel kitchens for a living. I am absolutely certain he would just fill the ding with weld and grind and polish. He made the cabinet for a small portable 12V fridge for me a few years ago, and know where he joined a sheet edge-to-edge. No way can you find it now. Much of the grinding and polishing is done with a belt sander, BTW.

And was it flat on top of wood with no way to heat sink the back to stop excessive distortion? How about did he know the grade of stainless he was working with and able to control the heat input and use the correct filler rod to suit? Was he working with a pre linished sheet of steel or was it at his own hand to work the finish as he saw fit rather than try to match existing. And finally, was it in someones brand new kitchen where grinding is going to be a big issue?

Send your mate a picture, I cant read minds but im willing to guess his response.

I know quite a few welders, in fact some of my best friends are welders this comes about from working as a welders mate to help pay my way through uni (amoungst many other jobs).

Images are shared via google drive. Edge and ie dont show them.

 

[novocaine]

Can i make the same comment here as i did there? Delete or lock the thrrad before the tirade of pointless discussion starts.

Didnt think id need to say that here to be honest.

 

[TrimTheKing]

No need to lock the thread, he’s decided what he’s going to do so that’s the end of it.

Pictures not working on either Safari on my iPhone or Chrome on my iMac, so it’s not just those browsers impacted.

 

[MattS]

Can't fit the food waste bin in the cupboard below can you? I'm thinking chopping board with big wooden removable plug and a bit of downpipe sunk into the worktop base.... Could be a stroke of genius.

That’s an idea, although I can’t remember now photo has gone is it too close to the edge? Some of you will know Simon at Oryx Design this is one of his kitchens, could you do similar into the stainless steel?

 

[Chris101]

I'm wasted as an abseiler. Mind you, chances are I'd be wasted in any job I did.

 

[novocaine]

Im just wasted.

Most of the time.

Sorry for the dummy throw. Bad day. Been and kicked the cat, feel better now.


Didnt know we had a cat, but there you go.

 

[Mike G]

.......And was it flat on top of wood with no way to heat sink the back to stop excessive distortion? How about did he know the grade of stainless he was working with and able to control the heat input and use the correct filler rod to suit? Was he working with a pre linished sheet of steel or was it at his own hand to work the finish as he saw fit rather than try to match existing. And finally, was it in someones brand new kitchen where grinding is going to be a big issue? .......

As I say, I can't see any images. And the answer to all the questions is....obviously not. However, the point about welding is that it is probably the only way to do an invisible repair. Clearly that would mean stripping the worktop and re-fitting afterwards, which would probably end up costing much the same as just getting a new piece of worktop made.

I'd also reiterate what someone said earlier. Stainless steel worktops and splashbacks in commercial kitchens are bashed and dinged all over. They really aren't a pretty sight, generally. They're made to be sterile despite damage, where most laminates would likely be unhygienic if damaged.

 

[Mike G]

......... kicked the cat, feel better now.

Didnt know we had a cat, but there you go.

:lol: :lol: You haven't any more.......

 

[Halo Jones]

Sorry many couldn't see the images. The pictures are hosted on Google photos and appear on all the Chrome browsers in our house but not on Edge. I'm sure I've posted on here before direct from Google and no one complained. Hey-ho.

As said we are going to hide it for now and at some point I might get the courage to remake it.

Thanks again.

 

[Robert]

I don't see the images. Quick bit of searching says google don't allow images from google photos to be embedded on any web site so I don't know how some people are seeing them!

 

[Trevanion]

The whole Google-hosted images used to be a big debacle at t'other place before the takeover as about 10% of people could see them no problem, and 90% couldn't see them at all.

Not that it really matters now, but I can't see them and I'm on Firefox.

 

[AndyP]

i could yesterday. one wide shot of the top with the protective cover still on and the other clealy showing the curved scratch caused by the errant router.

 

[RogerS]

...
... but I can't see them and I'm on Firefox.

Nor me using Safari. But I can see them over on t'other place and so it surely is out forum s/w in this particular case ?

 

[TrimTheKing]

...
... but I can't see them and I'm on Firefox.

Nor me using Safari. But I can see them over on t'other place and so it surely is out forum s/w in this particular case ?

Some can see them on here so must be a combination of OS/Browser/forum sw and whatever Google do with their pics. It can’t JUST be the forum sw because some people can see them...

 

[AJB Temple]

I am using Safari and have had no issues seeing the pictures. Running Big Sur 11.1 and Safari 14.0.2.

 

[sunnybob]

pictures arent visible to me either. I'm using opera.