Fitting beech stave worktops

I am about to fit some new beech stave worktops in my kitchen, the job is pretty straightforward, apart from the cut out for the sink which involves curved cuts. Can I use a router for this or do I need to use a jigsaw? I fucking hate using jigsaws :rage:! s-l140|140x140

Depends on the radius of the corner, maybe use a largish hole saw/starrett cutter to drill 4 holes, then connect with the straight cuts?

Edit: l didn’t look at the link with the sink. :roll_eyes: I reckon you’ll have to make a hardboard or thin ply template and router it, if you don’t want to use a jig saw

1 Like

how thick is the beech?

40mm

The radius of the curves is 185mm.

Could you make a jig and then route around it? 40mm is quite thick and a 1/2" router would give neat results. I would just drop the bit by 5mm on each pass but I am no expert…Jim’s right on radius as that would play a part in your choice.

2 Likes

That is exactly what I did. Made a jig, slowly routed.

1 Like

How deep is the flange on the sink,? If you take it quite slowly with the jig-saw, then any variations should be covered by the flange, no?

I don’t know, I have to pick up the sink later.

A jig and a router will do a much nicer job than a jigsaw but, as Jim says, if it’s all hidden by the sink flange then maybe that doesn’t matter. I hate jigsaws too. I find if I’m cutting on a curve there can be a strong tendency for the blade to start tilting off-vertical, and once it starts it’s hard to get it back. Certainly with a router I’d rough-cut as much of the material away as I could beforehand, say by stitch-drilling, then use the router for the final ‘tidying’ cut. This might not be such a good idea with a jigsaw though. The shoe needs supporting on both sides of the cut, obviously, and if there is more material on one side of the cut than the other then maybe the blade would be even more likely to tilt. One thing I’d watch out for with a jigsaw is the tendency for the vibrating shoe to mark the surface that it’s sliding over. Where it’s really mattered I’ve stuck a cardboard protector on the underside of the shoe to try to limit this.

VB

1 Like

I know a guy with a hammer who does fine work.

:thinking:

My kitchen fitter always uses a jig saw to do this , i also hate them !

Jig saw, get some decent blades, fairly coarse, don’t use the pendulum, stick to straight up and down and cut from the underside. Don’t push back (F’nar) and take it slowly.

A router will give you a better finish, but 40mm of beech will take ages, you’ll need an outside template + an amount for guides. You won’t want to be routing 40mm beech in one go with a bearing cuter.

If you had 10 to do its a template job, but you’d still rough out with jigsaw .

2 Likes

I also think it will a be a time consuming faff with a router and Jigsaw is probably best. A practice by doing a decent dummy cut might be good. Cutting from the underside sounds a bad idea to me?

Cover the area to be cut with masking tape. Mark it, cut from the top, with a jigsaw.
The curves are not difficult. The overlap from the sink will cover it.

on second thoughts for ultimate faff, use a sanding disk to sand the hole out.

2 Likes

I used a cheap jigsaw to try and cut through 36mm of ply worktop

It was shit

1 Like

A good blade is the key.

1 Like

This ^^ :+1: Except cut it from above with a masking tape cover, like Gregg says and get some really good down stroke only blades.
Also take some mass out of the middle first.

2 Likes