Posted By Andy on 05 Dec 2008 01:12 AM
Just saw this thread again.
Nice work Johnny. Looks like a lot of preplanning before you even started fabricating.
Couple thoughts. The cooktop in that location is the most difficult solid surface installation to get good support. Doing the steel looks like a great way but I am sure it cost extra to do something like that.
I notice the small section at the sink. Not a lot of room for the paralign seam clamps so you must have used something else to pull the seam.
Thanks, Andy.
Yes it does involve a lot of pre planning. I aimed for having everything pre fit from the shop. I would like to claim that I was 100% successful but, alas, I left the easy button at home. one of the recpt. cut outs ended up 1" too low. Ever burn an inch on the tape measure while laying out?
. Also, in two places I needed to sand off about 1/16" from the height of the splash. The faceframe of the upper cabinet hang lower than the back of the cabinet where I took my measurement and this prevented me from being able to slide the counter top into place.
I do charge extra for the steel frame. It in itself requires some pre planning. Where and how will it be fastened and will it interfere with seam straps or cooktop high strength corner blocks need to be considered. The brackets that have been posted on here before won't always lend themseves to every situation. I have an area in my shop for metal fab and I build the frames myself. It seems faster than trying to relay the necessary info for someone else to fab it. Then spend the time to go pick it up.
The area at the sink would be to narrow for paralign clamps, Also I don't have a set.
Placing the seams where they were meant less seam to sand in the verticle position and In this case it was necessary for the seams to be near the sink. The dishwasher was to the immediate left of the sink and the seams could not be in the full height splash area or I wouldn't be able to get the sink section in with the sink section attached. I also like to place the seaames near the sink so that I don't have as mush surface deck to blend in when finishing the seam.
I have fashioned a hold down clamp that I hot melt to the counter top on the same side as the shop installed reinforcement strap. This will push the top down into the adhesive on the strap. I hot melt a 2"x 2" block to the other side (sink side), this allows me to use a parallel clamp to pull the seam together.
Johnny C
