On 22 Nov, 18:40, Andy Dingley wrote:
On 22 Nov, 16:55, ado wrote:

I have 3 lengths of a wooden worktop that needs to be joined together
in a U shape.

What's "wood" in this context?

If you mean a man-made board, then do it with either a big router in a
jig, or do it with an edge jointer.

If they're a rounded edge (like the man-mades) then use the jig and
semi-mitre the rounded edges.

If they're square-edge and a simple butt-joint will do you, then form
the edge square with a floor-standing jointer planer, or else a hand-
held manual plane. As worktops are big and heavy, then it's easier to
take the cutter to the job. I can't imagine the as-sawn edge would be
too clean, but a cabinet saw or bandsaw ought to be OK, even though a
hand-held jigsaw would be iffy. You're only bolting it though, not
looking for glue-up grade jointing.

If it's natural wood, then you need to think again about the design.
Moisture shrinkage or expansion across the grain sounds like it's
going to scupper your plans here unless you're careful - it sounds
like you've design a long cross-grained joint.

If you read up on "breadboard ends" then you might see how to do it
properly with a sliding joint, but it's non-trivial. (BTW - a biscuit
jointer makes a great portable shaper for this job)

I was considering using a circular saw

Yes, well stop that right now. You're really asking for trouble that
way, from surface chipping if nothing else.

Hi

It is simple square end solid wood beech worktops as sold by
ikea,wickes & b&q. They look like they are comprised of loads of
strips of wood compressed together. I was going to use the circular
saw to cut most of excess wood off and then use a router to take the
last few mm of. Then butt join them together. Since they are square
edge I was thinking this would produce as smooth/seemless a join as
using a WT jig to create a male and female joins and joining them that
way. I was wondering has anyone any thoughts/experience on this.

Also the way the worktops will be layed out is the left and right
worktops will go to the back wall and a 3rd piece would join these in
the middle to form a U. Am I right in thinking that once I leave a 5mm
gap where the worktops meet the walls then It should cope with any
expansions?

Cheers
A