Friday, 30 April 2021

Life Down Wattle Lane v2 - The Sanding Man

Sorry  for my absence, for the last 2 weeks I've been a little busy working on my benchtops.  

When we started this project I had foolishly allowed just $1000 for our benchtops. I thought this was plenty as we had only spent about $800 on our macrocarpa benchtop in our last house. This time around I was getting quotes for around $2000. As we are at the pointy end of the project and budget we don't have any spare funds.

So I  had to get my thinking cap on. 

I went down to a local building demolition/recycling company to see what they had on hand. Amongst their treasures of yesteryear I came across some recycled rimu tongue and groove flooring. The normal tongue and groove is quiet thin, too thin for benchtops, but they did have 80 x 40 mm tongue and groove which would suit my needs. I think this thicker timber might have been used for walls or perhaps a 2 storey building where the floor is also the ceiling. Either way it was about to be a benchtop.

Benchtop Receipe:
> Strip off the old varnish.
> Sand back to wood.
> Glue & fasten togther.
> Cut benchtop to size.
> More sanding.
> More sanding with fine sandpaper.
> Stain with Danish oil & reapplying upto 5 coats. 
> Fit benchtop to cabinets.

I'm not finished but the island is finished.

All up, Ive spent under $800, but there has been many hours scraping off the varnish and sanding. So much sanding. 

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