Breadboard end on a worktop

[siggy_7]

I'm gearing up to build and fit a new kitchen. I've bought some full stave worktops (40mm thick, 80mm staves, 620mm wide) from Worktop Express which I think should look the business; when I went to visit their showroom I was quite taken with the way they had fitted the worktops around cookers and sinks. Rather than just leave the end grain exposed, they had a stave fitted across the end of the worktop like a breadboard end which looked really effective.

Question - how would you go about joining this? My first thought was biscuits (I've used these in the past to align worktops with a mason's mitre corner) but given the worktops are real wood and will expand differently due to the mixing of grain direction this didn't seem like a good idea. I'm currently thinking the way to go is a sliding dovetail with a spot of glue on the face side of the worktop, giving a bit of space at the back for differential expansion. All of the worktops will have a wall on the other edge, no island units or peninsulas. Or am I over-thinking this, and should I do something simpler? What size sliding dovetail should I be thinking of using? I have accurate horizontal and vertical router tables, so cutting the joints should be relatively straightforward.

 

[custard]

A breadboard end will end up proud of the worktop when the worktop shrinks. Here's a breadboard end I fitted to a 1.2m wide table (made from kiln dried Oak and assembled in my heated and de-humidified workshop), a year later it's protruding by around 3mm.

I've done loads of these and they pretty much always follow the same pattern, noticeable initial shrinkage but then relatively little seasonal movement. None the less, you absolutely must have a floating joinery solution or your worktop will almost certainly split. I'm cautious about sliding dovetails on tables as the table will be picked up and moved by the breadboard end, and I'm not 100% sure a dovetail will take the strain. Consequently I use hefty loose tenons, one that's fixed in the centre, and then four more floating in over wide mortices out towards the ends. Maybe I'm being too cautious, however a worktop won't be picked up by the breadboard end so I can't think of any objection to a sliding dovetail. Sizing the dovetail isn't a big issue, whatever fits with your tooling will be fine. The only question you've got is where to glue it? Personally I'd suggest gluing at the back or even not gluing it at all, this would then give you option of flushing down the protruding breadboard end after a few months.

Nice idea, good luck!

 

[ED65]

With an enclosed 'breadboard end' how are they allowing for movement? Unless they know when they install it the top is at minimum width. But then when the top expands the ends of the cross-battens would no longer be quite flush to one or both ends.

If you want to protect the end grain from water intrusion there's a much simpler and faster way: coat it in epoxy. Epoxy is 100% waterproof if you apply it thickly and in this application it doesn't need a surface coating to protect it from UV degradation.

Heat the end grain (a hair dryer is sufficient), apply some slow-setting epoxy and as the wood cools it'll draw the epoxy right in. Repeat until there's epoxy building on the surface.

 

[Racers]

I made a table top from worktop off cuts and had to add a breadboard end to make up the length, I routed out a 1/2" slot in the top and breadboard end 30mm deep.
Glued a 60mm wide (well a bit under 60mm) birch ply tong into the breadboard end doweled it into the table with slotted holes in the outside ones, it is strong enough and allows for expansion.
For a worktop I would use a fixed dowel at the back and slotted holes for the rest, you can use different wood for the dowels or put them in from the underneath so they don't show on the top.



Pete

 

[custard]

If you want to protect the end grain from water intrusion there's a much simpler and faster way: coat it in epoxy.

Next to a cooker? Not a good idea. Standard epoxy starts to soften above 60 degrees C. There are specialist epoxies that are more temperature resistant, but I think from memory they also need curing at high temperatures, too much money, too much faff.

 

[siggy_7]

Thanks for the responses, I think I will go sliding dovetail then. My concern with the pegged tenon method (which I think is used traditionally) is that it doesn't offer any mechanical locking to pull the joint tight unless you offset the holes in the mortise and tenon - it all sounds a bit of a faff compared to a sliding dovetail.

Custard - I'm interested that you are concerned by the strength of the joint. I'm thinking here of something akin to the stair housing dovetail joint, which is plenty strong enough to stand on. In this application I have the full 600mm width of the worktop giving the joint strength, I wouldn't have thought there would be any concerns even if there was quite a bit of weight on the end of the worktop were it to be extended beyond the end of a cabinet for example (i.e. a short cantilever).

This is the effect I'm going for (although my worktops are sapele rather than oak). I'm intending to use it either side of the cooker and also on two ends of the worktop (the kitchen is a U-shape off a dining area, and the ends of the U are exposed) - more for the decorative effect than protection of the end grain, which is more of a bonus. I know normally a table top breadboard end is fixed in the middle and allowed to expand each side - my thinking here is to make the fixed point close to the front of the worktop, so any expansion happens at the back where it won't be seen (i.e. not installed hard flush against the wall).

 

[custard]

That'll be fine.

I'm no kitchen expert, but I built my kitchen from scratch with wooden worktops, including next to the sink and the cooker. I was told they'd go black or split, but five years on they're okay. Finished with Osmo.

If I was doing it again I'd certainly think about breadboard ends, it makes for a neater result.

 

[skipdiver]

I've just done a kitchen with oak worktops from WE and i also read this on their website, about fitting breadboard ends. After much consideration, i decided against it and just left a small gap to the range cooker. Been in about 2 months now and so far, they are fine. WE say that without the breadboard, they are liable to split, but i spoke to few kitchen fitters and none of them had done this to wooden worktops, and none of them reported any ongoing problems.

If however you are doing it because you like the effect, then the dovetail idea seems sound.

 

[Beau]

Did my parents kitchen with sliding dovetailed breadboard end. Looks good and has worked well. There is a step on the end due to shrinkage but very slight.

 

[siggy_7]

Thanks all - sliding dovetails it is!