Roll Around Cart Top - Part II

Wednesday May 8

Went to Menard’s and bought a gallon of Titebond III and some clear maple to act as a band board. I bought 1X2 and it is approx 1/16” higher (in the 2” dimension) than the substrate + flooring stack!!! I love it when a plan comes together!

Anyway, back to the last three courses of flooring:

 

I first re-drilled the holes for the second set of screws (that had broken into the grooves yesterday). I drilled all but the first and last course at an angle to try to keep the boards drawn together. I suppose once the glue is fully set, I should be able to remove some or all of these screws

Applying glue for fourth course. The acid brushes work great and allow proper wetting of all the tongue and groove surfaces that need it.

Once again, the wood flooring doesn’t marry intimately with the substrate, so I used the “spring clamp” using some scrap 2X6 and a couple of 5” C-clamps. Once the screws are tightened, the clamp can be removed.

Here’s a wider view of the “spring clamp” in place. I am able to pick up this piece and move it but am not sure what I’ll do with the island or L-shaped counter top.

 

The sixth and final course is applied and pressure clamped with C-clamps and edge clamped with squeeze clamps except one pesky place that needed a little extra squeeze from a pipe clamp.

I use light clamping squeeze clamps for most of the work but employ the extra oomph that a pipe clamp can give if I have a seam that is not quite married completely (glue oozing). The light clamps have built in rubber pads but the pipe clamps require press blocks. To keep from gluing these to the piece accidentally, I use old plastic grocery bags as release or “slip” sheets.

The edges of the flooring and substrate do not align perfectly (they did during the dry layup), so either the clamps skewed the wood or I didn’t get the first course perfect. No big deal – I’ll use the hand power saw with a guide piece to trim the edges before adding the edge band.

Tomorrow – Edge band cutting and application.