I cut a opening in the wall between my kitchen and living room. It’s about four and a half feet wide by one and a half foot tall. The wall is just two by four and one half inch sheet rock on both sides. I’m using three quarter inch cabinet grade oak plywood, with solid oak edge banding for the sides and top, and am planning to use three quarter inch solid white oak for the shelf itself. The shelf will be six and a half inches wide, by four and a half feet long. I have a piece of wood with some fairly interesting figure in it that is pretty straight, but has very slight cupping towards one end which I think I can remove by passing it through the planer a couple of times. Should I rip this piece of wood, joint it and do a glue up? and if so, how many pieces should i rip it into (I.E. two or three?) or do you think it would be OK to leave it and mount it in one piece as is (after planeing it etc) ? Thank you
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If you have a board starting at 3/4" thick, and pass through a planer to remove a cupping you can see, you will have a pretty thin board in the end--certainly less thick than the frame for the opening. Even if you rip, joint and re-glue you will have a less than 3/4" board. Personally I'd be happier with a bit more substantial shelf--at least a full inch thick or even 1 1/2", and I'd also make it a bit wider so putting a bowl of munchies or a couple of drinks on it wouldn't feel precarious. That could certainly be a single board. To me one wider board would look nicer.
Hi! thanks for the input. i've been setting here visuallizing , and I appreciate your opinion. I'm going to run down to rockler, or crosscut woods and pick up a plank. Thicker and wider will be much nicer looking. Thanks again.
If you run the board through the planer as is, you will end up with a thinner board than you need for the shelf. It is usually best to rip the board down the middle, then plane it. Then you will not have to plane near as much off. Of course it all depends how much cup is in the wood. Generally, just planing a piece of wood with a cup in it will not take the cup out of it. The best way is to joint one face to get it flat, then plane the other face. If your jointer is not wide enough for the board, then you can rip it in half and joint both pieces seperately, then run through the planer and make sure they are the same thickness, joint the edges and glue back up the same exact way they were and you will not be able to tell they are 2 boards. Just make sure you mark them after cutting so you will not forget which way they go back together. As long as you are setting this shelf on top of the 2X4's, even if it is not quite 3/4" thick, it should have enough support with the 2x's. It might also be best to put down a piece of that plywood over the 2X's then add the shelf. Hope this helps.
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