I am building a new house and want to use an old chalk board as countertop material – looking for any ideas as to how to adhere it, what to cut it with, etc.
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is it slate? The oldschool house I was restoring was not slate..it was black painted wood, I have also seen a type of masonite used.
if it is slate, cut it with a diamond blade ina circsaw, or an abrasive blade..I prefer diamond.
Glue it to a substrate of ply. with any type of gorilla glue ya like. Edges? maybe a wood edge? or if yer good a self edge could be done.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
thanks for the advice - the actual board is still up in new hampshire, so i won't know for sure what the material is until i get a chance to go up there and salvage it. any ideas on what to finish it with? something matte, nothing shiny.
You would definately want to set it in some type of bedding material because of the uneveness of the backside. A thin layer of thinset with admix would work well. That would also stick the slate to the plywood sub-top, which would solve the problem of keeping the slate in place.
There are dry-cut diamond blades available. In fact, if the package does not say "wet cut" then it can be used dry.
Seal it with a good quality stone sealer. Go to a regular tile store.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Mineral oil is often recommended as a finish for slate or soapstone. Neither of these is as porous as granite so a sealer is not mandatory like it would be for granite.
playing in the dirt in beautiful East Tennessee, zone 6B
I have seen this done. One board made up an island. Looked very nice.
One problem they encountered was that the backside was not flat, so it took some work to get it level.
I'm also planning a slate chalkboard countertop.
The 2003 Kitchen & Bath issue (FHB #159) had one in it that looked great.
He left the edges exposed which looked awesome but seems risky with slate.
I was thinking a wood edge would be safer.
Would appreciate advice on cutting and mounting....
Regarding cutting - is a diamond blade in a circular saw okay? I was wondering if it would need to be water cooled like a tile saw. I need to rip some long (5 ft) lengths so if the circ saw would work that would be great.
Regarding the back being uneven and that making it hard to level - would it make sense to set the slate in some sort of mortar / thinset to help compensate for the irregularity of the side that was not honed? I think the guy in the article mentioned above worked on it with a beltsander to smooth the back but said it was a dusty PITA.
I got my old slate boards at auction.
One lot was a set of 4 slate boards and 3 non slate boards. Winning bid was a dollar.
Later, I won a second set of 5 slate boards and 2 non slate boards- also for a dollar.
I now have over 140 sq ft of slate - all for 2 bucks.
There were pencil sharpeners mounted to a couple of the boards which were also nice additions to my shop.
As you can see from my sig - I wandered over from the gardening forum....
playing in the dirt in beautiful East Tennessee, zone 6B
I don't know.......convince me.
A chalk board for a countertop would look very nice indeed. But the thought of trying to pick up a dime off of that counter is sending shivers up my spine? No?
I promise not to run my nails along the countertop. :-)
For a breakdown on the pros and cons of stone countertops (granite, slate, soapstone), see:
http://www.taunton.com/inspiredhouse/pages/ih00001_03.asp
There are also links to other parts of the same article discussing other tops - wood, metal, laminates, concrete, etc.....
playing in the dirt in beautiful East Tennessee, zone 6B