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Fireplace topped

I had previously made rough blanks for the shelf tops but since you can never be sure that everything in such a large unit will end up exactly straight I waited until the last minute before final trimming them. A simple template allowed me to fit for the lengths, angles and the post cutout; to my amazement both tops came out within 1/32” of square and parallel.
The easy way to trim blanks is with a track saw and the Festool made short work of it all. Yes, you could do it with a handsaw and sandpaper but why suffer? Laminating the Formica went quickly enough and trimming it to size is easy, if messy. The trickiest part always seems to be trimming the edge trim and that meant more mess, a modicum of swearing and eventually, success.

IMG_0148
Kitchen view
IMG_0146
Living room view

All that is left to do is some trim around the hearth shelves at the bottom and the mantel shelves above. We’re trying to get some big hunky chunks of live edge Fir for the latter but my usual supplier managed to sell all of the large stack that was in stock just last week. Dang!