wooden sink

[Thehardway]

Have any of you ever made a wooden sink bowl?  I am having a heck of a time trying to find a kitchen sink bowl that will fit the way i want it into the corner of my kitchen countertop and am considering the possibility of making one out of wood and then sealing it up with glass and resin.  I don't know why it wouldn't work but don't want to go to all the effort if there is a good reason not to.  I found some made of teak that retail for $2700 but that is a little bit out of my budget,  I'm looking to build one for $27 out of oak  ;D 

My biggest reservation is how it will respond to hot and cold water temp changes.  Don't want it clouding up under the finish everytime the wife drains some hot water after boiling taters.

[beenthere]

Hey, for $27 it is worth a try to see if it works. ;)

No obvious reason that comes to mind. I've seen wood sinks, but no idea how long the finish will last (or even what finish was used).

The wood will take the heat, but whether the finish will take it would be the question.

[frwinks]

funny you bring this up..I've been researching into making a wooden soaker tub for our ensuite since I have a feelin' once I'm done with this place, every single bone in my body will need some healin' :D
Check out the below site for some great info on type of joints, technique and sealants used.  For a kitchen sink some of the natural sealants might not work, since all the abuse a kitchen sink is exposed to, but I'm sure you'll find some great info  :P
http://www.bartokdesign.com/japan/daiku_blog/ 
keep us posted on your progress, my tub project is prolly a couple of years away still at the pace I'm going :

[fishpharmer]

A good epoxy resin should work for a sink.  Having built small boats and numerous fish tanks (several hundred gallon capacity) with plywood and epoxy, the combination has proven very durable.  The water temperature usually didn't change rapidly, so I cannot help there, a supplier should be able to tell you. 

Looking forward to pictures of your sink.

[Holmes]

 You know wood barrels can hold water and liquor why not make a half barrel into a sink.  It would not need any finish.

[D L Bahler]

When I first read the title, I did not envision a built-up sink, but rather a carved sink.
For me it brought immediately to mind the large hollowed-out troughs I see a lot in the Alps used to feed, but also to hold water.

It would be hard to make sure, but these troughs last generations.

For something like a sink, I think a very nice kitchen sink could be made from a large burl, or carved out of a half-log section with attached sides.

[beenthere]

As long as the sink doesn't go dry and the wood dries out. The whiskey barrels will leak soon as they go dry. Same with a water trough, I suspect as it would crack open.

[wdncno]

Just make sure that  the epoxy is compatable with oak.  I know from boatbuilding that oak is a difficult wood when it comes to glues.

[davidv]

I thibk the epoxy resin/ fiberglass resin would work for oak, knifemakes use the stuff layered with canvas or denim to make scales.

[upnort16]

Wood is commonly used as forms for fiberglass. Design whatever shape you'd like, build a wooden model, and lay fiberglass fabric/resin. leave the wood frame inside for weight and stiffness or build the form in such a manner as to allow the 'glass to be removed. Tinting the resin is possible and some sanding will make a smooth custom sink. I have been looking into making a sink out of concrete to match the concrete counters. Also very similar and you can design a sink of your choice. Although it would look good in some applications, wood is not the design feature in this project. You can build your wooden sink and layer clear epoxy (such as used in bar tops) and it will never split, warp or decay. Top quality resins or epoxies mix a bit thin but layer very clear with out air pockets. Inexpensive stuff will yellow and tiny air bubbles occur often, but could be an interesting design feature.  However you decide, keep us posted with a pic or two please. Have fun!

[shelbycharger400]

 smiley_inspector

followin the thread

[Brad_bb]

It also sounds like concrete is an alternative for a custom job like this.  If you familiarize yourself with the materials, it looks like you can get some great finsihes, colors, and effects from concrete.  Design the forms yourself and give it a go.

[Thehardway]

 

 

Here is a picture of the kitchen taken last week.  Over the weekend we installed all of the appliances. You can see the corner where the sink will go.  You all have given me some great ideas. I like the idea of carving the sink out of a solid piece but it will take more time than I have to get it all done.  I am going to settle for a cheap stainless single bowl sink for now just to get past inspections and then hopefully come back later with a wooden sink maybe using the carved burl idea,  and do a glass resin finish.  That should look awesome.  I considered the concrete idea once before but I am really tired of working with concrete at this point.  I would like to get away from cement dust and back into sawdust ;D

We are almost complete on the kitchen, waiting for the exhuast fan to come in so we can make the wall penetration and hang the hood over the cooktop.  Will take another picture tonight.  I finished the island countertop over the weekend, it is oak semi-trailer flooring i bought cheap in 12"x 8" boards planed and then glued up 4 of them side by side.   I think it turned out nice and this stuff is so hard you can use it as an anvil.  should make a pretty durable table top.  Cabinets are shaker style rustic hickory and all other butcherblock countertops are maple.

[beenthere]

I finished the island countertop over the weekend, it is oak semi-trailer flooring i bought cheap in 12"x 8" boards planed and then glued up 4 of them side by side.

I'm curious about the dimensions.... or  is 8" really 8'  ??

What was the thickness?

[Thehardway]

Oops, the actual dimension was 1-1/2" X 12" X 8'   not 8"....  I ended up paying 15.00 per board for them.

[sap retreiver]

That is a kitchen!  My first thought was  a carved bowl also. Quality takes time. Good luck

[Brad_bb]

I'm questioning how it would stand up to dishes being droped etc?  That's why I like stainless.

[D L Bahler]

The difficulty with a carved piece is keeping it from splitting. Here knowing your wood is important. And I don't know if its possible to just tell how to do it over the internet

I'd recommend you leave it very stout for strength, and make it of some dense wood -like maple or cherry. This way you won't dent it. Seal it with a very nice layer of probably an epoxy finish, and really seal up the drain hole area good.
And something that might be easily overlooked, you have to seal both sides, not just the inside of the sink basin. The outside part has to be just as sealed to keep expansion and contraction equal all around, or else it will split to pieces.

If you would use a cherry burl, you will have some nice black streaks running through it. But I will warn you, it won't be an easy job! It would help to use a forstner bit or some such to hog out most of the material first -or if you are brave you could burn it out like a canoe! ;D

[Thehardway]

a local woodworker who turns bowls told me to put blocks for tuning in a trash bag and tie them up.  He said this helps prevent end splits and checks.  I don't know if this would work with a piece the size I will need or not.  I could probably hog out the bulk of the waste using my chainsaw.

I will be sure to seal both side thoroughly.

[shelbycharger400]

i think...  hog it out,  but leave it at least 1 to 2 inches thick,  have all corners rounded heavy , inside and out just like a steel sink.   do put it in the clear trash bag,  taking it out, turning the bag inside out, resealing it,  doing this several times a week for a long time.

[Thehardway]

Here is an updated picture of the island countertop/table tskrn last night.  I now have 3 coats of spar urethane on it.  I think one more will do.  Then a light sanding with 220 to take of the high gloss sheen.  The maple countertops we plan to oil with coconut oil and then top off with beeswax.

[Sprucegum]

Since you must seal and epoxy both sides - any cracks or splits should not bother you. Just fill them with a matching (or contrasting) mix of sawdust and epoxy. West System epoxy like canoe builders use is almost bullet proof. I know, my canoe flew off the truck, bounced off the holiday trailer, and went through a barbed wire fence with very little damage to the finish. The carrying yoke did rip out though  :(

[Melcher]

Not sure if anyone still pays attention to this old posting or not, but I thought I would share my recent experience with a wooden sink.  I have a small cabin in the mountains, and while I love the place, the prior owner remodeled the bathroom and used the standard Lowes/Home Depot vanity.  I decided I was going to replace the vanity with a large one piece wooden sink that I could anchor to the wall to and not have any supports below, and while this project is still in progress, I plan on having it finished over Christmas of this year. 

Anyway, back to the actual sink itself.  I got my hands on some recycled redwood, milled it down to varying thicknesses to get rid of the rot, and laminated them all together to form a block roughly 38"x22"x7".  I then carved the sink bowl out and installed the front of the bowl.  I left the front off during the initial carving because I wanted the bowl to keep the hand worked look and the front to be completely smooth.  Once I installed the front I finished the hand carving on the inside of the bowl, and spend countless hours hand sanding the tears from the gouge and filler. 

I don't have any pictures on this computer of the finished product, but I will get them off the computer at the cabin if anyone is interested or still looks at this post.  However, the way that I did finish the bowl was to first coat the bowl with a water/white glue mix to stabilize and keep the natural colors and character of the wood.  I then encased the whole bowl (top, bottom, sides, drain, etc.) with West System Epoxy.  The bowl got a total of 7 coats of epoxy because I wanted that to be smooth and needed to fill in all the tooling marks to make it level, and the flat areas all received 3 heavy coats.  Once the epoxy was set I sprayed with four coats of exterior varnish to build a little bit of a protective layer between the epoxy and what abuse the bowl may get. 

As I said before, I have not installed yet, so I can't say this is the best method, but I did spend probably a total of 20 hours researching and talking with people to figure a system I was comfortable with.

Here are a couple of pictures of the progress. 



 



 

[Jim_Rogers]

Nice job thanks for posting.

And welcome.

Jim Rogers

[Jeff]

Welcome to the forum. Outstanding!