Stupid Cutting Board!

[dale]

LOML is always watching Food Network, and just about everybody on there has a great big wooden cutting board. I thought to myself, "surely I could make one of those." Hah!

It hasn't been all bad. I've learned that this is NOT a plan:

1) Go to wood store and by a 4' piece of hard maple
2) Cut it into strips and glue them
3) Cut the strips so I get end grain showing on top and bottom, glue those
4) Present to wife and proudly watch her use it

First off, I ended up with something roughly 12" x 12", smaller than my quick mental math told me I should have ended up with (forgot a multiplication step). After the first glue up, there were a lot of big gaps between strips, so I decided that the only way to salvage this thing was to cut it up and hope that the trip through the saw would leave me with flat faces. Ummm... that didn't quite work, but it may have been a little better.

Wait... I was saying it wasn't all bad... oh yeah--I've learned that I need to plan better, and I've almost got my low-angle block plane figure out. It may just be a late model Stanley from Lowes, but I like that little thing. I want more! Shooting boards are definitely in my future too, because I don't have room for a jointer.

Anyway... without a planer, do I stand any chance of getting this thing straight enough for gapless glue ups? How much can I expect clamping pressure to close the gaps? I've got 20 strips to try to surface with my little plane, or 38 mating faces. Working in the evenings, it could take me another week to get something that might work, if clamping pressure decides to be my friend. The final dimensions, after removing more wood during the planing process, will be smaller than the original 12" x 12"--which may not be useful for anything at all. Should I throw this one in the trash and try again IF I ever get a planer, or should I continue and try to develop whatever skills I can with what's left?

[kgworkman]

Cutting Boards

Someone a year or so ago had posted some awesome pictures of their whole process for making some really nice cutting boards.

I was just looking, but can't find it. Perhaps someone else knows where it is?

[jackellis]

I've been wrestling with the panel glue-up monster myself. Here are a couple of things to consider:

1) You don't need end grain with hard maple unless that's what you really want. I replaced an old, built-in veneer plywood cutting board in our kitchen with a glued-up hard maple panel and my wife has yet to put a scratch in it. Of course, getting that panel done right was a challenge in itself.

2) You probably have gaps because the board was slightly crooked along the face to begin with. You want to get the board flat along the faces before you start cutting if you didn't do that first.

3) If the gaps are on the order of 1/64th, you can probably make them disappear with enough clamping pressure. The smaller the gap, the better. I'm going to worry forever that my edge glue-ups will come apart as the wood moves because I had small gaps I was unable to fix with a jointer.

4) For edge glue-ups I finally built a set of cauls to keep the panel faces lined up as I apply clamping pressure along the edges. The cauls keep boards from bowing or moving and I used HF aluminum bar clamps to squeeze the boards together. Did a panel with ash a few nights ago that looks almost decent. I'll have to use a cabinet scraper to smooth it out.

5) Using a block plane to fix end grain sounds pretty tedious. How about sanding?

[Alex Franke]

I'd hate to have to throw out 4 feet of hard maple...

Depending upon how think the board is and how big the pieces are now, you might be able to plane the edges with a router and a straight edge, or a router table with a fence set up like a planer.

You could also try sanding the pieces. Glue a sheet of sandpaper to piece of glass (glass is pretty flat unless it's very old) and run the wood across it. If you can't tell where you're sanding, scribble on it with pencil and see what gets sanded off. This'll give you an idea of which parts are high and which are low.

If you want to use a hand plane, make sure it's really sharp and do two edges at a time if it'll fit. Lay two pieces side by side how you would glue them up, then close them together like a book. Turn them both over then plane the edges flat -- using the book analogy, you'll be planing the binding. If you do this, then slight variations will essentailly cancel each other out when you glue them up. Be sure to mark all the pieces so you can remember the order.

12 x 12 isn't useless at all -- I actually need one about that size because it would fit better in more prep areas in our kitchen.

[dale]

Thanks for the tips, guys. The sandpaper just might do the trick. I cleaned up the first five pieces I had started, and that went fairly quick. The faces between five and six, though, were pretty nasty. If I can get those tomorrow I just might try to finish this thing.

[Ken Massingale]

There's more fun ahead when you do the glue up and the pieces start slipping and sliding away!
I'm on the side of the isle that believes although end grain boards are best, long grain cutting boards work fine for normal home use. I've had several of these in use at family and friends homes and they are performing well, no problems with grain tearing or contamination.
They are still not a walk in the park to make, but are less tedious than end grain ones.
These are Red Oak/Walnut
ken

[Ken Weaver]

Over the 2006 holidays I tried my first effort at some cheese and cutting boards as gifts for the kids. Used some red oak I had left over. The lessons learned here included horsing my plunge router around. This was the first project where I used the plunge base. I discovered that it takes a lot of practice to use this thing right. Every one of the boards had some problem where I lost control. So - next time I do this, I hope it will be better. I didn't even attempt the end glue thingy - they've done fine for home use as Ken notes.

[ejs1097]

Norm made a butcher block top with end grain before. He had some trick to it. Of course the plans are available.

An End grain butcher block can be very tricky as you found out. I've made edge grain blocks in the past which are much easier.

Good luck.

[LYU370]

Yeah, the end grain boards are a lot of work. I've made 4 or 5 of them and wouldn't even try one without a jointer and planer.

[Alex Franke]

BTW, here's the end grain board I made for my wife for this past Christmas. It's scrap cherry, walnut, and maple. Let me know if you want any details...

[ironhat]

Nice cuttingboards Ken M. Did you use templates and a pattern bit?

[Ken Massingale]

Nice cuttingboards Ken M. Did you use templates and a pattern bit?

Thanks, http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...=cutting+board