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Thread: Making an end grain cutting board

  1. #16
    I've made a few, and ran them all through my planer without problems. That was before I learned not to do that. I got lucky, I guess. Next time I will use a belt sander and ROS.

    As to finishing, I agree with the mineral oil/parafin wax mixture. That's what I have used on all my cutting boards for years. Works well.

  2. #17
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    Has anybody ever tried leveling on a router table by raising a surfacing bit slightly and sliding the board around over it?

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe Spear View Post
    Has anybody ever tried leveling on a router table by raising a surfacing bit slightly and sliding the board around over it?
    Interesting thought. Not impossible, but not as easy as it sounds. Your table would have to have an "outfeed" platform of some sort, some type of "shim" to keep the cutting board at the correct height as you remove material, much like the split tables of a jointer.

  4. #19
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    I forgot about the shimming aspect. But you could attach rails to two parallel edges of the board to keep it level, not unlike the jig you would make for a handheld router. You could take a sheet of plywood, attach side rails of the proper thickness (a hair and a half less than the cutting board thickness), hot-glue or double-stick tape the cutting board to it, flip it over, and rout away. And my router table is huge, with enough space before, after, and to the sides of the bit handle a board about 2 1/2 feet square.

  5. #20
    If you've got a light weight planer then your options are limited. I've passed several dozen hard maple cutting boards over my jointer and through my planer. Fresh knives are critical as is leaving plenty of extra stock on the ends to allow for the inevitable blow out. I take off about .010 per pass to keep things safe and effective.

    The problem with sanding cutting boards is that you imbed the abrasive grit in the board and that's gross for two reasons, one you end up serving and ingesting this grit and two it is not great for your fine kitchen knives. If this is the only process that you can use then you have little choice. should you be passing your cutting board through a drum sander be prepared to figure out grit, speed and depth of cut to eliminate the burning which happens all too easily.

  6. #21
    If you are making one from new stock and not from scrap, consider using 8/4 stock. It takes 1/2 the glue ups to make the same size board.

    The lesson I learned on my last board is to ensure that all of the pieces fit tightly together without clamping pressure. If you try to close a gap or make something flat with clamping pressure you'll see that gap again a few months down the road.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ben Hatcher View Post
    If you are making one from new stock and not from scrap, consider using 8/4 stock. It takes 1/2 the glue ups to make the same size board.

    The lesson I learned on my last board is to ensure that all of the pieces fit tightly together without clamping pressure. If you try to close a gap or make something flat with clamping pressure you'll see that gap again a few months down the road.
    All the pieces? In it's simplest form making an end grain board is no more difficult than making an edge grain one except you do it twice. You start out making an edge grain cutting board. You joint/plane that smooth and then crosscut off strips from it as thick as you want the end grain board to be. Then you turn those strips up on end and glue them together. You never have to work with individual pieces.

  8. #23
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    Hey Mike, if you are ever in the Escondido area, let me know and we can run them through the drum sander.

    I made some in walnut and sold them. Made a trio in maple and I use them every day.

    Brian
    Veni Vidi Vendi Vente! I came, I saw, I bought a large coffee!

  9. #24
    This is a good thread. Cutting boards are so simple to get right...and also simple to get wrong. I need to build a couple too so I'm enjoying this

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Kent View Post
    Hey Mike, if you are ever in the Escondido area, let me know and we can run them through the drum sander.

    I made some in walnut and sold them. Made a trio in maple and I use them every day.

    Brian
    Thanks, Brian. I'm not planning to start that project for a while but I'll check with you when I do.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  11. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by John TenEyck View Post
    All the pieces? In it's simplest form making an end grain board is no more difficult than making an edge grain one except you do it twice. You start out making an edge grain cutting board. You joint/plane that smooth and then crosscut off strips from it as thick as you want the end grain board to be. Then you turn those strips up on end and glue them together. You never have to work with individual pieces.
    I'm quite aware of the technique. All of the pieces = all of those crosscut strips. If you make a large board as I did, there are quite a lot of them.

  12. #27
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    Jan 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kent A Bathurst View Post
    Be sure to alternate grain direction on adjacent blocks, or - over time - the blocks will delaminate. I read this in the exact week that a couple 12 - 18 month old boards started to delam....right where the block's grain were aligned impropery [improperly per the article
    Kent, or someone else, you're going to have to explain this one to me.

    Are you saying, that if you're looking at the top of the board, you want the rings to look like this: ()() and not this: ((()))

  13. #28
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    Dave, nice looking pattern / design. Next time though, if there is a next time, be sure to use a straight, relatively wide board as a reference edge between the clamp on one side and your glue up stack. The wide board will help ensure that the glue up stays straight and is not distorted into a snaky shape due to clamping pressure. The same goes for the first few rows of the finished cutting board.

  14. #29
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    Apr 2010
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    I made some last Christmas. Walnut and Maple and it went really smoothly. My glue up when better than I could have hoped for and the ROS did the trick for a mild flattening and then scrapers to finish. I did the Wood Whisperer design.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  15. #30
    OK, I will fess up. I made a bunch of them and (wait for it) sent them through the planer. It worked kinda fine. First, I took very small bites, and second, it chipped off the ends quite a bit. I just sawed the boards a 1/4 inch shorter after I was done, and then finished them up with a ROS. They came out fine. I did do my first one with a hand plane. That also worked, but maple end grain is a lot of work to plane!

    I did figure out, that to get the pattern to line up well it was easiest to put the board together in several glue ups. I would glue three strips together at a time, and just keep building up until I had the whole board. That way I had plenty of time and focus to get things lined up and avoid the unfortunate slippage during clamping.

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