Will THIS cross grain work in a planer?

[Patrick Irish]

Router chose to toss a board I was making across the room. I'm repairing it now and in order to keep it 20" long I need to add a piece of wood on the end.

The pencil in the picture shows it.

Will this go through a 13" planer ok with light passes? I can cut and separately plane the cross grain piece as close as possible but assume after glue up there will be a small difference in height.

I do have a piece running with the grain the full length. I can also pre-plane the oak gross grain piece about 1/32" below the board and creep up on it after glue up.

Lastly, i have the option of using walnut or cherry instead of oak for the cross piece. The oak just matches more I feel.

[J.R. Rutter]

Yes, but...

I would not glue that end piece on cross-grain like that. The main board will shrink and expand at 2x the rate and amount as the end cap and the glue will fail eventually.

[Bradley Gray]

+1. Make the strip so the grain runs the other way.

[Randy Heinemann]

Is there a reason other that it's the length you want it that it has to be 20"? Two problems I see with doing what you asked about-
1. If you are thinking about even planing a tiny amount off the cross piece after glue up I wouldn't. It might be OK, but it also might cause the surface to chip. I think it's an unknown and wouldn't recommend it.
2. If you need to glue the crosspiece on, I don't think it will hold with just glue because you are gluing end grain to edge grain. You should probably join the cross piece to the other one by using dowels or a stopped spline (so it doesn't go through to the outer edge). You could also use Dominos if you have a Festool Domino joiner.

[Patrick Irish]

+1. Make the strip so the grain runs the other way.

I'm not following what the 'other way' would be. Rotating that oak strip still has it going cross/perpendicular to grain of the board. I thought about cutting about (9) 1.5" pieces and gluing them together facing the current grain. Don't think I'd like the look having all those glue lines.

Is there a reason other that it's the length you want it that it has to be 20"? Two problems I see with doing what you asked about-
1. If you are thinking about even planing a tiny amount off the cross piece after glue up I wouldn't. It might be OK, but it also might cause the surface to chip. I think it's an unknown and wouldn't recommend it.
2. If you need to glue the crosspiece on, I don't think it will hold with just glue because you are gluing end grain to edge grain. You should probably join the cross piece to the other one by using dowels or a stopped spline (so it doesn't go through to the outer edge). You could also use Dominos if you have a Festool Domino joiner.

Dowels would work, I can do that. Or an internal spline.

I forgot to add that once dry, I'm adding a dovetail feet underneath like the pic below shows. Once glued in, this will prevent the end piece from moving as well.

[Jim Becker]

Unless you join that piece to the larger construction with joinery that allows movement, the whole thing will be at risk of cracking with seasonal wood movement.

[Eric Rimel]

Even if you add joinery that allows for seasonal wood movement and it stays in one piece, the joint can't be glued all the way. What you end up with is a nice place for bacteria.

What you have now is a nice 18" cutting board. If I had to have a 20" cutting board, I'd go buy some more material.

Open pore woods like oak are also not ideal for a cutting board.

[Patrick Irish]

Unless you join that piece to the larger construction with joinery that allows movement, the whole thing will be at risk of cracking with seasonal wood movement.

Even if you add joinery that allows for seasonal wood movement and it stays in one piece, the joint can't be glued all the way. What you end up with is a nice place for bacteria.

What you have now is a nice 18" cutting board. If I had to have a 20" cutting board, I'd go buy some more material.

Open pore woods like oak are also not ideal for a cutting board.

How is adding a 2" piece cross grain any different than making an end grain board via strips? Made several and none have moved and crack if oiled few times a year or monthly if used a lot.

Is the difference in this method the end grain is the actual mating surface? Whereas on an endgrain board, the strips glued together are not end grain?

I can use a 2" piece of walnut or cherry instead. Figured it's on the edge with most activity being used in the center of the board.

[Eric Rimel]

Is the difference in this method the end grain is the actual mating surface? Whereas on an endgrain board, the strips glued together are not end grain?

Exactly. The edge glued portion will expand at a different rate than the piece you want to glue to its end.

[Keith Westfall]

Cross grain will go through the planner, but the chips are huge! If you have a dust collector it may plug it, so just be aware. Take small cuts. I've never had anything chip, but maybe others have a different experience.

[Bill Dufour]

I would add the piece as a breadboard end. Glue and screw in the center. screws only near the ends. Slots so the wood can slide past the screws. oval plugs to hide the end screws oval or round plug for center. I like the Greene & Greene design with the screws parallel to the flat surface. It allows use of longer screws for strength.
Why all this talk about food and bacteria? Is this for a cutting board? if so breadboard end is not recommended for sanitation reasons.
Bill D

[J.R. Rutter]

To go a little off the topic of planing edge grain: One other fun way to get the extra length AND keep it sanitary AND keep it from grenading would be to add a strip to the width, slice the whole board diagonally, slide along the diagonal to add the length and glue it back together. The strips will be offset, but could be a nice design element...

[John A langley]

Make a smaller board out of that one and start over

[Jerry Miner]

How is adding a 2" piece cross grain any different than making an end grain board via strips? .

Patrick-- I think you are missing the fundamental issue regarding wood movement:

Movement occurs mostly in the tangential direction (along the growth rings)
Movement occurs at about half that rate in the radial direction (from the center of the tree to the outer ring)
Movement occurs very little--if at all-- in the longitudinal direction (along the length/height of the tree)

In your photo, you have a narrow piece running across the end of a glued-up panel. The main panel will move (expand/shrink) along its width, but that direction is along the LENGTH of the added piece. This piece will not move in that direction (longitudinal for this piece) so gluing it to the panel will create a classic cross-grain conflict, which will likely result in either glue joint failure or splitting of the main panel (or both).

This is different from an all-end-grain cutting board, where all the pieces have the long grain running in the same direction (vertically through the board).

HTH

[Patrick Irish]

Totally understand now. Spent sometime today researching and looking at my design. I initially was going to use dowels and glue and have the dovetail feet under the cross grain piece BUT then it hit me that the joint won't really be supported.

I scrapped that idea BUT want to do breadboard ends now.

I'm in Bay Area NorCal and have several boards that haven't moved to my young eyes. I thought about a simple slot but and matching thickness tenon with glue.

I've read that only glue goes in the center of a breadboard. I can see that being necessary for a large table but a 14" cutting board 1.5" thick, is it really gonna move that much in my neck of the woods?