Had an old buddy from college recently contact me to commission a cutting board for his wife’s birthday. He requested that it be mostly walnut, and I added in a little maple for some nice clean contrasting lines. I tend to put feet on my cutting boards, but he did not want them, so I included a pad to put under the board to hold it in-place while in use (pictured in the first photo).

Wood Species: Walnut and Hard Maple
Dimensions: 15-1/4”x11”x1-1/8”
Weight: 4-pounds, 6-ounces
Style: Edge Grain Cutting Board, Bookmatched
Glue: Titebond III
Finish: 6-coats mineral oil, followed by Howard’s Butcher Block Conditioner which he will continue to apply after receiving the board
Sanding: Up to 220-grit
Routered: Finger holds and edges rounded over using router, then hand sanded

I began this project a couple of years ago, and decided to finish it for a Christmas gift this year. This was built to fit a specific location in a family member’s house, just above her desk area, above the counter she uses as a desk and below the cabinets. I decided to take the first couple of photos on our vintage Christmas tablecloth since it’s a Christmas present.

I began by constructing the frame, using half lap joints at the 4-corners. I did not wrap the grain, but instead used 2-different pieces of walnut, ripped in half. The top and bottom of the board are one piece, while the left and right sides are another piece. Then I used the router and a chisel to add the rabbet to receive the plywood backing, which is countersunk 3/64” below the frame. I also used a roundover bit along the outside edge of the frame.

I applied 5-coats of General Finishes Arm R Seal Satin to the walnut frame before gluing in the plywood substrate. The back of the plywood received 3-coats of Arm R Seal. The frame also received several applications of Renaissance Wax before I applied the light painter’s tape to help avoid any contact cement getting on the walnut during application.

I used Titebond Post-Forming Neoprene Plus Contact Cement to adhere the corks. I’d highly recommend this contact cement for indoor use. I felt safe using this in my basement, without needing a respirator. Before gluing in the corks, I did a dry fit to make sure I had the spacing correct, as well as generating a seemingly random, yet balanced layout of the corks. Each cork was cut on the bandsaw, removing a portion of the back side to allow for a large and flat glue surface. I ended up needing 256-whole corks and 32-partial corks to fill-in the partial ends of the running bond pattern. The corks sit slightly proud of the walnut frame, allowing for any potential papers or pictures that are stuck to the board to overlap the frame, without any interference. There is a little bit of crookedness on one or two columns of corks, but overall, I’m fairly happy with the layout. I did not add any hardware to hang the board on the wall, as I thought it would be best if the recipient makes that decision.

Dimensions: 32” wide, by 20” tall, walnut frame is 2-5/16” wide
Weight: 9-pounds, 6-ounces
Wood: 4/4 Walnut for the frame @ 13/16” thick, 1/4” MDF core red oak plywood for the center substrate
Glue: Titebond III for the half lap joints and gluing the plywood into the walnut frame, Titebond Post-Forming Neoprene Plus Contact Cement to adhere the corks
Corks: 256-whole corks, 32-half corks cut to fill running bond ends, cut on bandsaw
Sanded: Up to 220-grit
Finish: 5-coats General Finishes Arm R Seal Satin, followed by several coats of Renaissance Wax

I’d like to wish all my fellow LJs a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is a project I cranked-out yesterday. We were going over to friends’ house for dinner, and they were serving 24-hour roasted pork shoulder, so I thought this would be an appropriate gift to bring along.

I free-handed the image onto the cherry, then cut it out on the bandsaw, sanded it, branded it, then applied several coats of mineral oil, followed by a couple of coats of George’s Club House Wax (beeswax and mineral oil).

Not a complex project, and very straightforward, this was, nonetheless gratifying, as I did it all in a day. Haven’t spent any time in the shop in months, so this was a nice way to get back in and use a few tools. I sure do love the smell of cherry as it’s being cut!

Thanks to Todd for the wood!

Wood: Single piece of 4/4 cherry
Dimensions: 11-3/8” wide, by 9-3/8” tall
Weight: 18-ounces
Finish: 3-coats mineral oil, followed by 2-coats George’s Club House Wax

Finally got this finished to my liking. I was having trouble getting the finish to a high luster without issues. This was a gift for my parents.

Wood: Birdseye Maple, hand-selected 1-board then cut it into 4-pieces and arranged until my eye was happy with the layout
Finish: General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish (lots of thinned coats), followed by Howard Butcher Block Conditioner (a combination of mineral oil beeswax and carnauba wax) application and buffing
Sanding: hand-sanded up through 2000-grit before applying finish, then sanded the finish from 400-2000 grit, with the last few grits were wet-sanded with mineral oil before cleaning it off and waxing, then rebuffing.
Edges: Roundover bit used for finger hold, all edges tapered by hand
Dimensions: 14-3/16” x 12-1/16” x 7/16” -OR- 361mm x 306mm x 11mm
Weight: 26.4-ounces, or 748-grams

I made this end grain cutting board for some good friends of ours. I don’t know that there’s a definitive definition of what constitutes calling a cutting board a “butcher block,” but I’d say this is as close as I’ve come, so far, as this is the thickest, heaviest board I’ve made to-date. This was made for a professional chef, so it has to be robust and sturdy.

I originally made this board larger, but had to cut it down a bit (as seen in photo 3), as she does not have very much counter space in her kitchen at home. So now I will be using the cutoff section of the original board to make her a second, smaller board, meant to be used as a bread board/appetizer tray, or a bowl for dry goods if she turns it over, as I’m going to hollow-out the underside to make it a multi-purpose piece. I’ll post a link to that matching piece once it’s completed. The knife present in the first picture is an 8-inch chef’s knife, for scale.

I strategically placed the 2-walnut “lines” going through the middle, rather than staggering them, as they are meant to be reference lines. The chef does a lot of public demonstrations and filming, so she isn’t always staring down at the board, as she’s focused elsewhere. These reference lines will allow her to simply glance down to make sure she’s got things where she wants, rather than having to focus on it, kind of like tape markers that are placed on stages for performers to easily get their bearings. As long as she’s near or between the 2-lines, she won’t have to worry about being too close to the edge of the board.

Board Details:

Wood Species: 8/4-hard maple, 5/4-walnut and 4/4-walnut
Glue: Titebond III
Weight: 13-pounds, 2-ounces, or 6.0-kilograms
Length: 17-3/32”, or 447mm
Width: 14-17/32”, or 369mm
Thickness: varies between 2” to 2-1/64”, or 51mm-52mm
Total Height With Feet:about 2-3/8”, or about 60mm
Feet: came from Ace Hardware, and I swapped in stainless steel screws to avoid rusting
Sanding: 80-120-150-180-220-grit
Edges:1/2”-cove bit used for underside handles also makes the board appear lighter on its feet, 1/4”-roundover bit used on top edges, then all other edges were lightly rounded over by hand
Finish: numerous coats of mineral oil, followed by George’s Club House Wax for the final coat (mostly beeswax, with some mineral oil blended together)

A special thanks to Todd for lending me his ROS so I could finish this. I need to replace a part or two on mine, or upgrade with a new one.

I realized I had not yet made an edge grain cutting board and decided to do so for a coworker as a holiday gift.

Wood: 8/4-Hard Maple (5-1/32” wide per section of 3-boards, 6-pieces total) and 4/4-Black Walnut (11/16” per piece), all edge grain.
Glue: Titebond III.
Weight of Board: 5.6-pounds.
Finish: Numerous coats of mineral oil, followed by 2-applications of George’s Club House Wax (mostly beeswax with mineral oil mixed-in).
Feet: These come in an 8-pack at Ace Hardware. They are plastic and have the rubber on the very bottom that prevents the board from sliding around. I also swapped out the stock screws for stainless steel screws to avoid rusting issues.
Dimensions: 16”-Long, by 12-1/4”-Wide, by 1-1/2”-Thick. Feet add another 1/4” to the overall height, so the cutting surface is 1-3/4” above countertop height.
Beveled Edge: cut on tablesaw at 40-degree angle.
Edges: All rounded over by hand.
Sanded: Started with 100-grit on the drum sander after pulling off the clamps and scraping off some of the squeeze-out, then moved through 120-150-180-220 grits by hand.

Not the best pictures, as I finished this at work, then snapped a few hurried, under-lit photos before giving it to my co-worker.

This board was started quite some time ago, but I just finished it 2-days ago. It is a Christmas gift for my in-laws. I used the 2-extra feet in the middle for extra strength.

Wood Species: Walnut, Hard Maple, Quartersawn Cherry
Glue: Titebond III
Weight: 9-pounds, 13-ounces
Dimensions: 20-7/16” (length) x 13-13/16” (width) x 1-19/32” (thickness)
Feet add 11/32” to the height, so the cutting surface sits 1-15/16” above the counter. I also swapped out the screws that came with the feet for stainless steel screws to avoid any rusting issues.
Finish: 3-coats General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, thinned 50% with mineral spirits, then lightly sanded with 600-grit wet/dry paper, topped with 1-more coat of thinned SBF, then allowed to cure for 4+days before applying 2-coats of George’s Club House Wax (mostly beeswax, with a little mineral oil blended in). The feet were attached after waxing.

I really like the way this board turned out, especially the stripes within the walnut adding the contrast that it does. I also like the cove that runs all the way across the ends, acting as a continuous handle.

I also have more construction details here, along with some in-progress photos.

I apologize for the mediocre photos of this board. I had to try and adjust the contrast and brightness of the images a bit. It definitely looks better in-person, and is super-smooth.

I was going back through my pictures and realized I hadn’t posted this wine bottle balancer that I made to give to my grandfather for his 80th birthday.

The main piece is of cherry, with maple and walnut pocket hole plugs inlaid into the front of the bottle balancer. I also burned the message onto the back.

There are 8-inlays to signify the 80-years of life. A pretty straightforward project, with a little bit of a twist. I hadn’t seen any inlay on a balancer at the time I made this, so I thought I’d do something a little different.

As you can see from the picture, I glued the plugs in, then used a flush trim saw to cut them down, then sanded it completely flat. All edges were rounded over with hand sanding. I used Deft rattle can lacquer for the finish.

I thought I had a couple of pictures of my grandfather and I together when I gave this to him, so when I find them, I’ll upload one of them as well. That picture was also taken at a better angle to show the bottle balancing.

This is my submission for the birdhouse contest. I decided to do something different and miniaturize it. I had been thinking about trying to build a miniature bandsaw box around the same size, and also wanted to build a birdhouse for the contest. The bandsaw box fell by the wayside, but I decided to make the birdhouse as small as I could and still include certain details, like mitered joints and miter keys. It is too small to actually be inhabited by any birds, as the smallest bird in the world is the Bee Hummingbird, which is much larger than this birdhouse.

With that being said, I built this as if it were going to actually be used. I did not finish the inside. I put a drain hole in the bottom to allow any errant water to drain out. I made a removeable, but secure top, so that the inside can be cleaned out.

Before this project, I had not used any miter joints on projects. So, I decided to use miter joints to hold the box together, and then also used a coping saw to create the kerfs for the miter keys, another new technique for me. Believe it, or not, I actually ripped the miters on a strip to use for the carcass on the tablesaw, then sanded the stock progressively thinner. It was somewhere around 1/8” thick when I ripped it.

Wood: Edge grain hard maple for the carcass, walnut for the miter keys, ebony for the top and bottom, cork attached to the top with a maple toothpick dowel (the toothpick was too big, so I sanded it even thinner) to secure it all.
Glue: Titebond III to hold the miter keys in place, CA glue used on all other joints.
Finish: Several coats of rattle can Bullseye shellac (outside only), maple dowel not finished so it does not bind in the hole
Total Height: 49/64”-tall
Outer Width: 23/64”-wide
Outer Depth: 11/32”-deep
Inner Dimensions: 1/4”, by 1/4”-square, 9/16”-tall, from floor to bottom of cork lock (living space is .0351-cubic inches)
Ebony Floor/Bottom: 3/32”-thick
Roof: 11/128”-tall at the center (registers slightly taller than the floor), by 9/16”-wide, by 1/2”-deep
Maple Dowel: 1/16”-wide, by 9/16”-long
Wall Thickness: varies slightly, but all walls are under 1/16” thick
Entry Hole: 3/32”-wide
Dowel Lock Holes 1/16”-wide

Miter Keys: 1/32”, ripped strips on tablesaw, then cut individual pieces on bandsaw
Carcass sanded up to 320-grit, then burnished with steel wool. Top and bottom sanded up to 600-grit, then burnished with steel wool.

I will come back and add more details, but I waited until the last possible minute to post this for the contest, so I have to get it submitted! I need to get a picture of the roof off so you can see how it is secured. I basically glued a small piece of cork to the ebony, then put the lid in place and drilled a hole through the cork and sides for the maple dowel to slide into, locking it all together.

Here’s the Miniature Birdhouse Build blog, with numerous in-progress pictures, and all the “little” details.

Photo 1: Birdhouse next to a penny
Photo 2: Birdhouse on an Incra ruler
Photo 3: Birdhouse on my iPhone
Photo 4: Miter key glue-up (The maple sides are much thinner than this now, after sanding everything down.)
Photo 5: Birdhouse with a 0.5mm pencil
Photo 6: Birdhouse taken apart, showing drain hole on bottom, plus cork “lock” that secures the roof to the house. (That is cork dust on the maple dowel from removing it from it’s slot. The dowel was sanded to 320-grit and is nice and smooth.)

I made this for a friend, who is a Bud Light fan. I actually had him give me bottle caps, partly because I don’t drink Bud Light, but also because he’d have a tiny connection to the project. This could obviously be made to suit anybody’s favorite beer, although the screw off caps work well, as they are flat, compared to the pop off caps that become creased once removed.

I made a wine balancer of a similar design (minus the bottle caps of course) some months ago, but have yet to apply a finish to that one and thus haven’t posted it. Larry’s BBQ Boards inspired me to add the beer caps. I did do it a bit differently though, as I didn’t completely sink the caps into the balancer because I wanted a bit of relief in order to lend depth to the piece. I used a forstner bit on the drill press to drill the bottle cap holes. I figured this would help hide the sharp edges of the caps, yet still allow them to protrude above the maple.

I basically used the same starting measurements as a wine balancer, but had to play with the angle in order to get the fulcrum point right. I ended up with a 33-degree angle, although I suspect anywhere in the 30-33-degree angle would work. I think 31-degrees would be better for a Bud Light bottle, but I didn’t have one at the time and was using a different bottle that I thought was similar in shape/size/dimensions. I used the same angle on all 4-sides to keep everything even.

I ended up glueing small squares of white oak onto the backs of the bottle caps in order to be able to securely attach the caps to the maple. There is the little plastic seal around the underside of the cap, so I cut the oak squares to about 15/32”-square in order to sit inside that plastic ring. The oak anchors protrude past the caps ever so slightly, in order to provide an unobstructed glue-up.

I applied 6-coats of lacquer, then glued the caps in place, before applying the last 2-coats of lacquer. I applied the wax about 2-days after the lacquer.

Wood: curly maple, red oak on back of bottle caps
Finish: Transtint Dark Vintage Maple dye (diluted solution in distilled water), 8-coats Deft rattle can semi-gloss lacquer, 2-coats Renaissance Wax (I ended up removing a little bit more of the dye than I initially intended to, so the curl didn’t pop quite as much as I would’ve liked, but it was my first time doing that so it was experimental. I also wiped on a little dewaxed shellac on the inside of the hole to help seal the wood.
Glue: CA glue to attach oak backers to caps, then CA glue to anchor the caps into the recesses.
Sanding: 120-150-220-320-400-600, 000 synthetic steel wool before the last 2-coats of lacquer (I would’ve used 0000 synthetic steel wool, but didn’t have any).

(Sorry these aren’t the best pictures. I used my phone to take them, as the camera battery was dead.)

This is a pizza peel that I just finally got around to finishing this week. I started on the project months ago for my wife and she was very patient on me getting it done. It took a lot longer than expected, but my first pizza peel is finally under my belt.

This is slightly larger than most store-bought pizza peels. I wanted to make sure we were never restricted to using this. It was made to be used for pizzas, but may also get used for making bread too. I made this to fit in our tight kitchen. Our refrigerator is in front of our oven, so I couldn’t make the handle too long.

Wood: Walnut, Maple, and Quartersawn Cherry.
Joinery: all glue, Titebond III.
Sanding: 80-120-150-220, then 320 on end-grain areas only, including front lip area to avoid over-darkening with the mineral oil.
Finish: 7-coats of mineral oil, with 3-coats on the first day, then 1-coat a day after that. Will apply more as need-be.

Measurements:
Width: 16-1/16”
Length: 30-17/32”
Thickness: 1/2” throughout
Handle Width: 1-5/32” (if making this again, I think I’d make the handle about 1/8” wider than I did)
Handle Length: around 13”... it depends on where you measure, according to the curve
Walnut Width: 1-15/16” (times 3-pieces)
Maple Width: 19/64” (times 4-pieces)
Quartersawn Cherry Width: 4-17/32” (times 2-pieces)
Bevel on top surface: about 1-1/4”-deep, 19/64”-tall
Bevel on underside: about 1/2”-deep, 5/32”-tall
Girdle (front edge): varies slightly, around 3/64”
Weight: 46.8-ounces, or just under 3-pounds

I recently decided to make my first bandsaw box as a Christmas gift. I finished this box about 5-days ago, but wanted to finish the blog series I did on the process first.

*For construction details, please visit my Bandsaw Box Blog Series.

I’ll go ahead and list all the details here, but won’t go into the story since the blog series hopefully can fill in the blanks there, plus it’s hard to type since my tablesaw accident a few days ago. Thank goodness my fingers are still attached… just need the 27-stitches to do their job now.

Box Details:
Wood: 23/32”-thick beetle kill pine (7-piece lamination) with natural flaws left in, ebony for drawer pull, cork for drawer bumpers, self-adhesive cork feet on bottom
Sanded: entire box up to 320-grit, ebony pull through 600-grit followed by 0000-steel wool buff
Finish Applied: Zinsser Bulls Eye SealCoat Dewaxed Shellac, sprayed and wiped-on
Glue: Titebond III for lamination and drawer construction, with both thin & gel CA glues for misc. small parts
Overall Box Dimenions: 4-9/32”-tall, by 6-9/32”-wide, by 4-11/16”-deep
Main Drawer Dimensions: 3-9/16”-tall, by 5-7/32”-wide, by 4-1/4”-deep (not including drawer pull)
Ebony Pull Dimensions: 9/32”-deep/protrusion, by 11/32”-wide, by 7/8”-long
Secret Drawer Dimensions: 11/16”-tall, by 3-3/4”-wide, by 3-5/8”-deep (plus handle that is 9/32”-deep, by 7/32”-wide, by 19/32”-tall)
Front Design: woodburned Pen State Nittany Lion

The box arrived in time for Christmas and was well received. They didn’t realize there was a secret compartment until I told them about it.

This is one of the Christmas gifts I made this year. It is for my wife’s father and stepmother. We took a family cruise as a family reunion/vacation back in March. While on the cruise, I saved all the corks as I wanted to make something from them, but wasn’t sure what that “something” would be at the time.

I ended up using curly maple and also dyeing it a turquoise blue color to mimic the Caribbean water color. I used cork dust to fill in the cracks between the corks, trying to get it to look like beach sand. Finally, I cut a 30-degree angle on the bottom side to be reminiscent of the hull of a ship in the water.

Project Specifics:
Wood used: 1-piece of curly maple, corks from trip (18-corks, but I cut one in half to fill in the gap)
Wood thickness: 13/16”, top band is 5/16” tall above chamfer, chamfer is 1/2” tall
Frame width around cork: 1-1/4” wide all the way around
Dye: Transfast Turquoise Blue anililine dye, mixed with distilled water, 3-coats applied, sanded between coats with 320-grit.
Width: 7-3/4” x 7-15/16”
Height: 1-1/16” overall, with corks 3/16” above wood
Corks: 18-corks used, with 1-cork cut in-half to fill the gap. Cut about 40% off the bottom of each cork to allow for a flat and solid glue surface. After corks cut on bandsaw, all corks handsanded with 60-grit to level all corks to the same height so pot doesn’t wobble at all when placed on the trivet. Saved cork dust from sanding to use as “beach sand”.
Glue: Titebond III to glue down corks, then dusted with cork dust, let dry, thin layer of thin CA glue in crack then dusted again, let dry, then one more thin CA glue application and cork dusting to mimic beach sand.
Sanding: Sanded to 320-grit after dye, final sanding with 600-grit, then mineral spirit wipedown after final coat of finish applied
Finish: 5+coats Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane, Clear Satin (rattle can)
Self-Adhesive Cork Feet on Bottom add 1/16” to height, inset 1/4”-from outside edges
Tools used: tablesaw, drum sander, ROS, drill press to hog out most of the center, followed by router to clean it up, then chiseled corners square, glue brush to spread one solid layer of glue across bottom to lay corks into and dust with “sand”.

(Sidenote: I found the best and cleanest ways to lay the corks down was start at the outside edges and work towards the center. It also helps to “roll” the cork into the glue ever so slightly. Hard to explain as it’s sort of a feel thing. Wipe any glue off right away if it comes up the sides of the cork.)

This is an end-grain cutting board, made as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. The last time she was here visiting, I brought my not-yet-completed first end grain cutting board http://lumberjocks.com/projects/32914 up from the shop to show her. She really liked it and threw out a hint that it would be a wonderful Christmas present. She said that it might be nice to have one a bit smaller and lighter than my original. So, this one weighs less than half of my first one, and is smaller in both width and length.

This is the first Christmas gift I have completed. There will be more to come.

Board Details:
Wood used: 4/4-curly maple, 4/4-pink lyptus, 8/4-pink lyptus, 8/4-hard maple
Board Dimensions: 10-15-/16” deep X 13-1/4” wide X 15/16” thick
Handle Recesses: 1/2” tall X 7/8” inset
Total Height: 1-7/32”, including feet
Feet: 9/32” tall, by 1” wide, stainless steel screws used in conjunction with feet from Ace Hardware, item # 5425277. They work fairly well, although they are not skid-proof. If you push on the side of the board, it will slide on the counter, but they do offer enough resistance to keep the board from moving while applying downward pressure, as is the case with most knife work.
Weight: 3-pounds, 4-ounces
Glue used: Titebond III
Finish Applied: Mineral Oil… and lots of it. I put 10-thick coats of mineral oil on this over the course of about a week’s time. It is certainly saturated! I also applied George’s Clubhouse Wax as a topcoat.

I used a roundover bit in the router on the top edge, and a cove bit to make the recessed handles, then handsanded all other edges. This is sanded up through 220-grit.

I made the handles this way after seeing another cutting board in a shop with a similar recessed handle design. Unfortunately, I broke my Bosch router edge guide when making this board… I set it on the edge of the table and apparently didn’t have the weight facing the right direction and it fell onto the concrete and broke in half. I now only have one side to the edge guide. I might try and glue it back together and if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to buy a new one.

I like these rubber feet used in this way, but they are not tall enough to really be able to slide your fingers under the board if you don’t have some sort of handle on the side. I will always use some sort of feet on this style of board, not just to elevate it for ease of picking the board up, but more importantly, so that air can circulate while the board is drying.

I thought the curly maple would have more of an impact on the border than it did. Maybe on a thicker board, it would’ve worked better? I used 8/4 hard maple and 8/4 pink lyptus in the center of the board to try and minimize glue lines. As you can see from the photos, the two different maples turned out vastly different in color once oiled, as well as the lyptus being two different tones. I used the pink lyptus at my wife’s request.

This is a pendant I made for my wife. She will be participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure in San Diego in a little over a week. She just reached her personal fundraising goal to help find a cure for breast cancer. I was going to give this to her right before she left next week, but I thought that reaching her own personal fundraising goal was a momentous occassion.

This is the first piece of wooden jewelry that I’ve made. A thank you to MrsN for her helpful tips during the process.

I traced the ribbon onto the stock, then cut part of it out with a fairly dull coping saw. I also used the drill press to remove some of the material. I ran it through the drum sander to thin the piece a bit. I used several different detail files to further shape the piece, then finally handsanded it through 320-grit. Next, I woodburned my initials and the year on the back. After that, it received several coats of spray-on dewaxed shellac, buffed between coats. The sterling silver bail was glued-on with super glue gel. I used one of the little black and silver paper clip clamps to hold it together while the glue cured (as seen in the 4th photo). Finally, I applied several coats of Renaissance Wax. The chain is 18”-long and is also sterling silver. Both the bail and the chain came from Rio Grande Jewelry: http://www.riogrande.com

Wood: Pink Lyptus
Finish: Spray-On Dewaxed Shellac, followed by Renaissance Wax
Hardware: Sterling Silver Bail, Sterling Silver Chain
Dimensions: Height: 1-11/32” (not including hardware) Top Ribbon Width: 9/16” Bottom Ribbon Width: 27/32” Thickness: 5/32” (not including hardware)

(I did not make the box in the last photo.)

This is a serving tray I made for my wife. It is made up of curly/tiger maple, walnut and pink lyptus. It has a food-safe finish of Salad Bowl Finish and a mineral oil/beeswax topcoat. I used 4-walnut dowels to raise it slightly off whatever surface it is set on and routered handles into the sides to slip your fingers into, allowing just enough room so you don’t bang your fingers trying to pick it up. It was made with the intent of being used as a serving tray, or cheese tray, or hors dourves tray… not a cutting board!

Tray Details:
Length: 15-7/8”
Width: 14-1/8”
Curly Maple Width: 2-1/8”, times 4-pieces = 8-1/2”
Pink Lyptus Width: 4-1/2”
Walnut Width: 9/16”, times 2-pieces = 1-1/8”
Overall Height: 1-1/4”
Thickness of Wood: 3/4”
Height from surface to bottom of tray: 1/2”
Handles: 4” long, 1-7/32” wide, 11/64” deep (same depth as coved edge)
Dowel Legs: 3/4”-width walnut, 15/32” tall
Wood Species: Curly/Tiger Maple, Walnut, Pink Lyptus, Cork Pads on Feet
Glue Used: Titebond III
Finish Used: 6-7 coats General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, first few coats thinned heavily with mineral spirits to get deeper penetration into the wood, followed by a couple of coats of George’s Club House Wax (mineral oil and beeswax) hand-rubbed.

Once the tray was glued-up and leveled-out, I handsanded to 220-grit, then used a cove bit in the router to freehand a cove along the underside of the tray. I have never routered handles into a tray before, so it took a little experimenting. I went slowly, figuring I could always take a little more out, but couldn’t put it back. I routered the handles the exact same depth as the cove so that the lines of the tray were fluid. I didn’t want to have a nice edge going all the way around the piece, only to be interrupted by a different depth for the handles. I just didn’t think it would look as polished and congruent. After that, I drilled the holes for the walnut dowels and inset those with Titebond III. They’re recessed about 3/8”, if I remember correctly.

New tools/techniques/methods used on this project: Being the first time I routered handles into anything, I had to figure out how to setup stops for the handle width. I ended up using my K-style clamps to both hold the piece to the work table, as well as for stops for the router. I also used my router edge guide for the first time as well in making the handles.

Things I’d do differently: I got a bit of dust or lint in the first coat or two of SBF, but didn’t realize it until I had probably 6-coats of finish on it. I’d be more careful in the application of the finish next time, as I had to go back and buff it quite a bit with 0000 steel wool to smooth it out before I hand-rubbed the George’s Club House Wax (mineral oil and beeswax combo.) onto all sides of the board.

Things I’d do the same: I especially like how the handles turned out, being the same depth as the coved edge. I think that detail really helps the handles blend in, rather than being something that catches your eye. Afterall, the handles are a functional detail of the piece, rather than an aesthetic one, at least, on this piece.

This bench was constructed using only pockethole joinery. I thought I’d use a fairly basic joinery technique here that quite a few either have access to, or can easily learn to use. Sometimes it’s not what you use, but how you use it! With this project, I tried to take something simple-pockethole joinery- and not only dress it up, but use it as a main design element. You don’t necessarily have to use a complicated or elaborate joint to dress up a piece.

This is the 5-Board Bench that I built for and submitted to the Charles Neil 5-Board Bench Contest. Thanks to Charles Neil, Sherri, and everyone else involved for putting this contest together. It was an enjoyable experience, from start, to finish. A nice job on everyone’s part that entered the contest.

I knew I wanted to design and build something that strayed from the traditional 5-Board Bench style, originally toying with the idea of building it out of 5-different species of wood. After thinking it through though, I decided to stick with 3-species of wood, as I thought that 5-species would be a bit too busy.

This 5-Board Bench is constructed from 4/4-walnut, 4/4-curly maple, and 4/4-cherry, including the corresponding species for the pocket hole plugs, and was joined together using nothing but pocket hole joinery. I didn’t use any glue. I decided to go this route and keep the lines simple, yet use some prettier woods to dress the basic design up. I wanted to show that a person with nothing but a Kreg pockethole jig, or a similar pockethole jig, could construct this bench. You can build this bench with nothing but a pocket hole jig and a drill, pockethole drill bit, pockethole screws, and pockethole plugs. This could obviously be made out of all one species of wood instead of combining them as I did. I carried over the same 3-species of wood into the pockethole plugs, but intentionally used contrasting plugs as a design element to add a bit of visual interest.

I joined the pieces in sections. First, I joined the legs, which are constructed of curly maple on the outside, with a walnut interior board. I used cherry plugs to fill the pocketholes. Next, I joined the top together, changing the sequence of the boards to alternate with the legs so that the top is two pieces of walnut and one piece of curly maple. The top has a piece of curly maple running down the middle, sandwiched by 2-pieces of walnut, and the pocketholes were again filled with cherry plugs. The aprons are a single piece of cherry, only this time, I used both maple and walnut plugs to fill the pocketholes in an alternating fashion.

I first made the frame for the top to sit on by joining the aprons to the legs on the interior side. There are 2-pocket hole screws used on each side of both aprons, for a total of 8-pocket hole screws holding the frame together that are out of sight. After the frame was complete, I joined the top to the aprons with the 5-pocket hole screws on each apron that are visible on the outside of the bench, then joined the legs to the top with 4-pocket hole screws per leg that are out of sight on the inside of the legs. So the top is held on to the frame by a total of 18-pocket hole screws. When it was all said and done, I had drilled 58-pocket holes, used 58-screws, and 42-pocket hole plugs. I did not fill the pocket holes that are out of sight, just in case anything needs to be tightened up with a bit with use.

I did freehand a very minor 45-degree chamfer on the bottom of each leg with the router to prevent any chipping issues at the edges.

The bench was finished using Watco Danish Oil in the Natural tone. I also wetsanded it a bit to fill in a few minor voids around the pocket hole plugs. This bench received 3-5-coats Renaissance Wax after the danish oil thoroughly cured for several weeks.

This bench is a housewarming gift for my brother and his fiance, as they are buying their first house.

Quick details and dimensions of the piece are:
Wood Species: Walnut, Curly/Tiger Maple, Cherry
Joinery Method: Pockethole screws, dressed with pockethole plugs of the same species above (no glue used for joinery, just used glue to secure the pockethole plugs)
Tools Used: Tablesaw, drum sander, random orbital sander, Kreg Pockethole Jig, drill, router, flushcut saw, clamps to hold pieces secure while screwing together
Finish: Watco Danish Oil (allowed to cure for several weeks), followed by 5-coats of Renaissance Wax on the top of the bench, and 3-coats of Renaissance Wax everywhere else
Overall Length: 36” on top
Depth: 15” on top
Height: 18-1/8”
Leg Width: 12-3/4” (leaving a 1-1/8” overhang on the front and back)
Leg Spacing: 32” (leaving a 2” overhang on the left and right side)

The pictures are arranged to sweep around the piece in a logical order, starting at the left, front side and gradually sweeping counterclockwise, over to the right side of the bench.

I made this to be both a cutting board and a serving tray, taking the same care on both sides. The side with my personal brand on it is meant to be the “utilitarian” cutting board side.

Board Details:
Wood Species: curly maple/tiger maple, walnut, pink lyptus
Dimensions: 15-15/16” long, by 10-11/32” wide, by 11/16” thick
Curly Maple: 2-3/4” wide, times 2-pieces
Walnut: 3/32” wide, times 2-pieces (dimensioned on drum sander)
Pink Lyptus: 4-17/32” wide, one piece
Hand-sanded 120-150-220
Finish: 7-coats General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish. The first 4-coats were thinned 50-70% with mineral spirits for better penetration and applied using a rag. The final 3-coats, full-strength, were applied using a sponge brush. (The underside actually only received 6-total coats… 4-thinned coats, then 2-full-strength coats.) After the SBF cured for about a week, I used 0000 steel wool to rub in George’s Club House Wax, followed by hand buffing it out with a clean cloth.

20-Step Board Construction Process:
1. Hand-select wood for grain pattern, orientation, and placement, paying special attention to the centering of the pink lyptus grain.
2. Cut wood to length and width.
3. Glue up wood with Titebond III and plenty of clamps.
4. Scrape glue squeezeout off board.
5. Run board through drum sander to bring all surfaces to same thickness, etc.
6. Crosscut ends to final length.
7. Freehand a 5/32” deep cove on underside with my router.
8. Handsand all surfaces 120-150-220, including slightly rounding over top edges and corners by hand, then apply brand to underside.
9. Vacuum dust off surface, then throughly clean with mineral spirits until paper towel shows no dust.
10. Apply 4-coats of SBF, thinned with mineral spirits 50-70% for deeper penetration, 6-12 hours apart. Final 3-coats of SBF applied 6-12 hours apart, not thinned at all. Final coat of SBF applied to sides and top, not bottom.
11. Let SBF cure for almost a week.
12. Notice some dust and a few cloth fragments embedded in finish.
13. Panic/Swear.
14. Attempt to wetsand marks out using 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper and water.
15. Clean with mineral spirits.
16. Notice it looks better, but not up to my own personal high standards.
17. Panic/Swear.
18. Think about resanding down to bare wood, then starting over, this time with the mineral oil soak, followed by wax/sigh of frustration.
19. Come to senses… is there another way that won’t take so long?
20. Use 0000 steel wool and handrub George’s Club House Wax (blend of mineral oil and beeswax) into board for about 10-minutes, really working it in, followed by 5-10 minutes of hand-buffing out wax with clean cloth. There’s that’s all better! And super-smooth too!

This board is a thank you gift for someone, so I hope they not only enjoy it, but also actually end up using it.

These are the last of the fundraiser items I made for the fundraiser we held for my wife last night, who is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, 60-mile walk in San Diego this November 19th.

Her story about why she is participating in the walk is here:
http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2010/SanDiegoEvent2010?px=5055828&pg=personal&fr_id=1469&et=edFQs3HMuxmNydrrjBq2KQ..&s_tafId=430407

I made three soap dishes out of red oak trim and pink lyptus. I blogged a bit about the soap dishes here:
http://lumberjocks.com/JonathanG/blog/16477

Here are the details for the 3-soap dishes:
Wood: Red Oak and Pink Lyptus
Dimensions: #1: 6-3/16” long, 3-1/2” wide #2: 5-7/8” long, 3-3/8” wide #3: 6-1/16” long, 3-1/2” wide
Oak trim is 1/2” thick
Pink Lyptus legs/feet are 13/16” tall, with a rabbet to hold the oak. The rabbet is 1/2” deep to match the thickness of the oak, and 5/16” inset to provide a platform for the oak to sit on.
Joinery used: Titebond III and clamps
Tools used: tablesaw mostly, including the elimination of the other side of the trim, handsanded 120-150-220-320, branding iron on backside, chisel to clean up rabbets
Finish used: 5-6 coats of Helmsman spray-on Spar Varnish to help with the water contact

I want to thank Jordan and his wife for their contribution to help making the fundraiser a success. They sent some of the soap that they handmake for the Cure, as well as some handpainted magnets!

You will see some of the soap in the pictures. Thanks Jordan!

I provided an informational sheet, including wood species, how it was finished, care instructions, etc. with the soap dishes (and the other pieces for the fundraiser). I like this idea since it provides the end user with the proper information. What they choose to do with it is up to them, but I feel good in knowing that at least have some basic information.

I made this serving tray/drink tray for a fundraiser that we are having tonight for my wife, Lisa. She will be walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure, in San Diego, in the middle of November. It is a 3-day walk that spans 60-miles (20-miles/day).

She has participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in one facet or another since 1999. If you’d like to read the story of why she is doing this, please go here (this is an older photo, but she is the one in the pink t-shirt):
http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2010/SanDiegoEvent2010?px=5055828&pg=personal&fr_id=1469&et=edFQs3HMuxmNydrrjBq2KQ..&s_tafId=430407

Each participant is responsible for raising $2300, minimum, in order to participate in the 3-Day Walk for the Cure. So this tray was made to help garner some donations. I have also made several other projects for this fundraiser, and began blogging about them here: http://lumberjocks.com/JonathanG/blog/16300

Tray Details:
Wood Species: Curly/Tiger Maple, Walnut, Pink Lyptus (all started out as 4/4)
Joinery: Titebond III and lots of clamps
Hardware: Metal handles from Lowes that are 9-7/8” long drawer pulls, with the holes being 7-1/2” apart from screw holes predrilled 7/8” in from the side, 3/8” countersink holes drilled to sink screw tops. I also added 3/4” self-adhesive cork dots/feet from Rockler to the bottom corners to cover up the screws and to provide bumpers for the bottom of the tray. I thought about glueing them on, but decided against it, reasoning that it’d be really difficult to get them off if you ever needed to tighten one of the handles.
Finish: 5-coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish (First 4-coats were handrubbed, with the last coat being brushed on rather thickly. Buffed with a brown paper bag in between each coat).
Overall Dimensions: 11-3/4”deep, 16-3/16” wide, 25/32” final thickness
Individual Wood Dimensions: Curly maple: 4-3/16” (times 2-boards), Walnut: 1-9/32” (times 2-boards), Pink Lyptus: 5-1/4” wide (center board).
Tools Used: tablesaw, drill press, router, cove bit, roundover bit, forstner bit, drum sander, clamps, handsanded up to 220-grit

New things to me on this project:
Waterlox. I had not used this finish before this project. I think I’m going to experiment with this a bit more. It does produce a very nice finish. I think with a bit more use of this product and maybe a little deeper topcoat, it’ll look like a pane of glass on top of the wood. I handrubbed the first 4-coats and it seemed like it was going to take another 4-coats to really start building some depth. So on the 5th-coat, I really loaded it on with a sponge brush. It leveled itself out nicely!
Pink Lyptus. I glued-up several things all within a day or two that had pink lyptus in them. This wood is a bit finicky at the edges and does tend to splinter out. You have to be very careful in general. I noticed that when sanding and edge of this stuff, start on the long, flat face grain, then go towards the edge. Don’t go from the edge inward, or it will more than likely splinter on you (more than I’ve experienced with any other wood)!

I typed up a little informational sheet that I’ll be giving to the recipient of this tray, as well as the other items that I made for the fundraiser. The informational sheet includes the woods used, the finish applied, and care instructions for the item.

I’ll post back after the fundraiser takes place and let everybody know how it went.