I guess the only real gripe is that the EWT cutter heads (while you never need to sharpen them) cost just under $20 each.

So, I did some measuring with the calipers and some good old Google legwork and found that Byrd Tool makes a cutter head that is near identical to the EWT version at a fraction of the cost ($2.80 each). I’m sure some of you EWT fans already know about this, but on the off chance you don’t they may save you some serious money in the long run.

They (square) only work on the Easy Roughers, but I find that most of my cutting is done on those anyways. I only pull out the Ci0 Finisher at the very end of my project. If anyone finds cheaper circular cutters to use on the Ci0, please let me know.

The link to the Amazon profile is below.

http://amzn.com/B000E9NKKY

Hope this helps someone else out there.

A friend of mine sent me the link because he knows I like woodworking tools and saw the shop that was closing happened to be somewhat near me.

Looks like a pretty giant selection of tools. Everything from big power tools to a few hand tools. I’m not really in the market for anything at the moment, but figured I’d share this in case your deal hounds were looking to score a tool or two.

Planers, saws, sanders, dust collection, hand tools, etc.

http://www.rasmus.com/auction_detail.php?id=175412

Looks like the auction closes on Friday, April 24.

A neighbor that I had waved to a hundred times was walking his dog and decided to come over to chat. He introduced himself and said that he and his 9 year old son were going to start their annual pinewood derby project. He asked if I would donate some shop time and instruction to his son to learn a bit more about wood working and the pile of power tools I had amassed over the years. I gladly accepted under a few conditions. We both agreed that his son would make all the cuts, do all the design and that I would simply act as safety instructor. I asked that he bring his son over with his block of pine, his design ideas and a willingness to learn the safe way to work around power tools.

Two days later, they came over and we walked around the shop and talked about the tools and what they were used for. After he drew his cut lines on the material, I quizzed him on what machines he thought would be best to use for each part. Kid nailed each question. We put on safety glasses, ear protection, and checked all the parts of the power tool to make sure we were good to go. I walked him through all of the hand positions, what to do if he got nervous during a cut, etc. I was really impressed with how well he listened and his cautious respect for tools.

After about 30 minutes of cutting and belt sanding, I sent him away with one of my wood clamps and a stack of sand paper grits, 80 – 320. I told him that the job wasn’t nearly complete. Sanding is where the beauty happens. I told him that when he was finally finished and happy. Sand a bit more.

Just this Saturday I was driving back home from our local sledding hill (with my kids) and saw him standing in front of his house with his parents holding his car and a big gold trophy. I pulled over and asked him how he did. He showed me his first place trophy for design and thanked me again for helping him. I reminded him that all I did was to make sure he was safe. He did it all.

Really made my day. If nothing else comes out of my garage that’s worth a hoot, I can now proudly say that my shop is home to the local elementary school 2012 1st place pinewood derby competition (for design).

Who knows, maybe this kid will eventually become a woodworker hobbyist like his dusty neighbor.

For those of you who don’t recognize the car design, it’s “Ecto-1” from the movie Ghostbusters.

Please experiment with whatever measurements and combinations strike you. Have fun with these. There are so many possibilities. If you run into a great new pattern, post it. I’d love to see it.

Thanks LJs for being such an inspirational online community. First one to post one of these gets a giant thumbs up and my sincere admiration.

I hope these inspire you.

I will outline the process in 10 steps below. I have assumed that when viewing these steps that basic woodworking skills are familiar to you. If you have questions, or run into snags, PM me and I’ll do my best to help out.

If you want to see what these boards look like, take a look at my projects. There are a few in there.

Keep in mind that because these are endgrain boards, you should ideally chose the original boards with interesting endgrain. Makes sense right?

I typically measure all of my initial boards and add a few inches. I’d rather end up with scrap pieces, then a scrapped piece. I went big on the 26” length, but after you do a few of these you can create your own ideal measurements. I also try to start out with boards of thicknesses larger than 3/4”, but it was easier math for the illustration to use 3/4” thickness.

You can make boards of all sizes. I’m limited to a 12” thickness planer, so that’s why I am illustrating 7 sticks of each species. Again, experiment with different sizes, so long as the individual sticks are twice as wide as they are thick.

I can’t stress enough the importance of only mating two sticks at a time. No three sticks should be mated with glue. Use your preferred clamping methods, but make sure these are nice and tight. You don’t want any gaps for bacteria to hide in.

After these sticks dry, pull them out of the clamps. They are ready to be planed down a bit to make sure they are all even and dimensional. I tape them all (squeeze-out side up) together and run them through the planer.

After these are planed, it’s important to pull them apart and make sure they are dimensional (as wide as they are tall). If they differ, run them through the planer individually until they are square.

In order to get the zig zag pattern, you have to cut the original sticks in half so that you can make two sets of patterns. This is the tricky part that I was never able to show folks without illustrations. We’ll call them Set A and Set B for this demo.

Now, the reason I went with 26” as the original length is so that this next step allows you to be creative. You can make a very long (two maybe) board that is thin, or make a very heavy-duty board. Thickness is up to you.

Now you are ready for your final glue-up. Take your time and really see this board for what it will become. Look at the end grains and make sure they are uniform. I have flipped boards upside down and noticed this too late. And remember “ENDGRAINS UP!” Maybe I’ll make a TShirt with that phrase on it one day.

After the glue dries, you should be left with a not-square-yet board.

Trim edges using any method you prefer. I run mine across my crosscut sled to make sure they are as true as possible.

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you are inspired to try one of these boards out.

UPDATE: I have created an additional blog entry with some patterns to try out using the techniques listed above. Check out Zig Zag Cutting Board Patterns - Inspirational

I think I may have a new lunch hobby.

I opened the shipping boxes last night and heard the roar of tigers as the curly figuring of both cherry and maple jumped out at me. I was literally amazed. I don’t have any good lumber shops around me that balance both price and quality. I can now state with true conviction that he has a loyal customer for life. For those of you LJs like me who are searching for some alternatives to purchasing lumber online I recommend (at the very least) you check out some of poroskywood’s stock.

I am excited to get back into the shop to start playing around with some projects that bring the curly figure of these boards to life.

Beyond great ideas and fun concepts, I have found this site to be a really fascinating way to connect with like-minded wood workers across the globe in ways that were once impossible. What a great community.

As promised, here are some photos. Sorry, working in a dark garage and had to use my flash. As many of you know, photos just can’t do justice to an in-person look.