Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a ‘built up’ block on the right.

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After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

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I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

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I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

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I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

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Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

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And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

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I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

-- -- I'm no rocket surgeon