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Well the first coat of oil just went on. (That'd be the first pic.)

This is my first… phew, let's see if I can enumerate this:

- Project with something other than construction grade pine. (maple 1×2s from the big box.)
- Use of the palm sander
- Use of the miter saw
- attempt at laminating
- Cutting board
- end-grain board

It's a little shy of 16"x10"x2" as I was aggressively 40 gritting away as many of my mistakes as I reasonably could.

Probably a month ago I saw Chad's end-grain table top and I bugged him for guidelines, etc. So the hat tip for the final inspiration definitely goes to Chad. Thanks o/

Now.. Me being a bit of a… well… "someone who does not work well with others" I sorta just ended up winging it nonetheless.

So the lamination is rough, as evidenced by the pics taken with my goofy little cell phone camera.

But I have to say, for a first attempt I'm very pleased with it. Again, I understand an awful lot more at this side than I could possibly have learned any other way.

Next time I'll actually, erm… plane the boards. ducks

I sent pics to friends and got the best confirmation I could have when more than half of them responded:

How much?

Gallery

Comments

· In Loving Memory
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Well, I would say that it turned out pretty nice - especially since it was your first project using hardwood. Welcome to Lumberjocks by the way.
 

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way to be mad willy …. looks good to me brother. Welcome to the gang.
 

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Welcome to the CB club! It is a good first try on putting together an end grain CB. If you would have planed the wood, it would have glued together easier and made the sanding easier. If you haven't sealed it, it would be a good idea to do that to make the board last longer and keep out bacteria. You could use Salad bowl finish or mineral oil.
 

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Hey thanks o/

The difference in the two pictures is the first application of mineral oil. I'm amazed at how much it brings out the grain. I knew it would, but I had no idea it would do so on that scale.

"First Hardwood Project" goes to Mom for Christmas definitely. (First metal-shop project was for Dad, so it seems only fitting.)
 

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Welcome to the club!

It looks fantastic!

I would second amagineer's advice though - get some mineral oil from the drug store (in the laxative section - really) and wipe it down. You will be amazed at how much it soaks up! It will last forever that way.

Pretty soon you will be posting something like "My 10th cutting board" ;-)

-bob
 

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Hey nice looking cutting board!!! Looks great to me. There is no such thing as an error in woodworking,,, its called "giving it Character" Welcome to Lumber Jocks!! Look forward to seeing your future projects.
 

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Welcome to the club! Looks great; a cutting board was one of my first LJ projects as well.
 

· In Loving Memory
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As a lover of endgrain cutting boards … may I add my congratulations… for a first attempt you learnt a lot.. Critique… grain orientation is good… and only a few minor flaws [that you already know about..and can endeavour not to repeat….] so I will not elaborate on those…
Over all WELL DONE…
Play safe and have fun…
 

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Thanks o/

The grain orientation really surprised me. I tried to alternate the color scheme of the boards as I got them, but didn't pay much attention to the actual direction of the grain itself. I'm still in shock at how much contrast exploded out of it when I put that oil coat on.

A lot of things surprised me. The biggest "flaw" is that I had a lot of small tearout at every cut stage. My thought was to sand it out at the end. But what ended up happening is that it made it appear that the lamination was weak (bad clamping, etc) which is definitely not the case.

I thought to get some wood filler, but ended up deciding against it. I just don't know enough about the process or the stuff.
 

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Congrats and well done!
 

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Good job willy.
And if you got a "well done" from degoose who is the universal chieftain of cutting boards, then I'd say you off to a good start!
Now keep those projects coming.
and welcome aboard!
 

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Great job for your first hardwood attempt! That sanding experience is really hard to believe until you experience it for yourself…...these are the experiences that lead to future tool purchases…..drum sander….hehe….

Nicely done.

Jeff
 

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Hey thanks :)

Yeah it was really something. The tearout on the length cuts really surprised me. It compounded more than I'd like (well… duh I suppose.) I still have it (as in, haven't gifted it yet) but am not really sure if I want to try filling those in with something. I'm more worried about discoloration and obvious "oh look, wood putty" effect.

As a budding machinist as well as wood worker, it really hurts my head that a planer and a drum sander are two different tools, rather than a single tool with a replaceable platen.
 

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Hey, thanks for the comment. Don't sell yourself short, yours looks great. I'll have to try that design some day.
 

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Thanks. Oh I'm quite happy with it. I like biting off more than I can chew as I seem to learn the most that way. There are more errors in mine than I'd like, but it's fine with me.

Yours is slick and professional.

I was going to give it to my Mother for Christmas, but I went up to her place for Thanksgiving and brought it It was oohed and aahed over for a couple seconds, then immediately put into use, which was the best compliment of all really.
 
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