YACB

Looks sharp! I’ve been wanting to do a few cutting board patterns myself.. If you don’t mind my asking, did you have any problem with the glue-up as far as pieces popping out at all? And how heavily did you sand, if at all, after the final assembly?

No popping problem. This wasn’t done with lots of little individal pieces. I did it with strips in two seperate glue-up steps.

1) Rip strips from your stock. An even number of each “color”.
2) Glue up alternating strips, long grain to long grain.
3) After time for glue to set (1-2 hr for G.G, I waited 3), scrape down and run through planer.
4) Cross cut to get strips with alternating blocks.
5) Flip every other one end-for-end to get checkerboard. Also turned endgrain UP.
6) Glue again (and wait again).
7) More scraping and quite a bit of sanding.

I used this type of cabinet maker’s clamp : http://www.adjustableclamp.com/cm-8000.htm

Once in endgrain configuration, any work you do to the surface has the potential for blowing out edge material. Don’t fret it, in my case I had planned to trim and round over so the blowout got cut off.

This is a pretty simple pattern. You can find lots of examples here for more elaborate ones. I was more interested in testing my machine setups than pattern planning. :)

-- Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

Nice test pattern. Looks like the tune up worked.

I’m chicken to try Gorilla glue. All that foam. Did you moisten the surfaces first?

So Bessy style clamps help, huh? They are expensive and I already have a bunch of pipe and F type. Oh well, new stuff is fun to buy.

Steve

-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon

Not all that messy although I did get some on my fingers (and didn’t realize it). There are two keys it would seem to using G.G.

1) Remember it is a 2-part system where part two is water. If the wood is dry (below 10%) you need to dampen one or both surfaces. I did one and applied glue to the other.

2) It takes less glue than you think. Small bead then spread it out to a thin film. Too thick for a brush, I used scrap stock like a squeegie.

Not to sound too much like a commercial, but if you google for Gorilla Glue and find their web page, they have a pretty good set of instructions and FAQ over there. Also there is a guide for common species and how best to prep the wood.

I didn’t have much trouble with the foaming. Only a little bit (which is good according to their instructions) and I had wax paper down on the clamp bars to protect them. The squeeze-out/foam-out scrapes right off. I did that at about 2-3 hours and didn’t see tearout. Sanded off fine too.

-- Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.