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My Mom and Dad have been building a new house and it's almost complete so I made this End Grain CB for them to go in their brand new kitchen. It turned out a bit smaller than I'd hoped but since it was so thin (solely based off from what I had left of my Bubinga, Canary, and Curly Maple…. and had absolutely nothing to do with me making any "mistakes" along the way - ahem….). So I used some round over and cove bits on my router table after it was glued and I think all in all the design came out pretty nice. It's not a dual sided CB, as the Canary wood for the base is not end grain but made for looks and to make it a bit thicker - hope they enjoy many years with it.

The table saw is my enemy at this point.. I have to spend some time building a feed table to make the deck larger, and a cross-cut sled, and I'm about to throw out the fence and make my own… So here are the pics of it on the counter soaking up it's first guzzle of Mineral Oil

*Don't worry I have already rehearsed how I will excuse the lines that didn't match up exactly during glue up…. I think I'll use that "It creates personalization and character" wink wink.

Thanks for checking it out!

-JR_Dog

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Nice 2nd board. Man I remember my first end-grain board. You find as you make more you will get better and more confident along the way. I have made over 250 of them and have learned so much on here from the masters. The fact that you kept the grain orientation correct after cutting and beofr gluig is kuddos to you!
Look fwd to more.
 

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Well I'd like to take the credit for orienting the grain properly but the truth is my first board some cool guy, I think his name was "Ken90712" took a lot of time to explain in great detail many things… thanks again for that by the way. So I'm glad to say that your time wasn't wasted on a newbie after all - lol.

All kidd'n aside Ken, thanks for the advise and the feedback!
 

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Very cool - I really like the stripes, which you don't see often with end grain boards!
I also love the cove you've routed - it gives it a floaty appearance. I actually might steal your idea on the next board I make :D
 

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No worries at all and thanks for the feedback J_C. One thing I would suggest, and it's something you may already know or have learned, but be careful when routing the end grain. I ended up having to make the board a bit smaller a few times, but one because of the routing, due to chip out. I think the next time I'm going to glue a scrap piece to the trailing edge as I do my routing or planing, then after just cut off the scrap piece. I think it'll save at least an inch overall instead of maybe a table saw blade width.

Take care and thanks again; I would love to see your next CB.
 

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Yep, you're right about the routing! I completed another CB a couple of weeks ago, but haven't yet posted it. This was the first one where I had the guts (and the time) to use the router to put a 'juice groove' into it. I don't have a router table - just a handheld, so I clamped guides to the board. I did a couple of tests beforehand, and learned two things:

a) Take several shallow cuts. I think this is basic router knowledge for most people, but I'm new to woodworking!
b) Make sure your router bit is sharp.

This pretty much eliminated tearout.

Good idea with using the scrap piece - should work well.
 

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Good work. I am looking forward to making my first one. I have build a V drum sander to use. When you get ready to build the sled go to the Wood Whispers site for his instructions. If you are looking for an in-feed table for your saw look at the one I built. It has made cutting plywood so easy for me. Keep it up and look forward to seeing more.
 

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Bearpaw, good luck using the V drum sander; I'm sure it's going to make things much easier for you. Thanks for the tips on the in-feed table I'll def check it out.
 

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Beautiful CB JR_Dog! Your folks are gonna love their cutting board, great job JR.
 

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Turned out awsome!I can say all best for this work
 

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Jr love the humor and giving me a hard time. Fun! Glad it worked out for ya. I round my corners first on the band saw and disc sander then use router, it help cutting down on the chip out. Like others mentioned light passes help as well. Have a great weekend!
 

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Thanks Ivan, and you have a great weekend too Ken!
 

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Great board JR, I really like the cove that you routed on the ends. The colors go well together too.
 

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Thanks Kevin, I appreciate your opinion on it. It was fun to build and hopefully even more fun to give it to them.

Have a great weekend
 

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I agree with j_c. about the stripes. When I first saw it, I thought "that's not endgrain, they don't have stripes". :)

It looks cool with the endgrain stripes, though. Have to steal that idea.
 

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Nice board, check out CB designer. It is freeware. Google it DL it, and check it out. Kinda nifty and free.
 

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Thanks Don; yeah to be honest it wasn't planned that way but when I made the cuts and start flipping them around to see how it would turn out I noticed if I offset every other row I was able to line up the curly maple. The down side to that is that I lost some size to the board when I had to cut off the ends - if you're planning on doing the lines make sure you measure the board about 2 inches bigger that your desired end result (or I supposed that depends on how wide each different block or color of wood is) but for me it was about 1 inch both sides. My next board is going to be an attempt at one of those cool 3D boards - I'm in the process of selecting complimentary wood colors and also making a cross-cut sled for my table saw and won't build another CB without it. Oh and when I purchased my table saw I "In full rookie glory" assumed the calibration was correct; man was I wrong. I just calibrated it today and found it was off by almost 2mm from front to back of the blade. The saw is cutting much more true now; slapped my own hand on that one…. Still learning a ton and having fun.

Thanks John, I actually have checked out CB designer but unless I didn't figure out how to work it correctly I didn't see a way to help design the more intricate boards - but for sanity sake I'll download it again and retry. I do remember it was cool to see what the different colors would look like which is very cool.

Thanks everyone!
 

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Proper grain orientation is the difference between good and great… your board is fabulous… love the timbers, the pattern and the execution… well done…
 

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Degoose! Thanks so much for your opinion; means a lot!
 
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