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I bake a lot of bread. One of the things that I find frustrating is that I'm so monumentally disorganized that I can rarely find the cooling rack. (Bread should be cooled to almost room temperature before cutting in to it. It's still cooking.)

The last cutting board I made (the only other project I have on here) was made by 1×2" maple boards from the local big box. I try to buy a few every time I'm there. But a couple weeks ago I realized I'd bought 0.5"x2" instead. I was pissed for a couple seconds until I had me an idea.

If I alternated them and raised the narrow ones by half the width, then cut the "bottom" flush, I'd have a cooling rack for bread, and a cutting board. An optimal solution since I never need both at the same time.

I suppose I'm destined always to have a project dominated by "what I'd do different next time." But I'm quite pleased with the way these turned out. The tearout problem is insane though. I mostly cut it out. But I need to fill those valleys in with blank scrap pieces next time I do something like this.

The reason the big one is the size it is (23×9") is that I usually make baguettes, so a normal cutting board doesn't, erm… cut it.

When I made them, I laminated the boards in batches of 3s. Then I cut the bottoms. The smaller of the two pieces is a product of having flush cut the wrong side on one batch. I just cut up another one that way, cut them in half lengthwise, then made the second smaller board. Works fine.

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Very nice job indeed, madwilliam !
And I am a member of your "what I'd do different next time" club….ha ha

Those will come in very handy with your bread making adventures.

Thank you for sharing.
 

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I made something similar using tongue and groove flooring cut offs. Left the tongue side intact and cut off the groove side to the height (thickness) that I wanted the board / trivet to be and edge glued them together to the width I wanted it to be : ) I also added Cherry cutoffs between the Maple flooring pieces just to use up more scraps.
Yours looks much better for bread cooling though , as I made mine to hold hot pots and pans : )
Keep up the nice work : )
 

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Thanks guys :)

Maple is pretty much the only wood in the big box stores near me that's suitable for cutting boards, so that's what I've been using. I would very much like to get some of the more interesting hardwoods. But I fear they'd be wasted until my technique gets better, so I haven't really looked too hard. It's probably available around the corner from me.

I made plenty of mistakes. But I'm fine with them as I'm generally not making the same ones twice.
 

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I realy like this idea. Not only can you use them to cool the bread but you can use them for a bread cutting board as well. Line the bread up and cut where the grove is no worries about tearing up your good cutting board side with a serated bread knife. Oh and you have a grove for the bread crumbs from the cutting.
 
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