CS1 End Grain Cutting Board
Well I finally decided to join the cutting board club and this project completes my membership requirements. Now I am waiting for one of you charter members to send me the secret handshake.
I needed to come up with something for my wife since her birthday is coming up this weekend. It basically boiled down to building her something or taking her shopping for clothes. To tell the honest truth I would much rather be spending time in the shop rather than sitting in a chair while she spends hours browsing the racks at her favorite store.
The board measures 13" by 17" and is built from walnut, cherry, maple and purple heart strips. The board is finished with mineral oil and ended up being a shade over 1 1/4" thick once it was final.
In building the board I first glued up indivdual panels of walnut, cherry, maple and purple heart that were 18" in width since I wanted the board's final length to be in the neighborhood of 18". After the glue dried the panels were cut into 1 1/2" strips which were arranged in the pattern that was chosen.
I did have concerns about the strips shifting when placed under clamping pressures so I decided to use a glue board for aligning and supporting the strips:
Once the glue dried the sanding process began. After scraping the dried glue I spent 3 hours initially with a belt sander equipped with 50 grit belts removing the dried glue and flattening the board. Once flattened I used my 13" planer to finish the board. The planer did a good job of handling the end grain but the board lost about 1/4" due to chip out which I removed with the table saw. The board was finished sanded to 220 grit and mineral oil added several times over a two day period.
Overall this was a fun project that took me about 4 days to complete. Would I do it again? Without a doubt but the next one will probably have to wait until I add a drum sander to my shop. Using a belt sander for hours on end really is not my idea of a fun time.
Well I finally decided to join the cutting board club and this project completes my membership requirements. Now I am waiting for one of you charter members to send me the secret handshake.
I needed to come up with something for my wife since her birthday is coming up this weekend. It basically boiled down to building her something or taking her shopping for clothes. To tell the honest truth I would much rather be spending time in the shop rather than sitting in a chair while she spends hours browsing the racks at her favorite store.
The board measures 13" by 17" and is built from walnut, cherry, maple and purple heart strips. The board is finished with mineral oil and ended up being a shade over 1 1/4" thick once it was final.
In building the board I first glued up indivdual panels of walnut, cherry, maple and purple heart that were 18" in width since I wanted the board's final length to be in the neighborhood of 18". After the glue dried the panels were cut into 1 1/2" strips which were arranged in the pattern that was chosen.
I did have concerns about the strips shifting when placed under clamping pressures so I decided to use a glue board for aligning and supporting the strips:
Once the glue dried the sanding process began. After scraping the dried glue I spent 3 hours initially with a belt sander equipped with 50 grit belts removing the dried glue and flattening the board. Once flattened I used my 13" planer to finish the board. The planer did a good job of handling the end grain but the board lost about 1/4" due to chip out which I removed with the table saw. The board was finished sanded to 220 grit and mineral oil added several times over a two day period.
Overall this was a fun project that took me about 4 days to complete. Would I do it again? Without a doubt but the next one will probably have to wait until I add a drum sander to my shop. Using a belt sander for hours on end really is not my idea of a fun time.