Where did I go wrong?

Show us a photo or two.

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Pictures Added Above!

-- Chris N, Westford, MA - "If you won't eat something from your fridge that turned green...why would you eat something that started out that way?"

It can’t be your table saw blade because the cut surfaces are on the top. It isn’t the quantity of glue, because wood glue is not meant to be gap filling unless thickened. It may be the clamping pressure, but I doubt it. I’m guessing that your boards were warped. A thickness planer won’t straighten warped wood. It will just make a parallel copy of the other side of the wood. You didn’t mention using a jointer above, so I’m assuming that you didn’t use one.

It should be easy to fix. Just run it through the table saw, and cut in between the seam with the gap. You could also use a band saw or even a hand saw. It doesn’t have to be a perfectly straight cut. Just make sure that the kerf is wide enough to cut material on both sides of the gap. The pieces should fit back together nicely. You might want to make another cut on the other side so everything remains symmetrical.

-- Scott, San Diego

Sometimes we can apply too much clamping pressure causing too much squeeze out, leaving a weak glue bond. Try as Swied suggested above and apply enough glue to cover both sides. Then clamp just until the glue starts squeezing out. Pipe clamps exert an enormous amount of pressure so it’s easy to overclamp. Underclamping would result in no squeezeout on certain areas. Chinese clamps are notorious for slipping under load leaving a weak joint. Also use a good glue like Titebond II or III.

To check for straightness, place the edge against a good level and look for light between the two.

That’s a lot to consider but hopefully should correct your probs. Let us know!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Bummer! I think the saw kerf method described above should fix it.

-- Maplewood, MN

Maybe the wood shrank because of the heat in your shop or one of your boards wasn’t dry enough, maybe some of your blocks weren’t properly jointed and squared prior to glue-up…Whatever the reason, you can fix this by ripping that section out and replace it by gluing a new one that is square. Check your joints before glue up: if they’re open, fix them then, don’t rely on the clamps pressure to force bad joints closed.

Was it near a heating duct after un-clamping? I’ve had a few pieces go awry because one side dried up while partially under the ceiling vent. It took a while to figure out, but haven’t had that particular problem since.

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

Thanks for all your feedback!!!

I have re-sawn the joints, then did a very fine pass over my jointer and re-glued. No Gaps!!!

I seem to have lost my router bits in our last move, so it’s not finished yet.

I will post pictures soon.

Thanks again!

-- Chris N, Westford, MA - "If you won't eat something from your fridge that turned green...why would you eat something that started out that way?"

Glad to see you got that resolved – it’s gonna be a really nice cutting board…

-- Tom's Workbench - http://tomsworkbench.com

I have several problems with this design of cutting board (6). I would suggest that in this particular case, insufficient glue and clamping pressure (assuming that ALL the cuts were at 090.0° and not 089.9° or 090.1°)

It looks as if you have fixed the problem (I would suggest crosscutting through offending line/joint, re-jounting and re-gluing.)

I disagree with the method of applying to both side and clamping so the glue just squeezes out. Thick glue joints are very week – the wood either side of the joint should be impregnated with glue, the actual glue between the joints should be minimal (0.0001”) 1/10,000” this glue forms the link between the two sections of glue impegnated wood, this is what gives you an ultra stong bonding

Good luck

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)