How to flatten cutting board?

Sounds like a good excuse for learning how to use those hand planes . Test it out on some scrap pieces .

Or you could take em by a local cabinet shop with a wide belt sander!

-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""

Bring them by :)
You could use your sander, just put on some rough paper and work your way up. I would start with 80 grit, depending on how much you need to take down. You could plane them down close enough to use your sander, that may take some sanding work out of it. I think you would be surprised how well you could get them with a plane.

Someone here posted a jig that uses a router to do exactly what you want. Sorry I can’t remember who it was but a search should reveal it.

GaryK did the jig for the router. This is the link.
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/1992

-- Berta in NC

I did something similar to GaryK

Didn’t take long to whip together a jig. I made the cross pieces that the router runs on sized for my router plate so I just popped the router table router out and used that.

I have made several of those this year, but I have a thickness drum sander to even them out. If you use a hand plane, work towards the center so you don’t get split out on the edges. The ros with even a coarser grit than 80 would be the way to go. For your second glue up build a right angle jig with a plywood bottom just an half inch shorter than the dimensions of your finished cutting board, using scraps on two edges to form the right angle. Wax it, or cover with wax paper during the second glue up. You want the corners of the squares to be dead on as you clamp, so pay close attention to that. Also, clamp a board on top before applying a lot of side pressure with your clamps to keep the cutting board flat and decrease the amount of sanding you will have to do after the glue up. Good luck!!

-- Rich in Richmond

...how bout a good ol fashoned beltsander.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

I would hone those hand plane irons with a wetstone and then give it a shot. Prolly wanna use a block plane though, if you got one. Drum sanders work pretty good if you have access to one. Pretty high priced machine.

-- I like trees ...... as long as their by the board foot.

As stupid and maybe some would say dangerous, but I run mine thru the planer. I take tiny bites off and keep fliping them over back and forth. So far I have done about 20 different sized boards and they have all come out flat and level.

I only do long grain this way, have not made any end grain yet.

-- Adrian ..... The 11th Commandment...."Thou Shalt Not Buy A Wobble Dado"

That someone Lew is talking about is Garyk. He used a long piece of plywood about 2 foot wide, with a 2×4 up right on both sides I think. Then had his router on a platform on wheel that he could run up and down the board he had secured inside the rails. That is not a good explanation of it. I’m sure if you sent Gary a pm he would show it to you..

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

Like Dennis, I use a belt sander. Messy, but it works.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Wow everyone, Thanks for all the replies.

Brett

I used my planer on an end grain cutting board. You can get a bit of chip out like that so i rounded over the edges a little bit and it help a lot. So is it really dangerous?

-- Wipe the blood stains from your blade before coming in.

I use the planer on the end grain also. Only take somewhere in the 1/128 to 1/64 range of a cut, about an eighth of a handle turn. Works pretty well, but definately seems to be hard on the blades. I also cut a chamfer on the trailing edge to eliminate chipout. It actually works very well on the hard maple, and cherry, but on oak it tends to tearout the endgrain over the whole face of the board, then you have to sand it down for an extended time.

-- PeteMoss

either a router jig, a widebelt sander from a cabinet shop, or a hand plane. don’t use and ros because it won’t get it flat it will only get it flush and that can cause problems later on. hand planes are too hard to use. you should have no problem.

Having just come in from making end grain chopping boards for Christmas (purpleheart and hard maple) here is my take on it. Last night I used a belt sander and 80 grit followed by 150 grit, my guess is I spent nearly an hour sanding the first board, it was a bit of an epic (and it was pretty flat and accurate!). I searched the web today for folks who may have used their P/T on end grain, there seemed to be folks doing it, so I tried taking very very small cuts using an industrial strength Wadkin P/T. I followed this with same sanding regime but was done in 15 mins. I then cut a small strip (1/16th) off the trailing edge where the P/T had caused chipping.
So I think you will really struggle with a small sander, even with a big Makita belt sander it may be time consuming, you might want to seek out someone who can run it through a P/T for you and then clean up the trailing edge or a big drum sander

hth Simon

I’ve been running mine through the planer… not sure why that is dangerous… when it’s all glued together, it goes through nice and smooth.

-- Mark, Dominican Republic

Well, i went to the hardwood supplier that I get my stock from and they planed it down for free! Some good guys there.

Brett

Here’s a cheap easy way…...take two pipes taller than your project wood, duct tape to galvanized steel pipes on top so they are above your project.make it so your router can be run over your project, it’ll do a couple of inches….move your pipes over and do a few more inches, until you’ve done your whole board…..then sand it off. As long as your on a flat surface it will work fine….just make sure your cutter is chucked up so that the cutting edge doesn’t hit the pipe, just the round part of your bit. shouldn’t take long at all.
good luck Steven