# 006: pallet wood cutting board



## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*

I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:



One of the ideas I liked best was an end grain cutting board. I realized I had pics of each side of the block, so I made a block in SketchUp of the same dimensions, then slapped on textures from those pictures. It looked like this:

 

Now I could cut that up by drawing lines at the locations where I wanted the cuts, then using the push/pull tool to shorten them to the right size. I made 2" thick pieces, 6 out of the 13.75" block, accounting for kerf and making them a tad longer originally so I could plane down the resulting board to the full 2". Obviously I can't change the end grain textures in this mockup without actually cutting the block, but this did allow me to see the unique side grain patterns on 4 sides of each piece I 'cut' from the original. Here are the cut-out blocks made from duplicates of the original block:





And now I could make virtual boards to try out various orientations of the pieces:



Here are the bottoms:



I'm leaning toward the one with the dark bands along the long edges, framing the board in. It's the one in the foreground here:



Another suggestion was to rip it along its length into 3 sections and make a long grain cutting board. It was easy to do that with the same block in SketchUp. Isn't the future amazing? Here it is, 1" thick:



It's neat to see the end grains - looped 3x here - looking so realistic:



Other end:



And the bottom:



If only the texture were 3D as well, I could do virtual turnings! Actually, I want to try that one day by taking a highly figured piece of beautiful wood, like a mallee or walnut burl, then repeatedly planing away exactly the same amount of material - say 0.005"-0.01", then scanning that face, and eventually building up a 3D texture made of cross sections, just as in the Visible Human Project from nearly a decade ago.

If you've never heard of the VHP, they took a prisoner on death row who'd donated his body to science, froze the body in a block of ice, then shaved away 1mm sections from head to toe, taking a few different kinds of images of each layer. In the end they had a full 3D view of the guy and could then cut into him from any angle and see anything from that view. Too, they used color and shape finding algorithms to automatically figure out where all the structures, like bones, muscles, and organs were, and could view or manipulate them by themselves. Again… the future is amazing.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


nice!

I like the long grain version more.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


COOL!!!


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


Great use of the texture feature. Nice visual of the cutting board before doing any cuts.


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## dvhart (Feb 22, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


Very cool visualization Gary! Thanks for sharing.


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


wow, that's pretty impressive. i didn't even know this was possible. i'm partial to the endgrain version myself, but both look really good.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *visualizing a cutting board in SketchUp*
> 
> I got some good suggestions in my last post about what to do with this block that I glued up from mostly reclaimed red oak pallet wood:
> 
> ...


Thanks, everyone! So I have one for end grain, one for long grain, and one for any of them. I'll have to be the tie-breaker! I'm very partial to the end grain. I've always liked that, and they self-repair better than long-grain boards, though long grain boards are certainly very popular. I think I see those in kitchens a lot more often, probably because they're usually easier to make. You can make a kind of merging of the two if you have a wide board. Just cut short ends off and turn them all upright. Then you get end grain, but with contiguous, long strips across the length or width of the board. I think I actually agree with PurpLev that the long grain is a bit prettier - nice, consistent, longer stripes - but I really want to make a 2" thick board with this thing.

It's interesting to see how the BFs lay out, and how a block about this size can become 2 different styles of boards of useful, but different sizes with very little waste from either. That'll go into my library of design concepts in my head. If I find a block of wood about this size again - 3"x4"x13" - I know it can pretty easily become a cutting board. The sizes of these things using the actual measurements from the block (down to the 1/32) are either 7-7/8"x10-13/32"x2" or 11-13/16"x13-3/4"x1". To simplify, that's a 1" board roughly 11.5×13.75, or a 2" board roughly 8"x10.5".

Something that occurred to me just now typing this up is that I put boards with darkened (from rusty nails) pallet screw holes on their faces in the middle of the glue-up to hide these imperfections. It's somewhat guaranteed that I'll reveal some of these as I cut up the block. I'll have to fill them. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm going to cut it into 2"+ sections for glue-up into the end grain version (Sorry, Purp!). I'll keep you posted, and I'll take some pics and do some screencaps from SketchUp that match those to see how closely my mockup comes out to the final.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*cuts and glue-ups*

I've renamed my 5 preexisting project series from "project: whatever" to "00n: whatever" where n is the number of the set of posts in order. E.g. instead of "project: a rolling base for my planer," that was the second project series I made, so now it's "002: a rolling base for my planer." The projects were starting to scatter in my series list, and I'd have a few series listed at the top in the drop-down for new posts, then an out-of-order set of posts that began with "project:," and then more randomly named series below those. This change alphabetically stacks and keeps in order the project posts at the top of that list. I like organization.

Anyway, no going back now. I've cut the wood block into 6 2" thick chunks:



It will be the end-grain board previsualized in my previous post in this series. You'll note some severe burning of the [crooked] cuts from my dull band saw blade. I'm holding off on buying any new $40+ blades for now, and with just the one, I don't really want to wait for sharpening. I did buy a diamond wheel and chainsaw bit for my Dremel, and I'm considering some frontier sharpening on the blade. I've seen someone online have some success this way, and he posted a YouTube video on how to achieve his results. Anyway, here are the 2" thick pieces laid out to get a sense of the final board:



Glue-ups were a little bit of a pain. It was very hard to clamp without them sliding out of perfect alignment. I solved this and made the arduous task a lot simpler with some C clamps which held the face I wanted flush perfectly so:





First pieces glued-up:



Gluing 2 of the chunks together:



Final clamping, front and back:





All glued up and ugly:





There are some real discrepancies in thickness, but overall there's at least a 1.75" thick, flat cutting board hiding in here:





I had wanted the darker wood bordering the long edges, as seen in the back left board here:



However, the long grain wood on the board edges was really drab in real life, so I went with the board design in the front left. I don't like the band through the middle as much, but the streak running up the center of the plank that made up what are now the outside faces adds a vertical dark stripe repeated 3x on each long face, which I think enhances the visual interest. Too, the drab face had some checks in it, and I didn't want them showing on the outside edges of the cutting board.

Tomorrow I'll set up my router bridge and flatten the front and back, removing the dark burn marks from the dull band saw blade, then use the table saw and maybe the jointer to get the edges to 90° and pretty. Then I can round over the sides and corners.



I'm eager to see if this mess will look pretty in the end:



I think I want to put some recesses under the short sides to make it easier to pick up the board. It is quite a chunky little thing!


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## Jimthecarver (Jan 14, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *cuts and glue-ups*
> 
> I've renamed my 5 preexisting project series from "project: whatever" to "00n: whatever" where n is the number of the set of posts in order. E.g. instead of "project: a rolling base for my planer," that was the second project series I made, so now it's "002: a rolling base for my planer." The projects were starting to scatter in my series list, and I'd have a few series listed at the top in the drop-down for new posts, then an out-of-order set of posts that began with "project:," and then more randomly named series below those. This change alphabetically stacks and keeps in order the project posts at the top of that list. I like organization.
> 
> ...


Looks great Gary,
I hope you dont make the same mistake as I did and run it through your planer…....lol. Talk about things going heywire in a quick hurry, WOW!


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *cuts and glue-ups*
> 
> I've renamed my 5 preexisting project series from "project: whatever" to "00n: whatever" where n is the number of the set of posts in order. E.g. instead of "project: a rolling base for my planer," that was the second project series I made, so now it's "002: a rolling base for my planer." The projects were starting to scatter in my series list, and I'd have a few series listed at the top in the drop-down for new posts, then an out-of-order set of posts that began with "project:," and then more randomly named series below those. This change alphabetically stacks and keeps in order the project posts at the top of that list. I like organization.
> 
> ...


just be careful when routing near the edges. I have a bad feeling about chip out. small chips probably won't matter much because I assume you'll round over the edges, but bigger ones might not be fun.

i wish i had some advice on the bandsaw blade, but the only thing i can think of is to tell you to stop resawing your found lumber. I don't want you to do that though. I wouldn't have all those cool finds of yours to look at.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *cuts and glue-ups*
> 
> I've renamed my 5 preexisting project series from "project: whatever" to "00n: whatever" where n is the number of the set of posts in order. E.g. instead of "project: a rolling base for my planer," that was the second project series I made, so now it's "002: a rolling base for my planer." The projects were starting to scatter in my series list, and I'd have a few series listed at the top in the drop-down for new posts, then an out-of-order set of posts that began with "project:," and then more randomly named series below those. This change alphabetically stacks and keeps in order the project posts at the top of that list. I like organization.
> 
> ...


Great blog, Gary,

I'm taking notes on your clamping techniques. This is something that I can never get just right.

Lew


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*

Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.

I've moved up to a 5/8" or maybe 3/4" bit and it makes planing a lot faster. Too, I found that just putting masking tape along the bottom edges, curved to stick to the workbench is more than adequate as a hold down until I come up with a better solution - probably wedges. The tape doesn't hold in the direction through the face you've taped and it's opposite side. It holds in the direction of that edge. The front and back runs keep it from moving side to side, and vice versa. It was rigid as could be the 3 times I set up and planed, and I took much deeper passes than I have in the past.

As for tearout from the bit, this is eliminated by first framing the piece in a clockwise direction, half the bit over the piece, half hanging off the edge. This runs the bit along the outside edge in what machinist's would call a 'climb milling' direction. In other words, the cutter edges don't dig into the material and scoop up in the direction of motion, like a bulldozer scooping and lifting as it drives, but instead roll over it like a wheel, hammering straight down into the wood and scooping down and back into already cleared area. There was one spot where I pushed through from front to back and did get a little swath of tearout, but it will be gone after rounding the edge with the router and final sanding. Switching back to first framing the face clockwise, then going back and forth to clear the middle stopped all tearout entirely. Wasn't even a great bit - just a blue Ryobi straight bit from a large set I got years ago. It was about 2 minutes per full pass on this small thing.

After that, I slowly, carefully passed one long and one adjacent short edge over the jointer. All of the corners were remarkably square, before and after the jointing operation. That helped a lot. Then I used my large miter sled to trim the opposite faces to those to get them parallel. My hold down clamp on the sled (Incra T-track setup) wouldn't hold the thick slab tightly against the fence, so I just clamped it to the sled itself, first pushing it up against the front edge of the board. As it clamped down, it flexed outward a bit, pressing the slab tightly against the fence. I couldn't budge it. It's a good technique for the future.

The amazing thing was that all 4 corners read exactly the same thickness on my digital calipers, to the 128th of an inch. I had used small scraps of plywood to shim the board up high enough to take passes with the router, and didn't bother to register anything - just clamped down the rails, taped down the board, and made the passes. It's a well set up system, and that has me quite pleased where future efforts are concerned. I went over it with 3 grits in my ROS to knock away the router bit marks and remove my circular saw's unfortunate burn marks. The grits were something like 60, 120, and 220. Anyway, pics!

This face, with the little knotty void region will be the bottom:



This is the top:



It's not as pretty as it would have been with PurpLev's suggested long-grain glue-up (see 2 posts back in this series, and sorry, Purp!), but it sated my curiosity about making an oak end grain board from scraps. The edges aren't half bad, either. That dark stripe repeating itself on the long sides came through:





And here are the narrow ends:





Next up, rounding over the edges - going with large roundovers for this - then rubber feet, branding the bottom, and giving it a nice bath in butcher's block oil!


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


Nice Gary!

Hard to tell from the pictures, is it Red or White oak? If it's red, it would be interesting to see if the oil will wick completely thru from one side to the other.

Lew


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


I just love pallet wood don't you Gary? The stuff I've found sometimes looks like yours and sometimes I find South American cherry. I have a hard time passing up a good tile store pallet stack. Great job and love the blog.

Best,


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Lew and Jim!

Jim - it takes some loving, but pallet wood cleans up pretty nicely. I have a good stack of it left over here, and a couple pallets I have yet to cut up.

Lew - It looks like the middle stripe, made from 2 identical boards are some kind of white oak. They have those tyloses clogging up the pores and that more grayish color, as well as the usual oak markers. The board down the long edges and every other one in from that - 4 stripes total on each side - are red oak. There's some color deviation, so it could be anything from different parts of the tree, to different trees grown in different conditions, to different species within the red oak spectrum. The 4 blond wood stripes on each side, in between the red oak stripes I at first thought were oak, but they just don't have the right end grain. They have a kind of smooth, creamy end grain that I'm not familiar with, though the edges had a bit of an oak-like open grain. The wood itself had a really sweet smell when cut which I also couldn't identify. It mixes with the 2 oak scents to make a really nice fragrance that I rather wish I could bottle. It would be nice to learn what kind of wood it is. Maybe I'll send a small sample to one of those wood ID labs. I have scraps in the cutoffs.


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## DragonLady (Mar 2, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


I really like the subtle design with the grain. Very nice!

how come I can never find OAK pallets? All I get is nasty pine.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


DragonLady - perhaps you need to look around places that get much heavier deliveries? You might try poking around tile places and industrial machine shops. The wood for this came from a pallet from a bearing place. Those come in heavy boxes piled up that weigh a ton with the hundreds or thousands of bearings stacked on them. The wood I got from behind a restaurant that was installing kitchen machinery was all pine, but a lot of the more heavy-duty, dirty, industrial places seem to have thick, very heavy pallets. I can't get through them fast enough, but if I could, I've seen so many out here in west LA. Now that I'm tuned in, I see them everywhere. I saw a stack of about 15 of them pulling out of a drive-thru fast food place yesterday, and lamented that I couldn't even bother with that many. 2 blocks down from me on my street is a place that sells furniture - just a little boutique shop - and they often enough lay a nice, clean pallet up against the tree in the sidewalk out front, and no one ever takes them. I've grabbed a couple of those while out on my occasional neighborhood walks, and just walked 2 blocks back home with them.

One thing about the design of the roads here in LA that I wouldn't get, say, back home in south Jersey, or in Sarasota, FL, where I went to school, is all of the alleys between each block. A good example is here in Google Maps. You can see Anderson Plywood on Sepulveda there, between Washington Blvd and Washington Place, but note there's a kind of angle bisector road that runs from Sepulveda through the middle of those, between both Washingtons. That's not a real road. It's just the delivery route and employee parking areas. If I drove through that, I'd probably find several pallets, and there are always people behind these buildings doing something. I can ask them, and most love to lighten their load of pallets. LA is completely tiled for miles and miles in all directions with back alley places like this, one right next to another. I can just go from one to the next to the next all day. If you zoom out of the map at that link, it's frightening how dense LA is, and how massive. It seems to never end, and it's wall-to-wall buildings and people, and pallets 

Unfortunately, as I said, I just can't process them fast enough. If I was really fast, I could make a fortune building and selling things in this goldmine of free wood!.


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## 308Gap (Mar 6, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


I sense a longing for more of a country life in your writing, kep up the blogs as I enjoy yours more than most. Thanks.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


308Gap - it's true. I grew up in the deep woods and didn't leave home until college at nearly 18. I seem to always be trying to find my way back there. Someday I may.


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## medman (Apr 17, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *cleaned up, ready for final shaping and finishing*
> 
> Well, it's a lot nicer than it was where I left off yesterday. The router bridge (seen at the end of this post) is such a nice way to plane things, and I've thought of some ideas that might make setup a lot easier.
> 
> ...


I'm a total nooby when it comes to wood working. I really love the project. Are you concerned with any the chemical treatments (if any) that are used on Pallets and exposing it to your food?


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*rounding over, sanding, and finishing*

I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:



It is 6-3/4"x8-5/8" and a little over 1.75" thick. Or, you know, about the size of the US hardcover edition of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," though the book is a little less than an inch taller in the longest dimension. Note the butcher's block conditioner (Howard brand), my personal brand, and my hand for scale:



It's a little guy! I used CA glue to fill in the few small checks, and the knotty area in the bottom, then had at it with the ROS again to smooth it back down. No big voids now. I've determined that it's white oak in the middle, the 4 dark bands on each side of the white oak band are red oak, possibly of mixed species, and the lighter, blond wood, all of the same, sweet-smelling species, remains as yet unknown:



Here are the feet, and my brand:



Another shot with the brand and conditioner:



Closeup of the brand mark (I love that thing):



And here's a shot with the light reflecting in it:



I like the way the long edge faces came out. Putting the dark band of white oak in the middle worked out by showing off the prettier red oak with the vertical black stripe, which is mirrored 3x on each long edge, as it's the same board cut into 6 2" lengths (originally, before being planed down closer to 1.75").

Oak always gives that heavily checked appearance in the end grain, thanks to the medullary rays that are so pronounced. It makes it look like many of these pieces are split, though in real life it's much less obvious, and more apparent that there is lighter, ray fiber material filling those spaces entirely.

I will post this as a project just to get another one on the board. I've put on 3 coats of the conditioner, allowing about an hour in between each, and have a few more to go before I'll call it conditioned. I'm rubbing it in pretty hard to help warm up the wood and conditioner and to make sure it presses deeply into those pesky oak pores.


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## bigike (May 25, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


cool little cutting board


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Gary, this is a nice cutter and I really enjoy that it was crafted from "found" wood.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Very nicely done , Gary : ) Have you ever tried warming the oil before applying it ?
I have a different brand that recommends letting the plastic bottle soak in hot water for a time before using it.
I also have a friend that "warms" his boards up in a 150-200 degree oven as well as the oil / beeswax mixture that he uses. I don't know if it's worth all of the extra effort , but he thinks it is.
I mostly use regular Mineral Oil and sometimes add wax to it .
Does the conditioner that you're using leave the wood in its Natural color ? Do you apply anything over the conditioner afterwards ?
Thanks : )


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## GaryD (Mar 5, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Gary nice job


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## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Very cool!!


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## Porosky (Mar 10, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Nice Gary. There is a huge "Green" Recycled market out there that this product is perfect for. I'd say that this should be at the upper end of that market based on the fine craftsmanship. I'd dare say this maybe worth more as a reclaimed cutting board/piece of wood because it is so nice. A lot of reclaimed wood cutting boards look… well… reclaimed. Just thought I'd share my two cents about cents, it was what popped into mind first so it made sence. Have you made any more since? sorry


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


looks fantastic!


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## dvhart (Feb 22, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


I love the brand - where did you pick that up?


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Beautiful, 
who knows it was made out of pallet board…!


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Thanks, everybody!

Dusty - it does say on the bottle that it's best to apply when warm so it soaks in better. I have not tried that. Like I said, I rub hard which helps to warm it a little and push it in, but it's not going to be quite the same as boiling the bottle or putting the board in an oven. You mention mineral oil and wax. The bottle actually says "a mix of food grade mineral oil and natural waxes"  The conditioner most definitely does not leave it in its natural color. It imparts a pretty strong orange/yellow hue to the wood. If you go back a post in this set, you'll see the pre-finished board, and it's much more pale, and less yellowy orange. I've also used this stuff to seal up the top of Modesto ash cake stand, which was just a large round atop a smaller log. It turned it from a pale beige to a dark, deep orange-yellow as well. I don't put anything beneath or on top of it. It seems this stuff is meant to go it alone.

porosky - I hope so! I've heard the term 'upcycled' a few times on sites selling recycled stuff like this. I think there's definitely a movement, and hopefully it'll help out a bit in these troubled financial times.

Purp - glad you still like it!

Darren - I got the branding iron as a gift from my mother. She got it at Rockler. They have a bunch. Mine is the first one, #26268, Basic arc Branding Iron , 1 line - Electric. When you add it to your cart, it'll let you type in a name, up to 20 characters. I also got the date attachment, #21568, Date Attachment for Electrically heated Branding Irons. It's a little bit of a pain to get it positioned properly, and you should definitely test a lot before branding anything. It probably took me 30 or so tests now and then between projects to get good at getting it where I wanted and making sure the whole thing burns in. I've also found it's better to overburn, rocking the pressure to the corners over and over, then sand a bit to remove surrounding burn marks then to end up with missing corners, or a faint image.


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## bigfish_95008 (Nov 26, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Don't know if you need or want more pallets, but on CL in the LA FREE category there is somewone with a LOT of pallets they are giving away.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


Thanks, bigfish! Alas, I don't need any more. There are several on CL every week or so, but I see them almost everywhere I go here in west LA. There are perhaps literally 1.3 zillion shops and small industrial places intermixed with industrial/auto/mechanic/machine shops, and they're scattered all through residential areas. I've found them behind fast food places - got one from El Pollo Loco down the street - leaning against a tree outside a furniture store 2 blocks from my home (walked home with one of those 2x now) - stacked up at car repair shops, all around other restaurants, at hardware stores, and this one came from a stack at a bearing shop, all cut up for me by the trash. I got some from a movie PR firm once, and still have those - really clean, solid ones. In fact, I still have about 3x what I used here just from the pallet these came from. I wish I could go through it a lot faster and make salable items in the several-per-day numbers! I'd make quite a nice little side income. Thanks for giving me the heads up anyway! I appreciate it.


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## GarySalisbury (Dec 7, 2015)

gfixler said:


> *rounding over, sanding, and finishing*
> 
> I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous 'milling everything flat and square' post, to the final board, so here's the final board, all finished:
> 
> ...


I know this is an old blog but let me make a comment and ask a question.

1. It is a very pretty board. I really like the look, however,

2. am I mistaken that the grain direction changes between strips? It looks like end grain, cross grain, end grain, cross grain, etc. If so, then wouldn't there tend to be cracking because the expansion rates would be different?

Just a novice trying to learn….....


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