# Sliding cutting board



## WoodenSoldier (May 3, 2010)

Hey everyone,
I need a little advice. 
I'm building a cutting board for my mother to replace her old one. The cutting board she has pulls out from under the counter and slides back in when you're done with it. Because it essentially hangs with all it's weight on one end when in use, I have reservations about gluing up an end-grain checkerboard type pattern. 
My two courses of actions that I have been debating over:

1) Build an end-grain checkerboard cutting board, then resaw it and glue it to a solid hardwood bottom. (This also makes me nervous since the who thing can only be 3/4 thick and I don't know how well resawing a glued up cutting board would go)

2) Build a face grain cutting board out of strips of maple and walnut. Not quite as creative, but would still have a classy look.

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

The standard boards are not made from endgrain


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## barryvabeach (Jan 25, 2010)

Gluing end grain squares to a plywood bottom probably will not work, since the endgrain will try to expand, and something will fail. I have made, and purchased, a number of face grain cutting boards and they work quite well. I have one end grain one designed for carving turkey, etc, and it gets very badly warped in use, though it gets back to straight when it dries. Go with face grain.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

I was under the impression that end grain cutting boards were standard/preferable because the knife edge slides between the fibers as it cuts, leaving less damage. Face grain get severed every time a cut is made, which eventually trashes the board.

I do know that most cabinet-grade slide out cutting boards are plywood, because I almost had to replace one in the monster-in-law's kitchen (they sold the house before I had to make one). The horizontal fibers had been trashed over several years' worth of cutting on it. If I had to replace it, I might've done end grain and keep flipping it so that if there was any sagging, it would cancel out. Maybe a thin strip of plywood sandwiched between two end grain panels? What about installing some kind of runners inside the cabinet to support the cutting board so that it doesn't spend it's life cantilevered?


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

Greetings W.S.,

This is interesting that this topic came up. Just a few days ago I made a replacement cutting board for one of my customers' cabinets. She called and asked if I could do it… I said I'll be right over to take a look…..

She had all oak cabinets in the kitchen, and a maple pull-out board. It had breadboard edges, had split down the middle, cause someone had glued the breadboards down solid with glue, and one end was completely broke off. I explained what needed to be done…. she said go….I pulled the old board out, took measurements
(it was 14" x 20"), and built her a new one. It was 3/4" solid maple, same dimenisions, but I elongated the holes just a little on the b.b. edges, put just a couple of drops on glue on, and used maple dowels.. Put a few coats of mineral oil on to"prep" the wood, and took it to her… It fit like an old glove, she was ecstatic, and I brought home $50 big ones…....The whole point to this typing is: Don't make an oak board for oak cabinets, or one made of plywood….. no endgrain. But…. more importantly, go with a good solid-wood replacement.


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## Triman (Aug 4, 2008)

I made this replacement for our kitchen about 3 years ago, and so far, it's still intact! It's just maple and walnut.


















I added thin strips on delrin(sp?) on the cabinet surface that the board slides on, just to ease the sliding, and to make up a small difference in thickness.


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## manumurf (Mar 4, 2010)

The one's I used to put in cabinets were maple(or Alder) with Glued up center and breadboard ends. I actually bought them from a hardware supplier in boxes of 5 around 22" long and 21 " wide to be able to cut the width to fit. I think they also came 24 wide. They had a tongue and groove joint between the ends and the panel instead of dowels. As song as the rear end is not too wide the board usually did not get pulled out far enough to be able to exert enough pressure to break it off.

I have seen them made from plywood but they just don't hold up. Typical cabinet ply glue is not waterproof and as soon as you cut throught the veneer and wash it a few times, the veneer starts to come off.


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