# End grain cutting board problems



## ajthomas5009 (Dec 21, 2013)

This is my 1st stab at end grain cutting boards and it seems like I've ran into some problems on the home stretch.

My edge grain glue up went fine. 1 slab came out flat and was ready to plan and the othe I ran a light pass with my router sled 1st. So I then planed the other side smooth. Checked both for flatness and had to let them sit for about 4 hours.

Now this could have very well been where my problem lies. Not cutting the strips immediately and gluing. But I figured it should be alright because in my past experience with boxes I never experienced enough movement to matter in such short time.

Well 4 hrs later came and I cut my strips and began my glue up. While gluing up my 1st of the 2 boards I noticed some slight bow or cup in the strips. Figuring this wouldn't be a problem I clamped and cracked the top and bottom strips while trying to close the joint. So I disassembled and let the unused strips sit.

Any advice on where I went wrong?

Has this happened to others?

What am I to so with the other strips? I don't see how I could reflatten these strips.


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## toddbeaulieu (Mar 5, 2010)

I'm not experienced in this, but I have had occasions where I've had to re-joint and plane "strips" after ripping them. Sometimes there is tension in the wood that, once you rip it, the piece immediately has a bow in it. That's why I usually rip things wider than final dimension first. To leave room for jointing and planing. I've also seen people "drop" lumber first to release some of that tension, before milling it.

I guess you're talking about the cross-cut strips, though. You'd lose some width, obviously, but I don't see why you couldn't joint and plane them.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

I ran into a similar situation on my first (& only) end grain board.
Rather than joint & plane….
I ran a long stip of PSA sand paper, on my lathe bed.
I then used that to flattened out the cup.
One could also use the table on a jointer or TS….


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## Betsy (Sep 25, 2007)

Honestly not sure I understand exactly what happened - but I can tell you that I do my first cuts to the get the individual strips for up to 10 boards at a time on day one. I bundle the strips into board groups and rubber band those so they don't get mixed up with others. The second day I glue up the edge grain boards. I generally don't have a consecutive third day to work so those edge grain boards often sit for a week or more until I get a weekend to work. The next I cut all the strips I need from the edge grain boards and rubber band each set together. Next day they get glued into the end grain boards. I've never had any trouble with warping or bowing. I usually don't do more than 10 at a time but I've done more when the need arose.

My reason for doing all the cutting at one time is that it's too blasted hot to be out in the shop in Texas so I don't like to do a lot of set ups. So I make a list of all the boards I want to make and make a cut list of all the pieces I need, then cut the 1" pieces needed for all ten boards once, the move up my list of measurements. Doing it that way speeds things up immensely.

Where did you store your boards? I store my lumber in the house (no - no one complains) and bring in all the cut boards after I'm done in the shop.

Not sure if that's helpful - hope so.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Did you try to glue up the whole board in one go?


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## ajthomas5009 (Dec 21, 2013)

Yes tried to do the final glue up in one go.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that either milling inaccuracies, wood movement or in accurate TS cuts cause my edge grain blank to warp across its width or have thicker middle and thinner sides of board. So once I turned and flipped all my pieces I ended of with slight gaps at the ends of each joint. When I attempted to glue up and force gaps shut the board cracked.

As a quick fix I just made it into an edge grain board. But in the near future I plan on tuning up my planner. Perhaps dull knives, in/out feed table alignment or blade not being seated correctly caused inconsistencies in the surface which were compounded when I flipped and rotated the pieces.

That's only a guess though.


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## ajthomas5009 (Dec 21, 2013)

I just check the thickness of some scraps from the project with calipers in various spots. They varied quite a bit, up to .05 in some spots. I have a strong feeling some how my planer knives got out of whack. The knives were over due for a changing but it sucks to have messed up some good walnut to find out.

Oh well, I guess it's something that happens once in a blue moon.


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## CerberusWoodCo (Dec 2, 2014)

Did you ever have any luck figuring out the issue? I'm having the same problem on a certain design, had to scrap an entire board after the crosscut step because my ends were just a little thin, making for an accordian like effect. I was thinking about the way it runs through the planer after the edge glue up and it does snipe a little front to back but this wouldn't effect every piece that gets flipped, just the end pieces. Any solutions of suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 


> I just check the thickness of some scraps from the project with calipers in various spots. They varied quite a bit, up to .05 in some spots. I have a strong feeling some how my planer knives got out of whack. The knives were over due for a changing but it sucks to have messed up some good walnut to find out.
> 
> Oh well, I guess it s something that happens once in a blue moon.
> 
> - athomas5009


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## Wondermutt (Jan 21, 2016)

Not sure if this is related or not, but I had a similar situation where one of the Maple flat stocks had some moisture which I did not check. All looked good after milling the boards, glued it together and came back the next morning. That's when I saw cupping. I looked over at the unused strips and they were bowed. That told me all I needed to know.

I now own a moisture checker/measurement devise.


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