Dr.Al
Old Oak
I've never made a chopping board before and I've fancied having an end grain one in the kitchen, so I thought I'd have a go. I'm beginning to regret that decision...
I immediately made it hard for myself by deciding to make it in a pattern that seemed easiest when made out of individual blocks (rather than joining strips together, cutting the joined piece into strips and then gluing those strips together).
I started this back in April, cutting a bunch of bits of wood into strips and then giving myself a work-out planing them in a jig so that they were all square and the same size (any variation in size would mess up the alignment of the pattern).
Those little strips keep the block roughly in the middle of the track so that the block sits in the middle of the plane blade (so the blade's slight camber doesn't result in an off-square block).
All done and a big pile of plane shavings:
With that done, I could chop them all up (with the cross-cut sled on the table saw) so they were all the same length and then do a trial assembly:
At this point I realised that a few of the cherry blocks (the only ones I didn't have spares off) weren't quite square and (having found the repetitive precise sizing of the blocks quite tedious) I somewhat lost interest in the project.
Fast forward three months and the pile of blocks was getting in the way so yesterday I decided to pull my finger out and get on with it. I made some more cherry blocks and spent an hour-and-a-half gluing 165 blocks together with Cascamite (chosen for it's long tack time).
Once that had dried overnight, I ran over both faces with a router sled, taking 0.5 mm off at a time until the whole surface had been skimmed. I did the first side with wedges under the board to support it; once it was flipped over this wasn't required as it sat flat from the machining of the first side.
I then rounded the edges off (with a 3 mm arris trimmer router bit) and added some cut-outs (with an ogee router bit) to help get fingers underneath to lift it off the work surface. I then gave it a first pass with an 80 grit pad on my random orbital sander.
One side:
t'other:
Despite having been sitting nice and flat when it came off the router sled, it has now developed a slight rock (when placed on a flat surface), so I've brought it into the house and will leave it for a couple of days to see what happens. I've no idea what I'll do if it still sits unevenly; I don't really want to put it back on the router sled; sanding it level sounds too much like hard work and I'd rather not put sticky feet on the bottom if possible.
This hasn't been a project I've particular enjoyed to be honest, so I don't think I'm going to put too much effort into making it perfect - I'll get it as good as I can relatively easily and then (after applying a few coats of mineral oil) call it done.
I immediately made it hard for myself by deciding to make it in a pattern that seemed easiest when made out of individual blocks (rather than joining strips together, cutting the joined piece into strips and then gluing those strips together).
I started this back in April, cutting a bunch of bits of wood into strips and then giving myself a work-out planing them in a jig so that they were all square and the same size (any variation in size would mess up the alignment of the pattern).
Those little strips keep the block roughly in the middle of the track so that the block sits in the middle of the plane blade (so the blade's slight camber doesn't result in an off-square block).
All done and a big pile of plane shavings:
With that done, I could chop them all up (with the cross-cut sled on the table saw) so they were all the same length and then do a trial assembly:
At this point I realised that a few of the cherry blocks (the only ones I didn't have spares off) weren't quite square and (having found the repetitive precise sizing of the blocks quite tedious) I somewhat lost interest in the project.
Fast forward three months and the pile of blocks was getting in the way so yesterday I decided to pull my finger out and get on with it. I made some more cherry blocks and spent an hour-and-a-half gluing 165 blocks together with Cascamite (chosen for it's long tack time).
Once that had dried overnight, I ran over both faces with a router sled, taking 0.5 mm off at a time until the whole surface had been skimmed. I did the first side with wedges under the board to support it; once it was flipped over this wasn't required as it sat flat from the machining of the first side.
I then rounded the edges off (with a 3 mm arris trimmer router bit) and added some cut-outs (with an ogee router bit) to help get fingers underneath to lift it off the work surface. I then gave it a first pass with an 80 grit pad on my random orbital sander.
One side:
t'other:
Despite having been sitting nice and flat when it came off the router sled, it has now developed a slight rock (when placed on a flat surface), so I've brought it into the house and will leave it for a couple of days to see what happens. I've no idea what I'll do if it still sits unevenly; I don't really want to put it back on the router sled; sanding it level sounds too much like hard work and I'd rather not put sticky feet on the bottom if possible.
This hasn't been a project I've particular enjoyed to be honest, so I don't think I'm going to put too much effort into making it perfect - I'll get it as good as I can relatively easily and then (after applying a few coats of mineral oil) call it done.
-Rob
