End Grain Butcher Block Cutting Board With Juice Groove & Handholds
Introduction: End Grain Butcher Block Cutting Board With Juice Groove & Handholds
Follow along as we show you step-by-step how to make this beautiful and sturdy end grain cutting board. This is an intermediate woodworking project that requires a variety of tools. As always, wear the proper PPE when attempting any woodworking project and do not attempt anything if you are uncomfortable or unsure.
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Supplies
Materials:
* 2 Pieces 8/4 or 2" Walnut
* 1 Piece 8/4 or 2" Maple
* Titebond III Wood Glue
* Food Grade Mineral Oil
* Food Grade Cutting Board Wax
Tools:
* Chop Saw/Miter Saw
* Table Saw
* Random Orbital Sander
* Router
* 3/8" Round Nose Router Bit
* Jointer
* Clamps
Optional Tools:
* Drum Sander
Step 1: Choosing Your Lumber
To start, choose a nice, hard species of lumber to work with. In order to follow the specific measurements in this Instructable, you should choose 8/4 or 2" thick stock. We chose to use two pieces of walnut for the outer strips and one piece of maple for the center. These pieces should be at least 25" long and the width at least 4" each.
Step 2: Cutting Stock to Length
To prepare your stock, you will want to cut all of the boards to the same length. On the chop saw, cut each piece to at least 25".
Step 3: Rough Cut Width
In this step, you want to prepare the stock for the jointer. Cut your pieces to be at least a 1/4" inch wider than your final widths. Since I wanted the final width of the maple stock to be 3", I cut it to 3 1/4". For the 2 walnut pieces, I wanted the final width to be 3 3/4". I therefore cut each walnut piece to 4".
Step 4: Joint Stock
Joint one face of each piece. Once you have one face of each piece jointed, place the jointed face against the fence of the jointer. This will allow you to get perfectly square edges and is extremely important to get a clean glue up.
Step 5: Finish Milling the Stock
Next, head to the planer. With the jointed face down, plane the rough face of your pieces. This may take a multiple passes through the planer. Our finished product ended up being approximately 1 1/2" thick.
Once all 3 pieces are planed to the exact same thickness, take them to the table saw. 76
Set the blade to the correct height, and cut each piece to its final width. For the walnut, that is 3 3/4" and 3" for the maple.
Step 6: Glue Up #1
Now that your pieces are all cut and milled to the final sizes, it's time for your first glue up. Lay out your pattern and apply your favorite wood glue generously along the edges. I personally like using Titebond 3. I used parallel clamps in this step; if you do not have parallel clamps, make sure whatever clamps you are using are strong enough to hold the pieces together tightly.
Step 7: Clean Up
Now that the glue has dried overnight, it's time to remove any excess glue from the surface of the board. To accomplish this, I used a drum sander. If you do not have a drum sander available to you, this step can be done with a palm sander.
Once the face of your board has been cleaned up, cut one straight edge using the chop saw.
Step 8: Cut Your Strips
Before cutting any strips, I like to mark a line diagonally down my piece. When I cut the individual strips on the table saw, this line will help me to put the strips back together in the same order. Set the table saw fence at 1 7/8". You should end up with a total of 12 cut strips. For the final width of the board I went with, I ended up using only 11 of those pieces. If you like the look of the longer board or if one of your pieces ends up damaged, that twelfth piece will come in handy.
Step 9: Glue Up #2
Lay out all of the pieces in the order that they were cut. Flip each piece onto its side, exposing the end grain. To get a really nice pattern, flip every other piece in an alternating direction. Once the pattern is set, glue all of the strips together. Parallel clamps aren't necessary, but they were a huge help to have in gluing a board this large and thick. 76