Advice on making butchers block trolley

[matthelliwell]

Briefly delurking - I need to advice on making a butchers block and a kitchen trolley for it to sit on. Whilst my general diy woodworking skills are ok, I've not made much furniture before. So questions.

The butchers block is going to be in beech but what should I use for the trolley? Depending on the costs, can I use beech as well?

When I'm gluing up the blocks, can I glue them all up at once or do I need to glue them together in say blocks of four and then glue those together into larger areas etc?

The trolley is going to be fairly simple - 4 legs and 2 shelves (I've leave trying to make draws for another project). But I'm a bit clues as to how to join legs and shelves together. As it's going to be in a kitchen it needs to look reasonable so the long-screws-through-the- legs technique isn't going to work.

Any other pointers appreciated, thanks.

[Ed Bailen]

Assuming you are talking about an end-grain butcher block, I would first glue up planksthat are several inches wider than the narrowest dimension on your butcher block. When the planks are dry, run them through the planer or the thickness sander to get them smooth. Cross cut the planks for the thickness of your butcher block and then stack the cutoffs on end. Use the extra width on the planks to stagger the joints when you glue everything together. You may want to limit your final glue up to 3 or 4 sticks at a time as the wet glue will act like a lubricant and allow the cutoffs to shift around when you tighten the clamps.

Regards, Ed

** Posted from **

[SonomaProducts.com]

1. Not sure how porous Beech is but the only US govt approved material is hard maple because it is not very porous so the bacteria has a hard time living in the wet pores. I would find some way to be sure Beech is going to be OK or you may be making a dangerous kitchen item.

1. If you are doing true Butcher Block where you have end grain blocks, this is very adventourous and requires quite some skill and set of tools. If so, square up you stock, super square and in some multiple in lenght of the thickness of your board. For instance if you want a 6 inch thick board with 1 and 1/4 inch squares, then make up many 1 inch square sticks say 2 feet long, plus some extra. Then glue those up in groups of 4. Re-square those down to a perfect 2 inch square, then cut them into 6 and 1/8 inch deep pieces. Now glue those all up into your block. Takes lots of clamps and best to build a jig or cauls of some sort.

2. Now walk over to your wide belt sander and flatten both sides. Or get out your hing angle hand plane, say your prayers, and begin to scrape.

1. Legs, any material you want. Common would be to put a spreader across one inner dimension of the legs (front to back is most common.) This should be done with a mortise and tennon joint. Then the shel can span the spreaders, over top, M&T or pocket screw into the missdle of the stretcher or hanging under the spreader and screwed up into it. You can also do intermediate shelves in the same manner or notche them around the legs and do a pocket type screw angled in to the lgs from the underside. Or make them inside the legs but as wide or wider than the spread and pockect screw underneath into the legs.

The laegs to block connection should use standard table construction with an apron M&T or pocket screwed to the legs and some movable joint connection to the botton of the block loke table buttons or other common methods.

[Scott Lurndal]

The Forest Product Laboratory offers a guide on cutting blocks. I don't believe that 1) they approve materials, or 2) that Maple is the only viable material.

Any of Beech, Maple, Birch, Cherry, Apple will work just fine.

Best finish, per FPL, is to melt paraffin (canning wax) and apply liberally, removing excess once hard.

scott

[matthelliwell]

All very useful, thanks for the input.

[dpb]

matthelliwell wrote: ...

I didn't quite follow Sonoma's technique (admit I didn't read it very carefully, only skimmed) but here's a link to a David Marks video that describes/illustrates the way I go about it...

the drum sander part, I have on occasion glued waste pieces to the edges and used a thickness planer for the flattening step--one simply sacrifices that last edge.

--

[matthelliwell]

I take my time. If not, I'll guess I'll have some nice wood for the woodburner this winter!