I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches I want to glue them together and make a cutting board. The wood came 6 feet long and 1x2 inches. I used a band saw to cut the smaller pieces. There are some saw mark traces at the tip of each bloc , but it is minor. although when I try to put the small pieces end to end ( 1x2 inches faces) there are small gaps. Should I use another blade to straighten the end of the block, if so which one. The blade I use is a high quality one I borrowed from a friend of mine. Is there some other way I can straighten the blocks? thanks
You would have been better off to saw the pieces longer. Now that they are only 4 inches long, you will be getting your fingers unnecessarily close to a spinning blade.
If I am understanding this correctly, you are going to glue the edges together so that the end to end shows - this is your problem. Yes? If so, you can correct this to some extent by running the ends through your miter saw to get them square.
But even if you do that, the end to end joint will have movement, and will open and close over a period of time. The exposure to hot water (cleaning) and just plain use will cause the end to end joints to move. The open joints can be a great place to drive in meat or vegetable scraps when cutting or chopping, and make a wonderful resevoir for hot meat juice and grease when carving meat.
I wouldn't do it.
If you have some of that wood left, cut it into finish lengths and edge glue whole pieces. It will give you a more sanitary and sturdy product. In the many wood cutting boards I have made, a solid piece of wood is the best. But realistically, that is more money than it is worth. The second best is long pieces, with no joints in the field.
If you are trying to mimic the fancy boards you see at Williams Sonoma and the like, forget it. Theirs are made in high pressure machines that use a resin based (read: plastic) glue and all the little pieces are mashed together with something like 1200 pounds of pressure - end to end. Some of them even have finger jointed material in them to enhance the strength of the joint.
Mon, Nov 26, 2007, 9:10am (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (lerameur) doth wave and say: hello, I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches I want to glue them together and make a cutting board.
Sounds like it's gonna be a quite large, and kinda ugly, cutting board. Also sounds like you left out a lot of details. You want square ends, you cut with some sort of guide, not free-hand. It all makes e wonder.
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.
Certainly it can be done that way especially if you use a jig to make sure the block is square. If you don't make sure each edge is 90 degrees to the other two, you'll still have gaps.
You could also use a plane with a shooting board, which is basically a jig to hold the plane square to a surface, and either slide the plane over the clamped piece, or the piece over the clamped plane.
For pieces that small you don't really need power, in my own humble opinion. You can clamp a piece in a jig and use several methods to square up the sides. I don't think you can ever get it completely free of gaps but you can certainly make them just about disappear to the naked eye.
Having said that I cannot envision a method to get 200 four-inch blocs of maple squared up that would not take quite a few hours of drudge work. Depends on how out of square they are, and how nimble you are, I guess.
Mon, Nov 26, 2007, 12:32pm (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (lerameur) came by again and says: well it is going to look very nice.. I did not cut by hand, never said that I used a Sliding Mitre saw:
Also, can I glue a sand paper on the blade . Keep the blade down and sand down the wood until it is uniform ?
Maybe. I never said you cut by hand, I said free-hand - based on you saying bandsaw. You never said sliding mitre saw, you said bandsaw. Sure you can glue sandpaper on it. Probably even sand with it. I wouldn't want to do it, but your choice.
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.
my question is now which blade should I buy to get the best clean cut as possible. This is my first wood project using blade saw. is more teeth the better? any brand to avoid? how about this 96 teeth one? on page 337
I heard that it is possible to sand the board with a special type of granular filler that will go in the small cracks.. how does that work? is it feasable in my case?
ken PS I am thinking of buying a 90 degree sander machine for straightening the end of my blocks.
This is not correct. Many home-built endgrain butcher blocks have been successfully built without fancy equipment or materials. I've built several, ranging from one 10 inches thick on wheels to a 4-inch thick, to a 20 sq ft table top using over 700 individual blocks. Some of them did use resin glue, but this is not out of reach for an amateur. Some used ordinary Titebond III. Gaps are kept to essentially zero by gluing up sub assemplies and truing them before gluing them to final size. The oldest one is going on 25 years of daily kitchen use with no sign of joint failure.
Not really, nor is it required. Glue 'em up into strips, flatten the sides of the strip (rip in table saw, or use a jointer), glue the block up from the strips. The top of the block gets flattened with a floor sander as a final step before finishing...
Tue, Nov 27, 2007, 11:05am (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@radiks.net (ed_h) doth sayeth: This is not correct. Many home-built endgrain butcher blocks have been successfully built without fancy equipment or materials.
True, but the OP said he was making a cutting board, not a butcher block. Did I miss the update?
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.
Can be done with cutting boards also. I made five of them last year for gifts. You glue up a few boards to get the width, then cut them to 1 1/4" segments and glue them together. I used maple, cherry, and walnut in varying widths to make a pattern. The method was in one of the magazines.
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