The other 5 Cutting Boards

[Leon]

Close up details

[-MIKE-]

I'm inspired! I might have to do some of these.

[Leon]

Study the video.

Something to watch for, the width of the initial grove used to cut the shape in the surface. The veneer stack must be the exact width as the width of the groove. In the video he has 2 different width groves. He uses different sized piloted bits to cut these groves.

Another way to make a line appear narrower is to use same colored veneers, on the outsides of the stack, as the color of the rest of the cutting board.

Let me know if yo have any questions. I watched that video several times until I was confident that I knew how and why each step was done the way it was.

I will say that when cutting the grove with the BS to separate the two sections of the cutting board I cut close to the edge of the groove on both sides of the groove rather than one time near the middle. This makes it easier to use the large pattern bit in the router table because you are removing less waste. Read that as less excitement too.

Normally when I do something like this I make a bunch as set up is normally the time consuming issue. Not really the case on these. The only time saving step is to cut all of your veneers for as many boards as you want. Past that nothing really saves time.

[-MIKE-]

Is that because the gap won't close perfectly on a thicker veneer?

[Bill]

Really? That sounds like a pain to glue right. I would have suspected planing or scraping, but I can see that the path is "paved with problems".

[Leon]

Exactly, you take out 1/2" you have to replace with 1/2" inch. I used 4

1/8" veneers The curve radius on one side of the grove is different than on the other side. You cannot simply glue the board halves back together, there will be gaps, you must replace with the same thickness as what you remove.

FWIW the 1/8" thick veneers bent easily. And have your notched cawls ready to index the surfaces of the cutting boards when gluing the veneers in to replace the material you removed.

[Leon]

BTY with your talent for building drums, I have absolutely no doubt that you can do this too.

[Bill]

HA! That's sneaky, I didn't think of that. The person who learned that first probably had grin bigger than mine! ; )

[Leon]

I probably said that wrong. The thickness of the veneer stack must add up to the width of the grove/material removed. If you make you veneers

1/8" thick, 4 will stack up to the 1/2" Cut wide with a BS or TS and sand with a drum sander or plane with a planer to remove tooth marks down to the 1/8" thickness.

It is beneficial to have the width of the veneer stack to be at least

1/8" proud of the top surface.

That said I made sure it was proud on top and bottom. I have a 22" drum sander which makes removing the proud veneer easy.

Glue up will be a pain if you don't replace exactly what you displace.

[Leon]

;~)))

Alternatively, If you simply cut a straight line, ;~) it does not matter how thick your stack is.

[Bill]

How about if you had approached it as "inlay" work? I have no basis for knowing the pros and cons, but it seems like it might be faster. Maybe not as sanitary.

[-MIKE-]

It seems like once you have your set-up done you can start cranking them out and let your imagination run wild.

Then again I could always just buy one of those CNC deals and "print" some "custom" designs. ick.

[nailshooter41]

Another fine project, Leon. Those are so elegant looking, they would add or compliment any kitchen. I always admire how you continue to push and advance your skills with challenging projects.

Best of all, I think it's great you take the time to share.

See you soon... hopefully... ;^)

Robert

[Leon]

Thank you Robert. The beauty to these type challenges is that they help you learn to do other common tacks in a better and faster way. Kim and I are looking forward to seeing you and Kathy this weekend. We both feel privileged that you guys have chosen to spend time with Linda, Karl, and us, given your time constraints. :-). Kudos to Kathy and her hard work for earning the time off.

[Leon]

That is the thing, set up only speeds initial production of cutting and sanding veneers and the assembly of the many sticks of maple to make the cutting boards.

5 sticks of maple at a time and then glue those sets together. From that point it is mostly glue and grunt work. Not totally unlike painting 5-6 paintings, each has to be built individually and I was using 7 clamps on each of the 3 separate laminations for each board. Each of my boards were in the clamps at some stage 8 times, times 6 boards.

[Leon]

Then it would look like inlay and the ends of the cutting boards would indicate so. But probably more troublesome as you would have to bend, by hand, several wet glued laters of veneers to fit into a slot that they must fit into perfectly. Add to that the fact that you will gave to be squeezing out excess glue also.

[Electric Comet]

Nice work and photos.

[Leon]

Thank you.

[nailshooter41]

It's always our pleasure, I hope you know that. We always look forward to coming and feel like we are with family when we are there (except in a good way!). Way too much fun and camaraderie.

I am off the air until we hit Houston as today is the annual Wounded Warrio rs Dinner (why do you think I am up at 4 am...?) at the Fisher House. This year we are not only catering it ourselves, but we are cooking everything as well. Lots of prep, lots of serve time and logistics, and even more cle anup. I don't even see Kathy on Christmas Eve. Then Christmas with two fa milies the next two days, the out of here.

But again, you have to know if we can find any possible way to get to Houst on to see everyone that's gonna happen.

See you soon.

Robert