Advice on making a butchers board

[JackAttack]

Recently I landed some ironbark section milled from some old beams, I've got a 1200mm x 350mm x 80mm section with one milled side and one "natural". The plan is to halve it and then mount them back to back (milled edge to edge) and I have a few questions:
1. what would be the best way to "join" them? My best thought so far is to simply have either some hardwood or a galvanised flats and have them on the underside and screwing through those up into the ironbark to hold the two together. I don't have much of an arsenal of tools so hopefully it can be something quite simple.

2. They look as though they were milled sometime ago and are showing very small surface cracks, I'll be finishing it with grapeseed oil which should stop the cracking but would it be a good idea to plane a few mm away in order to get the best finish? Any tips for planing something of that size?

The end game is to buy an old BBQ off gumtree and remove the actual BBQ part (plat/grill and hood) and drop this assembled slab in place, figured it's the simplest way to get it on wheels and if it works I think it will be rather cool as an outdoor prep surface for my fire pit grill.

Many thanks

[Wrongwayfirst]

For glue you could try Woodbond Adhesives Pty Ltd - Products - Titebond Internal, Waterproof and Weatherproof Glues and Adhesives
titebond 3 for outdoors.
if you don't have a biscuit joiner you could just use a few dowels to help with line up.
i think my first board joint I used a circular saw with a fence and ripped a 5mm groove in each board edge then ripped a 10mm tounge to fit in the groove. I didn't have any clamps so I cut 4 wedges (like door chocks) and some left over 90mm timber for struts.
cheers

[JackAttack]

Cheers for that, so a biscuit joiner would be best? I don't fancy my chances in ripping straight/even tongue and grooves into it largely due to my skill level Also it being so hard won't make it any easier. Might have to put this job on the back burner and work on a few things similar with the softwood or cheaper timber

[Trav]

I just glue my boards together. It will be a long grain to long grain glue up, so it will be plenty strong enough.

The hardest part, by far, will be getting your timber milled straight and square on all 4 sides. Then I'd glue them up in strips, then glue the strips together. If you're really really careful, you can minimise the sanding etc that is needed to flatten it out at the end.

If you put gal strips etc in, it will stain the timber when it gets wet and it will stop the timber expanding and contracting. All timber expands and contracts and if you try to stop it, it will split.

Trav

[JackAttack]

If you put gal strips etc in, it will stain the timber when it gets wet and it will stop the timber expanding and contracting. All timber expands and contracts and if you try to stop it, it will split.

Trav

Thanks Trav, I hadn't thought of it restricting the wood and eventually splitting, I was thinking of using some dowels to join the 2 pieces, it's only one join but I was to make sure it's solid. What about using some hardwood in place of the galv pieces? or will still restrict it too much?

Cheers

[Trav]

I don't think there is any benefit in dowels. The glue will be really strong and dowels will just add an extra opportunity for error. Make sure your stock is totally square, cut em all to length and really carefully glue them up. Use a credit card or something to spread the glue evenly on two sides of the blocks and clamp carefully. I'd probably set it up on a melamine board with a strip of timber screwed down to provide a flat surface to keep the blocks even and the strip of timber to line up each end.

Once you've glued up the strips, glue them all together.

It could be hard without the right tools. Have you thought about a 'normal' long grain board to start? Much more forgiving.

Trav

[JackAttack]

True true, dowels is more chance for error. I was just concerned about the weight of the 2 pieces being held up by glue only. I was only really planning on 'sitting' the glue board on the frame (a few screws to hold it to the BBQ frame). Do you think I should look at mounting a sort of batton underneath where the join will be to give it some support?

I have been thinking about purchasing another to do a trial/test on. Sounds like that might be a good idea.

Thanks Trav

[silentC]

G'day Trav. I think you've thrown a bit of a red herring by calling it a "butcher's board" because people are thinking you're making a butcher's block, which is a bunch of smaller bits glued together so the end grain is facing up, kinda like a chequer board when you look at it.

Reading your first post, I assume you have one long board, which you plan to cut in half and then glue the two halves together lengthwise to form a shorter and wider board and you'll then mount this on an old BBQ trolley as a mobile cutting board.

My only reservation is that with a board that wide, there's a chance it will cup, so you'll end up with something not very flat. 80mm is pretty thick though, so it might be stable enough.

80mm is a very wide glue surface so I doubt you will need any reinforcement. Anything you try to fix in place to stop boards that thick from moving is probably doomed to fail anyway. So I would just get some Titebond II or III (II is more generally useful and all you really need) and glue it together and see how it goes. Have some support rails under it by all means, but don't make the mistake of trying to fix your chopping board to them. Just let it sit on them, or if you must put a couple of screws in from underneath in the centre, at each end, so that the board can come and go with the seasons without destroying your handiwork.

[StevenManos]

Recently I landed some ironbark section milled from some old beams, I've got a 1200mm x 350mm x 80mm section with one milled side and one "natural". The plan is to halve it and then mount them back to back (milled edge to edge) and I have a few questions:
1. what would be the best way to "join" them? My best thought so far is to simply have either some hardwood or a galvanised flats and have them on the underside and screwing through those up into the ironbark to hold the two together. I don't have much of an arsenal of tools so hopefully it can be something quite simple.
Many thanks

I found an old iron bark plank on the roadside about 18 months ago (a nice hard rubbish find). i turned it into this beautiful chopping board. no dowels, no biscuit joins, just plain old jointing and gluing flat surfaces together with titebond glue. has been in service for a year now and it's holding on strong. have attached some pics for you. finished it with tung oil.


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S.

[StevenManos]

True true, dowels is more chance for error. I was just concerned about the weight of the 2 pieces being held up by glue only. I was only really planning on 'sitting' the glue board on the frame (a few screws to hold it to the BBQ frame). Do you think I should look at mounting a sort of batton underneath where the join will be to give it some support?
Thanks Trav

Edge gluing will do the job. I can understand you feel it might not hold, but the wood substrate will give way long before the glue does. Just make sure that the surfaces are flat and square and not bowed.

Steven.

[Wrongwayfirst]

True true, dowels is more chance for error.

Thanks Trav

I have the other half of the glass(either the half that is full or empty)
i look at using dowels as a chance to reduce error
they help to keep the edges aligned when clamping and glueing-a process that as pressure is applied causes the timber to move(well it does for me, but I may be doing it wrong)
I also agree with the others the glued section will be the bit that doesn't break.

[silentC]

they help to keep the edges aligned when clamping and glueing-a process that as pressure is applied causes the timber to move(well it does for me, but I may be doing it wrong)

A simple way to solve that problem, which is WAY easier than using dowels, if the only reason to use them is to stop clamp creep: Hammer in some panel pins part way on one edge then cut them off with side cutters leaving a millimetre or two protruding. Glue up, align and clamp. The edges will not slip against each other.

Be careful not to put them where you might want to later cut or drill

[JackAttack]

Fair point, I probably did give everyone a bum steer referring to it as a butchers board, I just couldn't think of anything else to call it. I spoke to a friend of mine yesterday and he echoed what each of you said, the glue would definitely hold it but he'd be inclined to try a tongue and groove join for added strength.

That ironbark board looks great! I'm trying to not rush into this because I want to get it right, when it's done I'll post up some picks on this thread, hopefully it'll look that good!

[silentC]

Tongue and groove was invented so that adjacent boards could overlap with no visible gap, but no glue so that the boards can come and go independently - eg. floorboards. I suppose if you were to cut a neat-fitting tongue and groove, you effectively increase the glue surface area by a small amount (about 10% for a 10mm wide tongue) which theoretically makes the joint that little bit stronger, but I would say that it will make little or no difference to the end result.

If you want to do it for the exercise, go right ahead. It would actually be easier to use a spline, because then all you need to do is cut an appropriately sized slot in each edge and then use a loose bit of hardwood as a spline. This is effectively the same as T&G but easier to do if you don't have a lot of tools. If you have a table saw or router, T&G can be done easily enough. But for an 80mm wide slab, you are removing a lot of material from the tongue side.

But seriously, I don't think you need it.

[Wrongwayfirst]

Tongue and groove was invented so that adjacent boards could overlap with no visible gap, but no glue so that the boards can come and go independently - eg. floorboards. I suppose if you were to cut a neat-fitting tongue and groove, you effectively increase the glue surface area by a small amount (about 10% for a 10mm wide tongue) which theoretically makes the joint that little bit stronger, but I would say that it will make little or no difference to the end result.

If you want to do it for the exercise, go right ahead. It would actually be easier to use a spline, because then all you need to do is cut an appropriately sized slot in each edge and then use a loose bit of hardwood as a spline. This is effectively the same as T&G but easier to do if you don't have a lot of tools. If you have a table saw or router, T&G can be done easily enough. But for an 80mm wide slab, you are removing a lot of material from the tongue side.

But seriously, I don't think you need it.

Thanks, spline was the word we was looking for, I think we all referred to the spline joint as tongue groove earlier. Just our inexperience, cheers