Thread: How to allow for timber shifting?

It will leave a gap when it contracts which will fill with food, although being endgrain the movement will be minimal.
Possibly could make a tray out of merbau in which the board is housed into, this way it would be removable for cleaning?

Also it does not take much of a slight dash of forgetfulness to let some water sit under a cutting board for a day or two and it will swell nicely. All your edging will break open..

A nice clean holding tray makes lots of sense as it provides an edge and also cleanable.

You cant in short. Best to embrace the look without it !
You could however make a frame where the ends that run accross the grain are fixed to the board in the centre 1/3 only and have them slightly longer (or wider if you prefer to call it) than the board xo you never have a tight cross grain joint that can spring open like "Breadboard ends on a table. Lots of people don like the look but if it must be framed that is the way to do it


Ross

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, I think I'll leave it without the edging.

Cheers

Paul

how thick is the board going to be?

Any chance of having the edging rebated in underneath the sides? That would give an edging, even though not seen from the top , and it would cover the gap and allow for movement to be built in.....


cheers
Wendy

That might work, the board is 1 1/4 inches high. I'll look into it, might try it on a bit of scrap, leave it for a week (the weather here is changing all the time right now so a week is about the same as a season elsewhere) and see what happens.
Thanks Wendy.

To stop timber moving is akin to holding back the tide, we might try but if it wants to move it will....timber movement is somewhat controlled in manufactured boards so maybe a core of good quality marine ply 18mm or similliar at least and then end grain glue your blocks onto the ply, both sides of course....end grain to straight grain gluing is a weak joint, this type of joint usually suffers from glue starvation, the glue gets sucked up the end grain, so plenty of glue, maybe at least use a waterproof glue or an epoxy glue, might be a good question to ask in the glue section...then edge all the way round, might work

What do others think?

It is a bit like making crossbanding except it's inside out and upside down
If I was gonna do it like that....thinking out loud here...think I'd make up the blocks in strips...
edge glue them together (long grain to long grain) x the number of blocks wide depending on block and cutting board final size, that way you can correct for any misalingment between blocks and then also make all the block strips same width or not? probably doesn't matter, but straight and parralell...yes, also fix any misalignment in the end grain direction, (I'd only do this on the glue to the ply side of the blocks, you want this side flat)....then you only have to line up any edge of a block strip with the previous one as you glue them on to the ply, you could glue one strip on at a time, let it set then do another....

I dunno...just a thought....

Peter

Greenie fired for trying it out first Paul

PJT - very intriguing... One of the secrets of a good, laminated or endgrain chopping/cutting board is the glue. it would be interesting to see if the ply was up to the likelyhood of being immersed in water.

cheers
Wendy