end grain chopping board

[missionaryman]

Got bored lately - no time no money and very little material left so as I was going through my scrap bin looking for suitable firewood to take camping I thought to myself, "there's some nice looking stuff here, if only I could use the short lengths for something"...

So I started on an end grain chopping board. I got the method from the wood whisperer on you tube and adapted some of it.

Here's some pics: The wood used is Alpine Ash and Phillipine Mahogany (just a really good version of Pacific Maple, tighter, denser and more even than Meranti
Pre Gluing


Glue up


Clamping together & clamping flat at the same time

I love Titebond - after 40 minutes of clamping you can start sawing/sanding/planing/routing and it's stronger than any white PVA I've used so far.

After level & and final sanding with first few coats of Organoil applied - this board will drink up about 250ml of finish before it's satisfied
This is the underside where I have routed out handles - it's sanded to 240grit the top is sanded to 320 grit, because it's end grain you don't need to sand it up as fine as you normally would


after a few really thick coats you can see the finish seeping through to the other side, now I leave it to dry before doing the top.

[ss_11000]

looks great so far

[Scally]

I like the brickwork pattern.

There could be a few Christmas present in the offcut bin!

[Wongo]

This is a great thread for a lot of people. It demonstrates how an end grain chopping board is made. (I used to wonder how do they make lots of small blocks that fix perfectly together. Silly me.). Well done missionaryman.

I would use titebond 2 instead of titebond 1 though because titebond 1 has no water resistance.

[BobL]

Nice work and nice pics too!

[Eli]

Looks great. I've been wanting to do one of these for a while.

two questions?

1. did you pay any particular attention to grain orientation or does it matter?


2.What other OZ timber would be good for this, I mean is any native particularly toxic? I've heard Lacewood is good for this as well.

[fletcher]

missionaryman....great work. Thanks for the step by step pics.

[missionaryman]

thanks for the feedback guys. I'll post a pic of the finished product.

Wongo - as unethical as this is, I'm selling this one to buy some Titebond II for the next one...

As to grain orientation - I paid no attention at all and in fact if you look closely you'll notice that the strips weren't the same size either, with this type of thing random is best.

Eli - in regards to which species just google it to make sure it's not toxic, I discovered that Ash not a good one because it splits badly when you run the roundover bit across it.

[artme]

Grey twerk
Now go to all the local butchers and convince them they need to buy your version.

[kellya01]

i still don't quite follow how you got to that first picture.

Are each one of those strips that are pictured where you are glueing, each small pieces that you have glued together into a strip or is there an easier way of doing it??

[missionaryman]

i still don't quite follow how you got to that first picture.

Are each one of those strips that are pictured where you are glueing, each small pieces that you have glued together into a strip or is there an easier way of doing it??

you start by laminating your pieces together side by side, like you were making a bench top then after level sanding it you cut it into strips on the crosscut sled or radial arm saw see this picture for example:



that then gets you to the stage of my first picture ready for glue up

check out these videos for a great demonstration:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B8oAJs3sik"]YouTube - Episode 7- "A Cut Above" (Part 1)[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YcF1Ne2GlI"]YouTube - Episode 7- "A Cut Above" (Part 2)[/ame]

[missionaryman]

Here are some pics of the completed chopping board