Thread: Newbie with 4 thumbs

Do you mean a "real" butcher's block, as in something that'll stand up to chopping with a clever - maybe taking two men to lift and so usually built onto a trolley of sorts - or do you mean a heavy-duty cutting board that'll sit on a bench?

I mean a real butchers block that i ca use my chopper on to split pig and lamb carcasses on, anything smaller is useless in my mind.
I wanted to get some really dense wood like ironbark.

Made-up size needs to be around 450 X 600 and about 900 tall.
Anything lighter that 200/300 kilos will move when banging out schnitzels, wheels are a bad idea unless of the really heavy duty locking kind.
And I know I'll need to use a 56MPA concrete pad underneath to spread the load as its a wooden floor, but I have the pad already.

G'day Moondog and welcome to the ratbaggery.

As you are a gardener I hope those 4 thumbs are green.

IMO, lamb and pig carcasses are better split while on the gambrel, then broken up using a decent heavy knife.
If you insist on belting the bejeezus out of the sides with a cleaver, watch your fingers, and do what most "Bush Butchers" do---get a good solid, dry Eucalypt butt and use that for your block.Failing that, hang about here and any number of blokes will give you a tutorial on "Chopping Block Construction 101"

Hi Lignin, I agree with you but don't kill my own beasts, usually buy the carcass locally and get the break because I do all my own cutting up.
If I could get a stump with no cracks in I'd be a happy man.

artme; hi!! I grow vegies ( flowers too but don't tell'em down the pub ) definitely green thumbs even during the drought.

I use a U-bute German cleaver made before WW2 that is nicely balanced and is 3Kg of sharpness 290mm long.
I just want one and the wife says I can have one if she can use it too

Originally Posted by Moondog55

wheels are a bad idea unless of the really heavy duty locking kind.
And I know I'll need to use a 56MPA concrete pad underneath to spread the load as its a wooden floor, but I have the pad already.

You don't leave it sitting on the wheels in use. What you do is bolt the wheels to the sides of the legs, so that they just touch the ground when the legs are resting firmly on the ground. Then, when you lift the other end of the table, the legs the wheels are bolted on lift just enough that you can move it around fairly easily on a smooth surface.

The best chopping blocks that I have seen have been all 9" or thicker, built up from end-grain. Like a really thick chess-board. This construction prevent splits developing as they would in one big piece, like a stump. Extra strength can be provided by making a frame around the outside, a few inches lower than the surface, which has endless thread running through the block, across both axis and clamping it all together.

Underneath the block is typically used for storage of the tools, although it needs to be capable of being hosed/washed out fairly easily.

Hey Ted welcome to forum, your sure to find plenty of great info here on all topics. Goodluck with your butchers block.

Just spoke to a bloke in Kinglake Victoria, he has some Red Ironbark, 350 X 350 short offcuts 500 deep for $50-, with a bit of cleaning up it would do until I can make a big one.
I suppose I should bind the outside with some hoop iron or angle and threaded rod.

One foot square is actually a reasonable size for banging a single steak or snitzel

Skew is right about using end grain...it's a lot tougher than long grain

Pictured is an example board

Moondog,
I have made a couple of chopping blocks for use in a domestic kitchen, one with legs, and another to use on a bench top.
The one on legs is made from
600 mm lengths of recycled hardwood, glued together side by side in a checker board pattern, with the corner pieces left long as the legs.
I drilled each of the "edge pieces" and passed threaded rod through them.I did the drilling BEFORE the glue up.
It is very important that each strip is all the same dressed dimensions or nothing goes together neatly.I put all the timber through the jointer/thicknesser before cutting it to length with my docking saw and a stop along the fence.
Use a waterproof glue for preference as the end grain tends to absorb more moisture.
I flattenned the few bumps and hollows from the glue up with my belt sander, working accross the diagonals, then treated the top with a generous dose of olive oil.
I can happily bash away at joints and such with a fairly weighty "lamb splitter" with no worries about the block collapsing, but I still prefer a large butchers' knife through the joints.
Jim

Hi Ted, welcome to the forum.

How do I do all of this with the minimum of woodworking tools??

if I buy anything at this time I will be found in small bits by the side of various remote country roads, i just bought a few sub-woofer drivers for new speaker projects and WAF is at a low point

Hmmm... the frame/stand can be made with the most basic of tools, but building up the chopping block itself can be an exercise for even the best of woodies, as ideally each piece of wood should be exactly the same dimensions and properly squared for jointing.

You don't really need much in the way of tools, it's more a matter of your creativity in finding solutions to problems... and how fussy you are about the final result. (I'm good at doing "rustic." )

Assuming you can buy lengths of DAR at a supplier that are properly squared and of the same dimensions for their entire lengths (so you don't need to worry about ripping or jointing) then at a minimum you'll need:

- Something to cut the lengths as long as you want the chopping board to be thick. A docking saw or SCMS would be best, but even a handsaw will do in a pinch. After gluing up you'll need to flatten the top, somehow... you got a ROS or belt sander? Planes? If you dock the wood with a handsaw, expect to do a LOT of flattening.

- A drill, so you can pre-drill the bits for the endless-thread before gluing. (Much, MUCH easier than trying to drill straight through the thickness of the entire finished chopping block!) A bench drill would be preferable, if you have access to one.

- A good set of clamps.

My dad has a bench drill ( parents are good for some things ) and I have some low pressure clamps and a power saw and a couple of routers, somewhere in the pile is a power drill or two waiting to be repaired