Matt requested a cutting board for Christmas. We were getting together in Texas rather than Tennessee so we couldn't do our normal father and son project together. His requirements were that it should be an end-grain cutting board that was large and thick. He said he'd be happy with a radial cut slab if it came to that. I can do better than that..
I had never done a cutting board like this. It takes an incredible amount of wood (11 board feet in maple alone), glue, and patience. You cut a dark core wood 32" long then wrap it with maple so you have a square log. You then wrap the maple log with walnut so you have a square log that's a quarter inch thicker. Then cut one corner out along the length of your square log, and then slice it into 2.5" thick slices. You then have to assemble the slices like a jig saw puzzle, creating extra pieces that fit into the edges, and then glue it up. After it's glued up, you realize one end lifted while in the clamps, and not all of the pieces were pressed down flush as they should have been. Lots of hand planing and sanding later it looks great. Add lots of oil (the end-grain sucks it up like straws) and finally you have a finished product. I used my normal tung oil/varnish mixture. It will look better longer than if I had used mineral oil, but eventually Matt will have to use the traditional mineral oil/bees wax finish to keep it up. If you want one, I'll make one for you, but it's going to be expensive.
Lessons learned: 1) Make a lot more longs than you think you can possible use. I made 6, 32" logs. I then had to make 4 partial logs (two that were one layer of walnut and maple and two that started at the center core section and went to the other side. These extra pieces need to exactly the same width as the original logs. Any extra can be used to make coasters (with a little more wood). 2) Cut the slot along the log with a router bit larger than the opening you want. I rough cut the opening on the table saw, and then finished with a 3/4" router bit. It should have been at least a 1" bit. The maple was 3/4" thick, and I wanted to cut the corner off to the center core. However with the 1/8" walnut outer shell, the 3/4" bit wasn't enough (duh!!). The slot has to be exactly square or you'll end up doing a lot of gap filling later. Making two passes was a huge hassle. 3) Be really nice to your wife when you beg her to help with the glue-up. There's no way you can glue this up as fast as the glue dries. 4) Have a great friend with a really big sander. Because a corner raised up during the glue up, I had to knock a quarter of an inch off by hand planing along one side (about 8 by 6 inches). If I ran it through the drum sander after knocking the raised side off (to completely flatten the top), I could just flip it over and use the drum sander to flatten the other side. To do this you have to mount the object on a sled (another piece of wood) and use shims to fill in the gap between the two boards when you do the first side. Unfortunately when it was on the sled it was too thick to go through my sander. Scott to the rescue.
I had never done a cutting board like this. It takes an incredible amount of wood (11 board feet in maple alone), glue, and patience. You cut a dark core wood 32" long then wrap it with maple so you have a square log. You then wrap the maple log with walnut so you have a square log that's a quarter inch thicker. Then cut one corner out along the length of your square log, and then slice it into 2.5" thick slices. You then have to assemble the slices like a jig saw puzzle, creating extra pieces that fit into the edges, and then glue it up. After it's glued up, you realize one end lifted while in the clamps, and not all of the pieces were pressed down flush as they should have been. Lots of hand planing and sanding later it looks great. Add lots of oil (the end-grain sucks it up like straws) and finally you have a finished product. I used my normal tung oil/varnish mixture. It will look better longer than if I had used mineral oil, but eventually Matt will have to use the traditional mineral oil/bees wax finish to keep it up. If you want one, I'll make one for you, but it's going to be expensive.
Lessons learned: 1) Make a lot more longs than you think you can possible use. I made 6, 32" logs. I then had to make 4 partial logs (two that were one layer of walnut and maple and two that started at the center core section and went to the other side. These extra pieces need to exactly the same width as the original logs. Any extra can be used to make coasters (with a little more wood). 2) Cut the slot along the log with a router bit larger than the opening you want. I rough cut the opening on the table saw, and then finished with a 3/4" router bit. It should have been at least a 1" bit. The maple was 3/4" thick, and I wanted to cut the corner off to the center core. However with the 1/8" walnut outer shell, the 3/4" bit wasn't enough (duh!!). The slot has to be exactly square or you'll end up doing a lot of gap filling later. Making two passes was a huge hassle. 3) Be really nice to your wife when you beg her to help with the glue-up. There's no way you can glue this up as fast as the glue dries. 4) Have a great friend with a really big sander. Because a corner raised up during the glue up, I had to knock a quarter of an inch off by hand planing along one side (about 8 by 6 inches). If I ran it through the drum sander after knocking the raised side off (to completely flatten the top), I could just flip it over and use the drum sander to flatten the other side. To do this you have to mount the object on a sled (another piece of wood) and use shims to fill in the gap between the two boards when you do the first side. Unfortunately when it was on the sled it was too thick to go through my sander. Scott to the rescue.