Christmas Presents

[BrokenolMarine]

Yup,

Time to start. This year I am going to make all the kids the same thing... Black Walnut and Maple cutting boards. Starting early so that I have plenty of time to work on them and get them just right. Then ship them to Texas, Oklahoma, and deliver the ones instate.

I spent a couple hours in the shop this morning, cutting slices of both species, and will need to cut slices for another hour or so. These boards will take some wood... Especially if you are choosy about the grain patterns.

I am also out of titebond III, the waterproof grade wood glue, got it ordered this afternoon, and I should have it in hand Wednesday. By then I should have decided on layouts, cut to size, and tested the fits, and be about ready for glue ups.

Watch this thread for pics and progress, if you are interested.

[markiver54]

Looking forward to it Jim.
Good for your planning ahead!

[Mags]

.
Very interested!

[BrokenolMarine]

Just getting started, and the first step was to cut the strips of maple and walnut to begin the layout. I have to decide if I am going to try and blend the colors and highlight the spalted grains by laying them out in strips, or cut them into cubes and glue them up with the end grains exposed, then plane them all smooth and get the checker board effect with just the contrasting colors showing.

Here is a temporary layout, with the grain contrasts showing. That maple grain will really pop once the burn marks are gone and the finish is applied, in this case just a mineral oil finish with some wax. Remember, this is a ROUGH layout, no fitting or sizing has been done at this point to close any gaps. Geez, I know everything doesn't fit perfect and the ends aren't even, and I would move pieces around to better match the grains...

Input?

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[markiver54]

To my taste; I think I would go with the horizontal layout as shown in your pics. Unless they are to have a dual use; Checkers/Chess and cutting boards. Whole lot less work, yet would still have the traditional cutting board look.
Just my opinion Jim.☺

[Mags]

.
I think it'll look great in strips. When I blur my vision, I can see past the temporary roughness and get a glimpse of what it will look like finished. FANTASTIC!

Just getting started, and the first step was to cut the strips of maple and walnut to begin the layout. I have to decide if I am going to try and blend the colors and highlight the spalted grains by laying them out in strips, or cut them into cubes ...

[BrokenolMarine]

Back out in the shop for an hour or two. I set up the dust collector and the planer and ran all three layouts thru about a dozen passes, plus all the extra materials. (Always a smart move.) If I don't need the extras for these boards, I'll make a couple extras... you never know. Miss Tina will claim them or I'll have them on hand for donations to a charity or someone will need one.

My dust collector is set up to attach to each of my pieces of Dust Making Equipment, here it's hooked up to the planer...

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It makes a HUGE difference. I ran all the pieces and parts thru the planer about a dozen times, taking just a couple 32nds of an inch off on each pass.
The spare parts are in the pile all the way to the right.

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The titebond III glue is due in tomorrow, but today, after some rest, I can start fitting the boards, and cutting them down to size. I am going with 11 x 18 to 20ish. Mainly because the flat rate boxes are 11-3/4 x 23ish x 3" thick.

[Dahliathemeh]

Can I be adopted? Lol!!

[BrokenolMarine]

Out in the shop, running stock across the jointer this morning. Got about half... ( Okay, yah got me... ... a third... done...) Then my lower back and knees told me to take a break. I'll be back at it in an hour or three. Once the jointer is done, I can really start looking at laying things out and working out the three patterns. Then comes the fun parts:

The cutting,
The cussin,
The gluing of things.

You know, all that permanent, point of no return stuff.
All the off cuts?
Another cutting board, or two.

[BrokenolMarine]

I'm not even good at these, these three will be my second, third, and forth.
I'm faking it.