Trim Specialties Inc

Cutting Board

The first step is to make sure all the lumber I will use is the same thickness. I send all the wood I will use through the thickness planer. The actual thickness isn’t important if I add a piece to a row that is thicker it will create a gap in the next row. I just run the pieces through until they are all contacting the cutter head consistently. Delta Model 22-790X 15'' Planer with Deluxe Stand The 22-790X includes Dust Chute with both a 4" and a 5" port, 3 HP, 230 Volts, 1 Phase motor, 3 knife cutterhead, serrated infeed roller, polyurethane outfeed roller, anti-kickback fingers, cast-iron .. Delta Model 22-790X 15'' Planer with Deluxe Stand

To cross cut the pieces to size I place a scrap piece of wood against the fence of my table saw. I then set the fence at 2 inches from the scrap piece.

Then I move the scrap wood back from the level of the blade and clamp it to the fence. I screw an extension to my miter gauge.

I then place the pieces for my cutting board against the miter gauge and slide it up against the wood fence. This way I can make repetitive cuts without the wood binding up against the fence.

Then I laid all the pieces out without glue. I adjusted the pieces so all the joints were staggered for better strength. I just kept adding pieces and rows until I had roughly the desired size.

Gluing Accessories Stores fresh glue in a ready-to-use dispenser that's easy to fill... Gluing Accessories   I glued up several layers at a time and clamped them together using a board on each side to pull all the small pieces together evenly. I used some sheets of waxed paper to keep them from sticking to my table. I glued them in a jig I use to assemble cabinet doors. This kept it square and aligned on one end. The other end I ran wild.

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  When I glued up the pieces I made it in two sections. The reason for that was I wanted to send it all through the thickness planer to even out the surfaces. The end grain of the wood is very hard and even with a belt sander it can take a long time. But my planer will only take 15-½ -inch wide material. I ran the two pieces through the planer with squared end first. That way any tear out was at the end that was run with a wild edge as that end would be cut off anyway. Then I glued the two pieces together giving me a rough blank that just needed to be trimmed to size.

I trimmed the cutting board to size using my panel-cutting jig for the table saw. This is a jig designed to ride in the miter gauge slots of the saw with a stop at a right angle to the saw blade. With this jig I only need one straight edge. I simply rotate it 90 degrees every cut to come out with all the sides squared up.

With the blank cut to size I give it a final sanding. I started with the belt sander and finished up with a random orbital sander.

I added a ¼-inch round over to all the edges with the router.

I didn’t want the cutting board to slide around when in use so I added a soft rubber pad on the bottom at each corner.

I finished it with a liberal coating of mineral oil. I put half a dozen coats on the first couple days. I will continue to put another coat on each week for another month or so and then maybe a coat every month.