End Grain Basket Weave Cutting Board Tutorial

hi my name is matt and i'm going to walk you through how to make this end grain basket weave cutting board [Music] the tools i use to design might seem a little unconventional to help me wrap my head around more complex patterns i use excel i resize the cells into squares and use different colors and border lines to create my patterns then i'll assign a unit of measurement to each cell and do the math from there to figure out my cuts this here is a rough draft of the spreadsheet for the basketweave pattern as it became more popular i got requests to make it in different sizes to help repeat patterns like this without having to math i create spreadsheets like this one this allows me to enter in one dimension and the formula figures out the rest of the dimensions for me for designs like this that require a panel with multiple cuts and glue ups i include kerf waste into the equation to help minimize waste [Music] the advantage to the method that i'm showing you is that you can use any thickness lumber you have on hand it doesn't matter if it's half inch scrap or it's 12 quarter timber as long as you can cut accurately and plane it it'll work when i drew this pattern up i wanted the option to choose between two or three species the board i'm making here calls for two and i'm using sapele and cherry and as you can see here this piece of cherry has cut a pretty healthy twist so i'll have to do something about that [Music] so what i'm about to do here is dangerous i know this and it's a risk i'm willing to take if you are not comfortable removing safety features from your equipment there are ways to work around this step but i do not recommend ripping a piece of wood as twisted as this piece of cherry on the table saw use a band saw or a handsaw or any other saw cutting twisted wood on a table saw is a recipe for a kickback even with safety features i'm in danger so my jointer is only six inches but my lumber is wider in order to joint wood wider than six inches i'm gonna start by removing the guard and stop what i'm doing is creating a rabbit edge in the wood you can see highlighted here be sure you're cutting deep enough to only require a single pass to flatten the six inch portion of your board all right there are a few ways to do this but i have a six inch wide piece of plywood that i know is flat with a small fence attached to the end i apply double-sided tape to the flat portion of the freshly jointed wood and i attach the two pieces together with the edge of the plywood resting firmly against that rabbet [Music] now when i flip it over there is a stable flat reference face to run through the planer [Music] [Applause] [Music] so with your plywood safely attached you can start taking light passes until the top face of your board is completely flat it's a good idea to use the pencil method to make sure you aren't overlooking any low spots especially with a lighter colored wood [Music] so [Music] [Music] so for this size board i'll be cutting about seven pieces of cherry and three pieces of sapele at about 75 millimeters to make up the larger panels i'm also cutting five pieces of cherry at about 19 millimeters [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you have access to panel clamps i highly recommend them especially on the thinner panels i bought these woodpeckers clampzilla juniors as a one-time tool after drinking too much bourbon but they really are amazing i have a few sets of the diy clamps available on amazon too that i really do [Music] like [Music] after pulling these out of the clamps take a little time to clean up the glue to get a flatter surface as you can on one side that you can use as a reference edge in the planer i like to plane one side flat so i have a flat surface for the table saw [Music] i'm starting by cutting this panel of sapele into six millimeter strips these will be planed down to their final dimension of four millimeters [Music] now this panel of cherry i'm going to cut this down into about 35 millimeter strips these will be plain down to 32 millimeters and for this last panel of cherry i'll take this down to about 19 millimeters so i can plane this square into 16 by 16 millimeters and this is what we're left with after the table saw we'll go ahead and plane the larger cherry pieces down to 32 millimeters and the sapele pieces down to four millimeters but leave the height alone we'll take that down to the final dimension after the next glue up the smaller cherry pieces you can go ahead and take those down to 16 by 16 millimeters right now [Music] so so once you're done planing organize your pieces into a cherry wood sandwich using the thin sapele strips as the bread you'll have a few extra pieces of the thin strips in case you run into any problems with voids in the wood or excessive snipe on a few pieces to help you glue all of these up at once without using a thousand clamps use some painters tape on one side of your sandwich to keep it from sticking to the one next to it [Music] i made these calls out of some inexpensive 1x1 steel tubing i cut out a notch in the end to fit a basic f clamp it's not 100 necessary to cut out the notch but it makes it a lot less unwieldy when you're getting them set up and once it's in place underneath the panel put another one on top and use the clamp to get it set into place before using a second clamp on the far side to ensure the panel stays flat during the glue up you can buy this in eight foot lengths for really cheap and cut them whatever size you need i like them better than wood calls because the glue cleans up easier they're super stiff for their size and they store a lot easier [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] before you run these through the planner be sure to clean up excess glue from one side so you have a flat edge on the planer bed take really light passes on both sides use your calipers often while working your way down to the final dimension okay this step is critical set your pieces up like this and confirm the top edge is completely flush if not you're gonna have compounding gaps in your final glue up now you're gonna cut all of your pieces into the desired board thickness i'm cutting just a little bit more than two inches so i can surface the board down to two inches once it's [Music] complete [Music] this is a really basic jig that i built for these glue ups for the method that i use the important things to note is that the fences are dead square and that they're just shorter than the board is thick [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is what your dry fit should look like in your jig you'll be cutting off the ends after the glue dries but using the small squares of spacers against the fence is important to ensure even clamping pressure once i have the fences in place i take the on-center measurements between the fences i'll take that measurement and cut a piece of scrap plywood i can put on top for downward pressure to keep the glue up completely flat [Music] this glue up can seem a little intimidating but if you set up properly and make a few dry runs it's not that bad i set all my pieces up in groups seven of the large blocks eight of the small that's how many are used in each vertical column only apply glue to the edge faces of the larger blocks this will save time and it will make sure you have contact with every piece of wood lastly make sure you're using titan 3 not only for the higher waterproof rating but for the longer open time you're going to need to get all the pieces set so my clamping method is a workaround for me being too cheap to buy a nice set of parallel clamps i put the plywood on top of the board and drive a screw through and into the fixed top and side fences i place my vertical clamps and then i tighten them up after i'm done tightening i drive screws through the ply and into the bottom fence this helps maintain some vertical pressure while i remove the clamps and place them horizontally across the board i go through the same steps in this direction while i tighten everything snug because my fences were attached to the base with l brackets i can unscrew them from the base and gently flip the board and the fences together along with the clamps now i can attach clamps running the other direction and i can have even clamping pressure all around the board [Music] so [Music] [Music] before surfacing i'll cut off the extra material around the perimeter i won't take it down to its final size until afterwards in case of any tear out around the edges [Music] because i don't have a reliable drum sander and i won't put an end grain board like this one through the planer a cnc is my best option to get this dead flat i've done this in the past with a hand sander but sanding end grin takes forever a drum sander or a router sledder both other great options [Music] do [Music] [Music] i soaked the board in mineral oil for about an hour and let it drip dry on a wire rack overnight [Music] i give the board a healthy coat of board conditioner that i make i leave that on for about an hour before buffing it smooth and that is that if you are interested in a copy of the full walkthrough and spreadsheet cut calculators i'll leave a link to my website in the description feel free to reach out directly or in the comments if you have any questions and thanks for watching

Channel: Matt Muirhead

Views: 31,694

Rating: 4.9273505 out of 5

Keywords: WOOD, WOODWORKING, END GRAIN, CUTTING BOARD, BASKET WEAVE, WOODSHOP, DIY, HANDMADE, HARDWOOD, SHAPEOKO, WORKSHOP, TUTORIAL, WALKTHROUGH, BUTCHER BLOCK, CHOPPING BOARD, KITCHEN, DECOR, ARTISAN, CHERRY, SAPELE, INFORMATIVE, WOODPORN, WOODWORKER, WOODART, DESIGN, INTERIOR DESIGN, ART, HOME DECOR, WOODCRAFT, HOME

Id: DwMTZ3WwO4o

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021

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[u/Meatsack_]

Wow, nice work on the project and video. That's a ton of work though - how many hours in total, and could that be commercially viable if making this for resale?

Also, I've never seen that miter saw technique. Is that to avoid binding when cutting rough stock that isn't flat? I've had the blade bind and kick a lot lately when finishing cuts and it scares the crap out of me every time. It did not occur to me, that I might have to approach roughsawn hardwood differently than cutting dimensioned softwood, where I have rarely experienced blade binding before on my miter saw. I am also using a relatively fine tooth, thin kerf blade BTW. Not sure if that makes any difference on the tendency to bind and kick back. Thanks.