End Grain Cutting Boards from Scrap Wood How-To

what's going on everybody I'm Johnny Brook welcome back into the crafting workshop video in this video I'm gonna show you how to turn a pile of scrap wood into these chaotic ingrained cutting boards stay tuned it seems to be a rite of passage for woodworkers to make cutting boards somehow I had skipped over this project during my woodworking adventures so far and since the holidays are here it seems like the perfect time to rectify that oversight I bought this pile of scrap hardwood off of Craigslist for 40 bucks to use on this project once I got it home I sorted through the pile and organized the wood by type and also throughout any pieces that were too small to use the pile included cherry walnut maple Hickory and oak and I also added a few scraps of paducah that I had from a previous project I set aside the oak for another project since it's not a great choice for cutting boards due to its open grain structure and then I started breaking down the pieces into blanks the nice thing about making in grain cutting boards is the thickness of the piece doesn't really matter since it's all gonna be glued up sliced up and then turned on in this means that I had some blanks that were half an inch thick and some that were 2 inches thick so this makes a really effective project for using up all those odd sized scraps that you've been hanging on to when arranging blanks you want the height of the pieces to be roughly uniform otherwise you'll just be spending a lot of extra time at the planer later on in the project having the length uniform is less important since we'll be cutting uniform slices from these blanks anyway I just continued processing my scraps in the blanks until I had seven unique blanks once I had my pieces arranged the way I wanted them I passed them through the planer planing each side of the pieces this gives the pieces two flat surfaces for the glue up which will help in eliminating gaps in the final boards once the pieces were flat on two sides I glued them together using tight bond three which is a food-safe waterproof wood glue type on two isn't technically waterproof just water-resistant so it's probably best to use three for this build after the glue dried overnight I began flattening the blanks since the bottoms of the blanks were relatively flat from the glue up I just passed them through the planer flattening one side then flip them over and flatten the other my jointer is not wide enough to flatten these boards since they're 13 inches wide and I basically built these cutting boards to the maximum size my planer could accommodate once the blanks were flat on both sides I took them to the table saw cleaned up one end and then started cutting slices I wanted my cutting boards final thickness to be 2 inches so I cut two and 1/8 inch strips from the blanks to allow some room for surfacing after gluing after making each cut I turned the slice 90 degrees to share the end grain and set it aside [Music] once I had all of my blanks cut I started arranging them into their final orientation I made sure to put any knot holes or other imperfections facing down whenever possible these boards will have rubber feet added so the top will be the only side used as an actual cutting board with the strip's arranged how I wanted them I glued them up using the same processes before I made sure to keep them as flat as possible here since any slipping at this point will just mean wasted width length or thickness still in the final cutting boards after the glue dried it was time to flatten the boards one last time and for this I used my planer now this is a bit of a debated topic in the woodworking community some folks say that passing an ingrained cutting board through a planer is a really bad idea since the pieces can theoretically break apart or the whole board can even be thrown back at you this is my disclaimer do whatever you feel comfortable with here and I am NOT responsible for your choices in the shop what I did and what worked for me was the following first I rotated my blades right before flattening these boards it was time for fresh blades anyway and having super sharp blades certainly helped here second I took extremely light passes on this Dewalt planer I turned the handle a quarter turn between passes and this took less than 1/32 of an inch off the board's on each pass last I chained fir'd the back top edge of the board before starting the flattening this really helped to prevent any chipping in the edges during the flattening process you could also add a sacrificial board to the back of the boards to help with chipping I just took my time and the board's turned out close to finish ready right off the planer after the boards were flattened I cleaned up one edge on the jointer if you don't have a jointer you could certainly use a belt sander or something else to flatten one edge you definitely don't need a jointer for this project and then clean up the other three edges at the table saw as you can see you'll be left with a really great-looking board at this point next it was time for sanding lots and lots of sanding I started at 80 grit going over every surface of the board's until any remaining tool marks were removed since these are in green the sanding process will take a little longer after 80 grit I moved on to 120 grit again sanding all the after 120 it would be a good time to fill any gaps or cracks you have so you have a few options either wood blue and sawdust or epoxy and sawdust again since only the top of these boards will see you I only filled any gaps in the tops once that was done I transferred all the edges of the boards with a block plane I originally tried to use a router with a chamfer bit here but was getting a lot of chip out and the block plane worked really great for this finally I finished the sanding process with 180 grit sanding the chamfers as well on this step with sanding done it was time for finishing so finishing cutting boards is another hotly debated topic in the woodworking community but I decided to go with the classic mineral oil finish just make sure to get food-safe mineral oil I'll have a link to the exact oil I purchased in the video description and build article applying mineral oil is basically foolproof just pour it on and wipe it in allowing the wood to absorb as much as it can this is got to be the most satisfying moment of this whole build and as Wayne so eloquently put it so just apply plenty of finish allow it to soak into the wood for an hour or so then come back and wipe off the excess wait 24 hours do the same thing again and the board will be ready to use there are plenty of other finish options for cutting boards as well and a lot of people add some type of wax usually beeswax or paraffin wax to their mineral oil for the final coat and just do some research and pick your favorite also shout out to david picciuto he just came out with a new cutting board book I picked up a copy and it is great I'll have a link to that in the video description as well with the finish apply and all that's left to do is add some rubber feet and get to cutting all right hopefully you guys enjoyed this one this project was a lot of work but I am just so pleased with the results I mean these things turned out beautiful way better than I ever imagined now I probably could have gotten even more cutting boards had I made my boards a little thinner but I like a really beefy cutting board I do a lot of cooking and I want my cutting board to stay in place so that's why I made them thicker obviously you could make them thinner if you want these are a great gift item obviously Christmas is right around the corner and with five days until Christmas I think you have time to get one of these done if you would like if this is your first time in the channel maybe consider getting subscribed I put out new project videos like this every Tuesday and last if you want to support me check out some of the Amazon affiliate links in the video description below those cost you nothing and really helped to fund future projects thanks again for watching guys and until next time happy building

Channel: Crafted Workshop

Views: 964,561

Rating: 4.9326248 out of 5

Keywords: crafted, crafted magazine, crafted workshop, workshop, woodworking, diy, howto, how-to, make, maker, project, do-it-yourself, wood, making, kitchen, cutting, board, edge grain, teak, cutting board, cutting boards, end grain cutting board, end grain, end, grain, end grain cutting boards, end grain cutting board wood whisperer, wood whisperer, cutting board diy, cutting board finish, walnut, mtmwood, how to make a cutting board, making cutting boards, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that

Id: U0lqYMFcW3o

Length: 7min 52sec (472 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 20 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/dodgersbenny]

I want my garage to look like your workshop one day.

[u/strangebee]

Tree bien! This was fantastic! Ever since I saw your video, even though I don't do woodwork, it's inspired me to branch out. I was not board for a moment and I'm pining for the beautifully spruced up tree-ation yew made. I'm sure it'll be very poplar! 🌳🌲

[u/deanmc]

Those came out great! Thanks for the video

[u/birdguyjason]

I made cutting boards too. Jealous of all your tools! Especially that planer. Soooo much sanding on mine :-(

[u/algalkin]

I don't have a single wood planer, but I do own a router, how do you think should I proceed with chamfering those edges without chipping?

[u/Petapaw]

They look great, excellent job. Im jealous of your tools LOL

[u/[deleted]]

What's this style of woodwork called?