I turned this into a $500 butcher block

stay tuned as i transform this beautiful raw material into this a huge end grain butcher block i'll walk you step by step to the process of how i build one of these monsters and offer some tips along the way to help you up your cutting board game so i'm starting this build pretty much where i start all my projects with rough cut lumber in this case walnut i mark this 12 foot board to rough length using a white marker which helps me see my lines better and finish marking my line with a square cutting rough lumber like this can sometimes be tricky because the board is typically not straight and a gap can exist between the board and the fence i cut through the back of the lumber and then cut through the part closest to the fence you can see with rough lumber there can be plenty of twist and cupping especially in wider boards which is what the milling process is for but before we can do that i need to rip these boards down at the table saw because they're just a little too wide for my jointer cutting these wide boards in half not only makes them narrow enough for the jointer but also reduces the amount of cupping in the board allowing me to remove less material at the jointer to make it flat and who's gonna be upset about removing less walnut now after i rip all the boards it's time to begin the milling operations can you believe all this walnut is needed for one board i start things off of the jointer it's important that if your board is bowed the bow is facing down i run each board across the jointer to establish one flat face on each board for reference next i put the newly flattened side of the board against the fence and running across the jointer on edge this will create one perfectly square edge to the flat face i repeat this process over and over and over and over and over again until all my rough lumber has one flat face and one square edge you can see my utility cart here that serves as a nice landing spot for all my work in process this is a great help especially when working on larger projects that require lots of parts to be milled one other thing to note is i'm using my white marker to mark the two sides that i've milled this isn't really needed for rough cut material since it's kind of obvious which faces have been milled and which haven't but i do it anyways for routine's sake because there are going to be times when this comes in really handy for milling previously surfaced material so just um go fix yourself a sandwich and i'll be right here at the jointer when you get back okay from here i head up the way to our next stop the planer since we know we have one flat face on each of our boards we can put that face down and get the opposite side of our material flat and coplanar this process usually goes faster than the jointing and the result is i have three sides perfectly flat and squared to one another isn't the planer great it's like a walnut lumber dispenser now it's time to pack up our parts and head back to the table saw to complete this process we still have that fourth side to take care of making sure my table saw blade is perfectly 90 degrees i cut each of my boards by putting the squared edge against the fence and ripping the boards to consistent width my aim here is to cut each strip slightly narrower than the thickness of the material this leaves a little room so that when i plane the glued up panel later i'll end up with square segments this is for visual purposes only i think square segments in my end grain butcher blocks look very nice but you don't have to follow that design no matter what width you choose for your strips you'll end up with four squared sides and that's all that matters that's the end of the first milling process and now it's time to have some messy fun i'm gonna glue these strips into panels by applying a liberal amount of glue and then brushing it out until all my strips are covered i'm using titebond 3 for this project because it's water resistant and because it has a longer open time which i'll need for gluing this many strips together if you notice i'm leaving one glue joint bearer that's because i'm gluing this panel into two pieces because a single 20 inch panel won't fit into my planer once all my strips are together i apply the clamps and give it the squeeze i'm paying attention to make sure the panel is as flat as possible if i introduce a twist now it will cost me and how much material i'll have to remove when i run this through the planer later i want to preserve as much material as possible because what kind of heartless person wants to waste walnut after applying approximately 73 clamps it's time to wait for the glue to dry once the glue is cured i remove the panels from the clamps and head back to the planer to plane these panels down to the same thickness if the glue up goes as planned the number of passes to the planer should be minimal just enough to clean up the surface of all the dry glue i now need to make a tight glue joint between the two panels to do this i fold the panels like a book and run them across the jointer together ok back at the table saw i trim up one edge of each panel this establishes a clean straight reference point so when i glue the two panels together i'll have a perfectly straight edge i also made a diamond shape mark on the side of the board so i remember how the panels go together next i glue the two panels together to form one big panel the full width of my butcher block i want this glue up to go as cleanly as possible because i want to make sure that the two panels perfectly match up at the seam so when the glue dries i have a perfect panel glue up that takes very little work to clean up another way i ensure a clean result is by spraying water on the panel and wiping up the excess glue this helps avoid using scrapers later and since the surface that is visible now is going to be cut into strips and glued together i don't have to worry about visible glue staining once the glue is dried it's time to head back to the table saw to cut this panel into strips in this case my strips are just under 3 inches thick i love my new table saw sled for this operation it makes my cuts safe and accurate if you want to see the video for how i built my sled i'll leave a link in the description now that all my strips are cut i line them up and begin to arrange them in a way that's most pleasing to me okay it's time for yet another glue up can you believe it i line up all my strips and again apply a liberal amount of glue i line my strips up the way i laid them out before and make sure everything is aligned and as flat as possible before i put the squeeze on them taking the time to make sure everything is flat now saves a lot of sanding time later it's important on glue ups this big to just get the glue on the boards and into the clamps quickly so don't worry about a few cents worth of glue that might be wasted it's totally worth your sanity in the end once i have everything where i want it and i apply the clamps it's time to wait again for the third time when the glue is dried it's time to flatten this block since we're dealing with end grain and the board is 20 inches wide the drum sander is my best option i run it through the sander rotating the board each pass and flipping it every other pass to ensure that i get a nice flat surface once everything is flat i need to clean up the two long edges first i have to establish the square edge now that one side is cut and squared i can trim the other side by referencing the flat side against the fence and now it's on to sanding i'm starting with 80 grit to remove the deep linear scratches left by the drum sander then i move to 120 180 and 220 grits i start out using an aggressive sander to remove the deep scratches left by the drum sander and move on to a random orbit sander to finish at the higher grits next i head to the disc sander where i create chamfers on the edges of my block i like the look this gives and it keeps the sharp corners of the block from getting damaged with use or damaging the user then i hit all the edges with my block plane to clean them up i prefer champers of a roundovers because well chamfers next i use a forstner bit to drill recesses in the bottom of the block for the addition of rubber feet it's time now to turn my attention to the finger grooves this board is going to be very large and pretty heavy so it will need some way for the user to get a good grip i'm setting up my router table with a 1 inch round nose bit i then set up a makeshift guide using a strip of plywood and double-sided tape this will help keep the board against the fence as i cut the grooves you want to cut these grooves as quickly and safely as possible to avoid burn marks which are a huge pain to sand out later when my setup is ready i drop the block onto the bit and run it as smoothly and quickly as possible while being safe next i clean up the grooves by wrapping my 1 inch spindle sander thingy with sandpaper once the grooves are cleaned up it's time to begin the finishing process i begin by spraying my board down with water just a light spray is all that's needed to raise the grain i just sand back all the fuzzies using 220 grit sandpaper and we're all smooth again now for the part we've all been waiting for i apply a liberal amount of mineral oil to the board aboard this stick will be really thirsty so i go back over any spots that appear like they could take more oil i then wipe off any excess oil and apply a coat of beeswax paste this seals the board and keeps the oil inside that way i have two layers of defense against water the final step is to add rubber feet to the recesses i cut in the bottom i pre-drill for the screws pop in the foot and screw it securely in place and that's it you have a beautiful new walnut butcher block ready for its new home this board is going to be as functional as it is beautiful if you were wondering before why i liked walnut so much just take a look at that grain

Channel: MWA Woodworks

Views: 720,014

Keywords: butcher block, butchers block, cutting board, cutting board diy, cutting boards, cutting boards designs, cutting boards diy, diy butcher block, diy cutting board, end grain, end grain butcher block, end grain cutting board, end grain cutting boards, endgrain cutting board, how to make a butcher block, how to make a cutting board, how to make an end grain cutting board, making a cutting board, making cutting boards, mwa woodworks, walnut cutting board, woodworking

Id: I71rWveeuj0

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2019