The Stunning 3D Cutting Board - Part 1

today in the workshop we'll look at how to make these beautiful end grain 3d cutting boards there are several techniques for creating the 3d effect but i believe the one i'll show you in this video is the simplest your comments are always welcome below and if you feel so inclined please like and subscribe to my youtube channel now let's head into the shop [Music] these 3d cutting boards really have a great effect to them but from the outset i will tell you that you must be pretty precise with your materials cuts and glue ups in order for that effect to carry through successfully to the end of your project you can see here that i'm using digital calipers to measure the width and thickness of my stock i'm using walnut maple and red oak you can use other hardwoods but just make sure that you have three woods that have some contrast between them after i measured my stock which is roughly two inches wide by three quarters of an inch thick i set my fence just a little over three quarters of an inch to cut all of my pieces of red oak i'm doing this to create the square part of the 3d pattern effect [Music] because my pieces are two inches wide i'm able to get two actual three-quarter by three-quarter inch pieces of red oak after i've got them cut then i put them through the sander in order to get them completely square after the pieces of red oak have gone through the sander i'll rotate each piece one quarter turn without lowering the drum and will repeat this process until i'm not removing any more material with the drum sander [Music] now i'm ready to work on the walnut and maple pieces both of the same dimensions as the red oak two inches wide by three quarters of an inch thick i'm setting my table saw blade to 45 degrees to make a single cut the full length of each piece of walnut and maple when setting my fence i'll use one of the pieces of red oak that has been sanded square i want the remaining face of the walnut and maple pieces to be the exact same dimension as the square face of the red oak [Music] once i've got my blade set i want to make sure that my push block is going to clear the spinning blade i don't want any surprises when making these cuts [Music] even after getting everything set up i'll make one final test pass through over the blade just to ensure that i'm not going to cut into my push block now that i'm happy with all of the adjustments i'll make this same 45 degree cut on all of my walnut pieces after this first cut you can see how the red oak square stock abuts with the walnut stock now we'll make the same 45 degree cut on all the maple pieces of the cutting [Music] board [Music] and finally now with all three pieces cut you can see how the 3d pattern is going to be assembled at this point i just repeat the process of cutting the walnut and maple stock so that i've got several of these so called jigsaw puzzles to put together here you can see that i've got six pieces of walnut six pieces of maple and six pieces of red oak all ready to assemble now it's time for the clamps i never thought i would need so many clamps but after this project i ordered another eight and i still don't feel like i have enough the first glue up of these three pieces was a little cumbersome but you learned a lot after that first glue up you know what to do where to put the clamps how much pressure to use on each end before you go to the opposite end it's really kind of a balancing act because you want to put force in two directions all the way down the three pieces so after this first one i learned a lot and was able to achieve this glue up in a lot less time although i've sped up the video in this section for time reasons this is really a place where you want to slow down taking the time to make sure that the three faces of these pieces go together as accurately as possible will save you a ton of time down the line if you've got gaps where a clamp wasn't placed accurately or with enough pressure then you're going to have to correct it later a little extra effort here will be worth it as you'll see later on [Music] [Music] [Music] the glue up was left overnight to dry and the next day i removed each of the clamps [Music] so as not to gum up my drum sander i use a chisel to remove as much of the dried glue squeeze out from each of the faces of the assembled pieces now all i did was repeat the same clamp up process and the same removal of the glue squeeze out until i had six pieces assembled at this point i need to run each of the assembled pieces through the drum sander so with a flick of the dust collector switch and some adjustments on the drum sander i'm ready to go [Music] during this process i want to make sure the orientation of the assembled pieces is the same and i want to send each of them through with the drum set at the same height then i'll rotate each piece one quarter turn without lowering the drum and send them through again i'll repeat this process until i'm not hearing any more material being removed then if needed i'll lower the drum ever so slightly and send all the pieces through again and repeat the one-quarter turn process this is another place in the project taking your time is important you want to remove as little material as possible on any given side so that the 3d effect of the assembly stays intact [Music] now with all six assembled pieces sanded i'm ready to glue them into one larger patterned piece [Music] [Music] once i've got the piece in my clamps i'll let the glue sit for about an hour then come back with a chisel and remove any of the glue squeeze out it's much easier to take care of it at this point than to let it sit overnight after allowing another overnight dry time i'll remove the board from the clamps and send it through the drum sander again to remove any small amounts of dried glue squeeze out that may remain i want to take extremely shallow passes again so that i don't upset the 3d pattern [Music] [Music] with the sanding completed i take the board over to my table saw and even up one of the edges then i'll place a stop block one inch from my saw blade and clamp it into place this will allow me to effectively cut one inch strips from the assembled board and i'll cut as many one inch strips as i can get if you're making this board you can choose to cut these strips at whatever width you desire just note that these strips will be flipped one quarter turn so that the 3d pattern will be facing up and will determine the final thickness of your cutting board [Music] [Music] [Music] with all of our strips cut we want to take a few minutes to sand each of the faces it will eliminate any splendoring left by the saw and help us achieve a nice tight and final glue up of the 3d pattern [Music] now this is what we've been waiting for we now get to see how this 3d pattern has emerged from those three initial boards [Music] on this particular board i decided to put a three inch walnut border around it i thought that it would be a nice way to highlight the 3d pattern if you're making this board you can choose to leave it off in fact i had enough leftover material to make a small 3d garnish board and decided to leave the border off it looked pretty sweet you'll see it towards the end of this project [Music] [Music] do again about an hour after the glue up i come back to remove any of the dried glue squeeze out there's no reason to have the drum sander get gummed up with this material and will also lessen the number of passes that i'll need to send the board through the sander after drying overnight i remove the board from the clamps and take it to the table saw to remove the protruding ends of the walnut border i want to be especially careful with my cut as i'll need the other two walnut border pieces to glue up perfectly flush with these edges do after the cuts for the last two border pieces have been made i perform the final glue up on the board [Music] this seems like as good a point as any to end part 1 of this 3d cutting board i hope you've enjoyed part 1 and please click on part 2 in the upper right hand corner of this video we'll pick up right where we left off and i'll provide some instruction on filling in any small voids that you may encounter when attempting this project and of course you don't want to miss the stunning reveal of this board after it is oiled and treated with cutting board conditioner thanks again for watching [Music] you

Channel: D.E. Jaeger Woodworking

Views: 170,511

Rating: 4.9261804 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: sNqHMG6Z7r0

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020