[oklahomaben]

So I very good friend of mine is a chef and did all the food for my wedding so as a thank you I want to make him an end grain cutting board, BUT leave it to me to make it difficult. He is a huge Alabama fan (that really tested our friendship lol) and I was wanting to make a red and white board for him. .... And I'm wanting to make the Alabama to inlay into the board. Now question
#1. Wood suggestions for the colors?
#2. I was gonna make the inlay out of end grain as well. I was going to make a sheet of end grain and put the Al. A on it and cut it out on the scroll saw... is it gonna chip out like crazy? Or will I get decent edges?
Any in put would be greatly appreciated!!!! This is a very very good friend and I'd like to do something amazing for him and his two passions are cooking and Alabama football.

 

[mdntrdr]

How are you going to make a "sheet of end grain"? :huh:

 

[Paarker]

This all might be possible. The woods could be red heart and hard maple but the red heart won't stay red it will darken over time. You'll also have to scrape the top to finish it so the red heart doesn't bleed into the maple. As long as you have a drum sander you could make a very thin end grain " sheet " think 1/4 inch cutting board. I'm sure that thin would be very fragile so take care making it so it doesn't break. Anything is possible with a little practice and patience. I would suggest you make yourself one first ( your practice ) then make your friends ( your patience ).

I hope to see a picture of it when it's all done.

 

[oklahomaben]

You hit the nail on the head paarker..... That's exactly what I was thinking of doing. I would probably get it all one thickness then cut and lay it down in sections I think the A as a whole would be to fragile. Now. ...problem number one. ... I don't have a drum sander :/ I have an oscillating drum same but I don't know if that would work. could I make a fence jig and just run the sections thru vertically? Same concept as a big drum sander just on a smaller scale. ...

 

[Paarker]

You would want the end grain sheet all in one piece just like a cutting board only a whole lot thinner. I don't think what you have would work because if I'm thinking right you'd thickness them first then glue them up that way. I'm thinking that just wouldn't work out to well. The safest way to thickness an end grain board is a drum sander especially when you would be working with one so thin. Any chance you got a buddy who might have one or maybe a fellow forum member who could help you out with it. I'm not coming up with another way around it especially being an end grain inlay.

 

[oklahomaben]

May just have to put this project on the back burner... I've been thinking about building stumpy numbs drum sander this might be the final nail in the coffin on thinking about it and DOING it. But my version would use my table saw fit the motor

 

[gmcsmoke]

should be relatively easy. watch the wood whisperer's episode 115 on router inlay; make the Alabama A out of end grain, router the pattern, insert and sand flat.

 

[knotscott]

I'm not smart enough to figure how to make that logo with the wood....I think I'd make the cutting board with a more straight forward design with the wood types of your choice, and figure out a way to cut the AL emblem with a router, or maybe even had that down with a CNC. Forget the AL color scheme for this application.

 

[HowardAcheson]

There is a little engineering that needs to be considered when building an end grain butcher block or cutting board. First, choose wood where the growth rings (viewed from the end) run as close to 90 degrees or parallel to one edge. Remember, the expansion/contraction is about double along the annular rings verses perpendicular to the rings. You've got to keep the grain running in the same direction as you glue up your strips. In other words, don't glue a flatsawn edge to a quartersawn edge.

Next, the way butcher blocks are made is to glue up strips of wood like you were making a laminated type cutting board. These laminated panels are then run through a planer to flatten them and bring them to equal thickness. Then the panel is crosscut into strips of blocks equal to the thickness that you want the butcher block to be. These block strips are then glued together again keeping the grain running in the same directions.

Not paying attention to the grain orientation will lead to the block cracking and/or joints being pulled apart.

A ANSI type II or ANSI Type I (Titebond III) adhesive will work just fine however, you need to be sure you do everything right to get good adhesion. Wood glues are non-toxic when cured. Your glue faces should be flat and freshly cut. It they were cut more than a few days earlier, freshen them up with about three swipes with 320 sandpaper and block to keep the faces flat.

 

[Wema826]

I have been thinking on this for a couple days, I came up with this,

cut your stock into 1x1x1" cubes, say maple and red heart or a dyed cherry would work well. then make 4 frame rails that are 1" tall by 3/4" thick by however long.

have a pattern made onto a clear sheet. this can be done at any office supply store same thing teachers would use for the overhead projectors screens.

make your frame so you have a box to hold your pieces. then attach the pattern to one edge so you can flip it on and off tape should do the trick.

then: dry fit by filling the frame with all the "whole blocks you can. where you have to split the spot with the 2 different colors you can then put the maple block in. trace or draw the line on the block so it fits the shape, then do the same with the other block. once the 2 fit correctly glue and clamp them together, then place them in. in essence you are making a 1x1x1 block with 2 colors. the 2 color blocks should be the only ones glued at this point. keep in mind to keep your grain direction going the same direction. once you have all of this done. remove the frame.

cut or grab some dunage wood that you can use as cauls to clamp from both sides meaning the dunage will not overlap, leave the cauls about 1/4" short.

when you do the glue up. I would do it on a piece of ply covered with wax paper to keep it from sticking. as you tighten each clamp. tap each block to "seat" it flat.

once it is dried, and since you do not have a drum sander. I would get a very sharp block plane and set it to as fine a shaving as possible and start to flatten the top. and then scrap the bottom with a card scraper.

this is the best I can come up with, anyone have any other ideas?

 

[HowardAcheson]

>>>> cut your stock into 1x1x1" cubes, say maple and red heart or a dyed cherry would work well. then make 4 frame rails that are 1" tall by 3/4" thick by however long.

Not really a good idea. An end grain cutting board is going to want to expand and contract in length and width with changes in humidity and moisture. A solid wood frame around an end grain field will restrict the movement of the field. This will result in the field being damaged or destroyed and/or the glue joint holding the frame being forced apart.

Trying to glue a lot of individual pieces of wood will be almost impossible. As I said in my above response, the way end grain boards are made is to glue strips together, flip them over 90 degrees, crosscut them to the thickness you want the board to be and then glue the strips together into the board.

 

[Kahlua]

>>>> cut your stock into 1x1x1" cubes, say maple and red heart or a dyed cherry would work well. then make 4 frame rails that are 1" tall by 3/4" thick by however long.

Not really a good idea. An end grain cutting board is going to want to expand and contract in length and width with changes in humidity and moisture. A solid wood frame around an end grain field will restrict the movement of the field. This will result in the field being damaged or destroyed and/or the glue joint holding the frame being forced apart.

Trying to glue a lot of individual pieces of wood will be almost impossible. As I said in my above response, the way end grain boards are made is to glue strips together, flip them over 90 degrees, crosscut them to the thickness you want the board to be and then glue the strips together into the board.

I think his frame in this method was simply an alignment tool to corral all the blocks together while creating the design.

Tedious task for a novelty outcome, imho.

 

[44260]

could you cut the "A" out of one of these red plastic cutting boards and inlay it into your end grain board?
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/3/red-cutting-boards

 

[ryan50hrl]

I'd forgo the red wood......even if you get it red to begin with, and don't sand, its going to bleed everytime a cut runs through the two pieces. I'd go hard maple and some other dark wood.......and make it a two tone light dark with the logo

 

[TimPa]

maple and cherry would work, steamed cherry is even redder. a big issue with end grain cutting boards is the leveling off. router sled, belt sander, drum sander or wide belt sander. assuming grain directionadvice is followed also.

 

[oklahomaben]

I'm thinking I'm going to abandon the white part and go with a walnut it would be the right color scheme but I think the dark would contrast nicely, and I wouldn't have to worry about it bleeding as much. I still think I'm going to do a 1in sheet of blood wood and then put the 'A' on it and cut it out with the jig saw and inlay it. But I really just don't know if it would be better to keep it one piece or not. That's genius with the router sled to even it out!!! I have a router sadly no drum sander.....yet

 

[frankp]

Might I recommend just doing an "edge" of the bloodwood? I love bloodwood and have done a couple of inlays (not finished) with it that even before final finish are bleeding a bit into the yellowheart. Against something like maple, it's very hard to prevent the bleeding. If you just do an edge in the bloodwood, though, it might work really well.