I want to make an end grain cutting board and I have three pieces of walnut boards that I will try to make this happen. My strategy is to rip two of the boards (~7.1" x 0.9") into two 3" strips, and a 1" strip. They're both unsanded. The last piece (3.5" x 0.8") that is s4s will cut into just one 3" strip. The target thickness of the boards will be 0.8". I have a 6" jointer, 14" planer, a table saw, a bandsaw, and a drum sander. What is the best way to joint, plane, and cut the first two unsanded boards to prep for the glue up? Mostly looking at the optimum order of operation using the tools above.
#Advice on Planing/Jointing strategy
rough cosmos
keen snow
Unfortunately those pieces are probably all too short to safely run through an electric planer. Generally a foot is the min, some machines will say more than 8”. Your manual can confirm. I don’t know of a machine that can safely plane a 7” strip and certainly not 3”.
rough cosmos
sorry to clarify the length is actually about 34"
keen snow
Then I’m confused, why would you want some 3” wide and one 1” wide?
rough cosmos
cutting them for the glue up and turn to get the end grain
keen snow
Also 0.8” for final thickness is a bit too thin for endgrain. It’s going to want to cup.
rough cosmos
the final thickness of the cutting board will be 2"
keen snow
So target thickness of 0.8” is board thickness before cutting?
When you cut a 3” strip you will have 3” face grain, not 3” edge grain.
rough cosmos
guess i'm need to know how to get the edges cut and planed knowing that my jointer is smaller than the boards
keen snow
Your boards are all 4/4?
And you’re going to plane them down to 0.8”?
Then your edge grain is all going to be 0.8” wide.
If you want thicker patterns then you need to start with thicker boards.
Because you glue them up face to face.
Unless you’re planning to glue them up edge to edge first, in which case it’s not an edge grain board that you start with, it’s a face grain board.
Then you crosscut your face grain board every 2 inches and glue those together to get your 2” thick end grain board.
I guess I’m not really sure your original question then. You would edge joint each board so one side is square, and use that as the reference against your fence on the table saw to rip.
Then joint them each when they’re 3” or 1” wide is fine. Then plane the opposite side. But if you’re going to do a face grain glue up (edge to edge) then you need to edge joint again after ripping on the saw to get them nice and square on the edges.
rough cosmos
i mean two of the boards are rough (or s1s or s2s i can't really tell) and i can't surface plane it as its wider than my jointer
keen snow
Yeah then rip it once first. At 3”. That’s fine.
And clean up that edge later after you joint the faces.
rough cosmos
ok thanks
keen snow
Sorry it took me a while to get there.
rough cosmos
np, if i have a 1.5" knot on the slab does that mean i can't use that part?
keen snow
You can try and center the knot so it’s buried in the middle of the cutting board that’s 2” thick but that’s tricky. Also knots can explode while jointing or planing.
Most of the time it’s fine, but the blades can catch the center of the knot if it’s not hollow and that can break free.
rough cosmos
ok may need to pick up another slab then. thanks again
keen snow
Do you have a photo of the board with the knot?
The biggest concern here is safety.
You can also cut out the knot and all the boards at the same length and make 2 laminations instead of 1
Because you’re going to crosscut them all and then stack them together for the end grain, your basically just tossing out one of the rows from the stack.
rough cosmos
keen snow
There’s a lot of loose fibers around the knot. I would hesitate to put it through the planer but I’m not an expert able to tell you for sure if it would be safe or not. Best bet is to cut it out completely before running boards through the jointer/planer imo.
Do you have enough length after the knot to still safely joint/plane if you were to cross cut it out?
rough cosmos
technically yes but it's messing up with my dimensions
dont mind cutting it out after the fact but would like to plane/joint through it if possible
keen snow
I’m going to say I’m not qualified to give advice about that and hope someone else chimes in.
rough cosmos
i mean i'll pick up another slab if i can't work through it
keen snow
That’s certainly the easiest option if you can use this board later for another project.
How do you plan to get a flat surface once you do each of the glue ups?
rough cosmos
probably cnc
or drum sander
in that case i'll probably make that slab my test piece
rough cosmos
yeah this is my first time doing it so its all a learning process
does it matter if i rip the boards on the table saw even if i dont have the sides surfaced yet?
burnt estuary
I have jointed/planed many knots, it's not fantastic for the blades on your planer, and as the tiny missile I took to the finger last week would suggest, they can dislodge and come flying out.
if a sander is at all an option, it's a better one
burnt estuary
does it matter if i rip the boards on the table saw even if i dont have the side...
Does matter, I would suggest not doing that, you really want a stable reference edge.
doesn't necessarily need to be perfectly square though, so you can just hand plane it flat