2nd Cutting Board

After receiving the Ridgid table saw for Christmas, I knew I wanted to create something special for my parents.  You can check out the blog post here describing the table saw gift!  I decided to make them a cutting board from walnut, padauk, and purpleheart.  I have three kids, so I wanted three stripes in the board to symbolize my parent's grandchildren!  

From left to right: padauk, purpleheart, wenge, spalted maple, walnut, and hard maple

I swung into the local hardwoods dealer and grabbed some boards.  I didn't use the wenge, spalted maple or hard maple for this board, but I have other plans for those woods!  The first step was to crosscut the boards down to size and rip them to the proper widths on the table saw.  

Crosscut and ripped to size! Waiting for glue up

The Ridgid saw worked really well ripping the boards down to the proper width.  I wanted to make the whole board edge grain, so I ripped the boards near an inch and flipped them on their sides.  This created a board that was a little under 1 inch thick, after planing.  The boards I bought were 7/8" thick, so that is the thickness of each of the boards when looking down upon the finished product.

I spent a little extra time and added a couple exta clamps to the glue up process and I'm very happy I did!  The board came out of the clamps really flat, leaving only a little planing to be done!

Titebond II

Click on the pictures above to check out the clamps I used to get a really strong clamp down on this cutting board.  Everything turned out really straight and flat!  I couldn't have been happier how the Titebond II worked out either.  

Now it was time to run it through my Wen Planer.  I hadn't used the planer a bunch, but I knew I needed something different than my belt sander loaded with 40 grit sand paper...  On Instagram, someone did mention that I should knock down some of the dried glue, which I will certainly do on my next cutting board.  This should save my blades and let them cutting sharper for a little longer.  

Cutting board running through the Wen Planer

After a few thin passes, it came out of the planer looking amazing!

The shavings pulled from the planer even looks cool!

Next up, it was time to square and cut the edges.  I built a quick little crosscut sled for my table saw out of MDF.  It isn't the best for long term, but I'm very happy with how it performed!

Table saw crosscut sled made from MDF

And next up was putting a nice little round over edge onto the board.  I used a Ridgid Trim Router, and man, it worked so well!

I used my orbital sander and worked the board down to 320 grit, smooth as glass!  Due to the planer, this took no time, and turned out beautifully!  On my previous cutting board, I used Howard Products Cutting Board Oil and loved it!  I couldn't wait to use it again on this board to see the colors pop!

The cutting board oil application can be viewed at the end of the YouTube video above.  I couldn't have been happier the way this thing turned out!  The finished product was well worth the hard work to get it looking so nice!