straighten a wood block

On Nov 26, 1:01 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> On Nov 26, 11:10 am, lerameur <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches
> > I want to glue them together and make a cutting board.
> > The wood came 6 feet long and 1x2 inches.
> > I used a band saw to cut the smaller pieces. There are some saw mark
> > traces at the tip of each bloc , but it is minor.
> > although when I try to put the small pieces end to end ( 1x2 inches
> > faces) there are small gaps.
>
> You would have been better off to saw the pieces longer. Now that
> they are only 4 inches long, you will be getting your fingers
> unnecessarily close to a spinning blade.
>
> If I am understanding this correctly, you are going to glue the edges
> together so that the end to end shows - this is your problem. Yes? If
> so, you can correct this to some extent by running the ends through
> your miter saw to get them square.
>
> But even if you do that, the end to end joint will have movement, and
> will open and close over a period of time. The exposure to hot water
> (cleaning) and just plain use will cause the end to end joints to
> move. The open joints can be a great place to drive in meat or
> vegetable scraps when cutting or chopping, and make a wonderful
> resevoir for hot meat juice and grease when carving meat.
>
> I wouldn't do it.
>
> If you have some of that wood left, cut it into finish lengths and
> edge glue whole pieces. It will give you a more sanitary and sturdy
> product. In the many wood cutting boards I have made, a solid piece
> of wood is the best. But realistically, that is more money than it is
> worth. The second best is long pieces, with no joints in the field.
>
> If you are trying to mimic the fancy boards you see at Williams Sonoma
> and the like, forget it. Theirs are made in high pressure machines
> that use a resin based (read: plastic) glue and all the little pieces
> are mashed together with something like 1200 pounds of pressure - end
> to end. Some of them even have finger jointed material in them to
> enhance the strength of the joint.
>
> YMMV.... my 0.02.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Robert

This is not correct. Many home-built endgrain butcher blocks have
been successfully built without fancy equipment or materials. I've
built several, ranging from one 10 inches thick on wheels to a 4-inch
thick, to a 20 sq ft table top using over 700 individual blocks. Some
of them did use resin glue, but this is not out of reach for an
amateur. Some used ordinary Titebond III. Gaps are kept to
essentially zero by gluing up sub assemplies and truing them before
gluing them to final size. The oldest one is going on 25 years of
daily kitchen use with no sign of joint failure.

Mon, Nov 26, 2007, 9:10am (EST-3) [email protected] (lerameur) doth
wave and say:
hello,
I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches I want to glue them
together and make a cutting board. <snip>

Sounds like it's gonna be a quite large, and kinda ugly, cutting
board. Also sounds like you left out a lot of details. You want square
ends, you cut with some sort of guide, not free-hand. It all makes e
wonder.



JOAT
You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you
"know"?.
- Granny Weatherwax

On Nov 26, 2:32 pm, lerameur <[email protected]> wrote:

> Also, can I glue a sand paper on the blade . Keep the blade down and
> sand down the wood until it is uniform ?
>
> ken

Certainly it can be done that way especially if you use a jig to make
sure the block is square. If you don't make sure each edge is 90
degrees to the other two, you'll still have gaps.

You could also use a plane with a shooting board, which is basically a
jig to hold the plane square to a surface, and either slide the plane
over the clamped piece, or the piece over the clamped plane.

For pieces that small you don't really need power, in my own humble
opinion. You can clamp a piece in a jig and use several methods to
square up the sides. I don't think you can ever get it completely free
of gaps but you can certainly make them just about disappear to the
naked eye.

Having said that I cannot envision a method to get 200 four-inch blocs
of maple squared up that would not take quite a few hours of drudge
work. Depends on how out of square they are, and how nimble you are, I
guess.

On Nov 26, 11:10 am, lerameur <[email protected]> wrote:

> I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches
> I want to glue them together and make a cutting board.
> The wood came 6 feet long and 1x2 inches.
> I used a band saw to cut the smaller pieces. There are some saw mark
> traces at the tip of each bloc , but it is minor.
> although when I try to put the small pieces end to end ( 1x2 inches
> faces) there are small gaps.

You would have been better off to saw the pieces longer. Now that
they are only 4 inches long, you will be getting your fingers
unnecessarily close to a spinning blade.

If I am understanding this correctly, you are going to glue the edges
together so that the end to end shows - this is your problem. Yes? If
so, you can correct this to some extent by running the ends through
your miter saw to get them square.

But even if you do that, the end to end joint will have movement, and
will open and close over a period of time. The exposure to hot water
(cleaning) and just plain use will cause the end to end joints to
move. The open joints can be a great place to drive in meat or
vegetable scraps when cutting or chopping, and make a wonderful
resevoir for hot meat juice and grease when carving meat.

I wouldn't do it.

If you have some of that wood left, cut it into finish lengths and
edge glue whole pieces. It will give you a more sanitary and sturdy
product. In the many wood cutting boards I have made, a solid piece
of wood is the best. But realistically, that is more money than it is
worth. The second best is long pieces, with no joints in the field.

If you are trying to mimic the fancy boards you see at Williams Sonoma
and the like, forget it. Theirs are made in high pressure machines
that use a resin based (read: plastic) glue and all the little pieces
are mashed together with something like 1200 pounds of pressure - end
to end. Some of them even have finger jointed material in them to
enhance the strength of the joint.

YMMV.... my 0.02.

Good luck.

Robert

On Nov 26, 9:10 am, lerameur <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches
> I want to glue them together and make a cutting board.
> ... Is there some other way I can straighten the blocks?

Not really, nor is it required. Glue 'em up into strips, flatten
the sides of the strip (rip in table saw, or use a jointer), glue
the block up from the strips. The top of the block
gets flattened with a floor sander as a final step before
finishing...

On Nov 26, 2:25 pm, [email protected] (J T) wrote:
> Mon, Nov 26, 2007, 9:10am (EST-3) [email protected] (lerameur) doth
> wave and say:
> hello,
> I have cut 200 maple wooden blocks (2x1x4) inches I want to glue them
> together and make a cutting board. <snip>
>
> Sounds like it's gonna be a quite large, and kinda ugly, cutting
> board. Also sounds like you left out a lot of details. You want square
> ends, you cut with some sort of guide, not free-hand. It all makes e
> wonder.

well it is going to look very nice..
I did not cut by hand, never said that
I used a Sliding Mitre saw:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443290297&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396672968&bmUID=1196108982301&deptid=1408474396672839&ctgrid=1408474396672855&subctgrid=1408474396672968
I think the blade was not perfect.
Also, can I glue a sand paper on the blade . Keep the blade down and
sand down the wood until it is uniform ?

ken