Making cutting boards

[boomer12831]

I would like to make some cutting boards for Christmas Presents. I was wondering what you guys use for glue to glue the wood together. Do you use biscuits? I have been told to use Tite-Bond 3 and just glue and clamp them together. What type of wood do you use, obviously hard wood? I would like to mix it up like the "real woodworkers" use. Thanks for the advice, Ed.

 

[kazlx]

Clamps and glue are fine. Maple is popular, but you can use most hardwoods. No biscuits.

 

[Alchymist]

I use maple, poplar, and black walnut. Titebond II, and mineral oil finish. Just clamps (with cauls), and glue.

 

[Daveo]

Not to sidetrack, but this guys boards are awesome!

 

[dragginbalz]

I made one for my wife a few years ago for Christmas. Tightbond 3 here also and clamps with salad bowl finish. She likes it, so I was happy. She didn't want to use it it "looked too pretty" so I had to grab a knife and hit it a few times before she finally used it.

I actually purchased cutting board package of maple and purple heart from here:

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/exotic-lumber-projects/cutting-board-package/#.VF1qzsmCvKc

 

[bczygan]

I made a bunch like this, out of plastic.

 

[aggierailroad]

Titebond III is waterproof and food safe. Maple and poplar are popular. Google tight grained hardwoods to see your options. The tight grain (small pores) helps with the microbes. Finish with mineral oil, Jatoba, Danish, etc. most common is mineral. Most of the natural oils have been shown to be food safe.

Skip the biscuits, use cauls (see my blog!) and go for it!

 

[Kevin54]

DO NOT use Gorilla Glue. GG is some absolutely fantastic glue, and I don't know whether they have a formula for gluing wood together side by side, but GG expands some, and that is what makes a tight joint, like where a chair leg fits into a seat. But bonding wood side by side, you would NOT want an expanding glue.

Make sure you post up some pics. I'm interested in woodworking, but wood and I do not get along well. When you work with metal, and work on .0001 all of your life, a smidge, a red one, a pencil width, gives me all different sizes. I'll leave the wood to the wood working experts. You guys know how to "cut it a little shorter, just by a red one, or a **** hair", where I'd have to take off about .005.

 

[IndyGarage]

I made one for my wife a few years ago for Christmas. Tightbond 3 here also and clamps with salad bowl finish. She likes it, so I was happy. She didn't want to use it it "looked too pretty" so I had to grab a knife and hit it a few times before she finally used it.

I actually purchased cutting board package of maple and purple heart from here:

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/exotic-lumber-projects/cutting-board-package/#.VF1qzsmCvKc

My son made a bunch of those purpleheart and maple Checker cutting boards last year and I got to help. They turned out great but man they were a pain to make. We created more purple sawdust than you can imagine

 

[zkling]

Not to sidetrack, but this guys boards are awesome!

I've seen that guy before, they are really slick, but it takes someone with wood working knowledge to fully appreicate the final product and what all when into making it.

 

[aggierailroad]

Make sure you post up some pics. I'm interested in woodworking, but wood and I do not get along well. When you work with metal, and work on .0001 all of your life, a smidge, a red one, a pencil width, gives me all different sizes. I'll leave the wood to the wood working experts. You guys know how to "cut it a little shorter, just by a red one, or a **** hair", where I'd have to take off about .005.

Lol one of these days I'll have you convinced that you can take 0.001" off a board at a time. Even still, I could use that **** hair tape from time to time!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Not to sidetrack, but this guys boards are awesome!

Really nice cutting boards. I wonder what he sells them for ?

 

[PugetDude]

Really nice cutting boards. I wonder what he sells them for ?

Profit?

 

[theknurl]

I like end grain Burma teak........

 

[rlitman]

DO NOT use Gorilla Glue. GG is some absolutely fantastic glue, and I don't know whether they have a formula for gluing wood together side by side, but GG expands some, and that is what makes a tight joint, like where a chair leg fits into a seat. But bonding wood side by side, you would NOT want an expanding glue.

That's really not an issue. When making cutting boards, the boards must be properly jointed, and then clamped with some serious pressure. Polyurethane adhesives only expand when not under clamped pressure. They will not expand in a clamped joint, and are possibly the best choice for a cutting board adhesive, except perhaps for Titebond III (II is not totally waterproof).

BTW, polyurethane glue is the adhesive that is used on Boos blocks now being made (the butcher block in my kitchen is made the old fashioned way with dovetails and bolts, and no glue).

 

[Alchymist]

That's really not an issue. When making cutting boards, the boards must be properly jointed, and then clamped with some serious pressure. Polyurethane adhesives only expand when not under clamped pressure. They will not expand in a clamped joint, and are possibly the best choice for a cutting board adhesive, except perhaps for Titebond III (II is not totally waterproof).

BTW, polyurethane glue is the adhesive that is used on Boos blocks now being made (the butcher block in my kitchen is made the old fashioned way with dovetails and bolts, and no glue).

While "serious" pressure may work with the polyurethane adhesives, there are two catches here for the new woodworker. First, the more pressure applied, the more tendency for the boards to end up bowed. Second, if "serious" clamping pressure is applied using other glues such as Titebond, there is danger of squeezing out too much glue resulting in a glue starved joint that will fail.

 

[chruler]

Not to sidetrack, but this guys boards are awesome!

Beautiful cutting board! And great video on how to do it!

I have access to some heat bending gear for forming guitar sides. This is giving me some new ideas!

 

[SweetD]

"cut it a little shorter, just by a red one, or a **** hair"[/B], where I'd have to take off about .005.

We need a group buy:

www.chruler.com



Dave

 

[chruler]

Bwah ha ha!

"The Official **** Hair Ruler has been painstakingly calibrated using a set of red **** hairs stored in the National Archive of Weights and Measures at Cheyenne Mountain. The Official **** Hair Ruler finally establishes a world standard for this historic unit of measure."

OK, it was really hard to keep a straight face over this. LOL!

 

[trainer]

We need a group buy:

www.chruler.com



Dave

$20.75 to ship a 6" ruler to Canada? Pass.

 

[Kevin54]

We need a group buy:

www.chruler.com



Dave

Oh I so need one of those.

 

[theknurl]

www.chruler.com

the perfect stocking stuffers

 

[boomer12831]

I'm not sure if I just screwed up big time or not. I cut all of the strips of various hardwoods, Oak, Ash, Maple, Purple Heart, Mahogany. I glued it together and clamped it with 4 bar clamps and also used 4 C clamps and 4 pieces of channel iron to keep it from " Bowing". I went back down and checked on it ( like whats there to check ) it seemed fine. I happen to look at the bottle of glue and realized that I used Gorilla Wood Glue instead of the Titebond 3 that was recommended. Do I throw it in the woodstove and start over? HELP!!!!!! Ed.

 

[Alchymist]

I'm not sure if I just screwed up big time or not. I cut all of the strips of various hardwoods, Oak, Ash, Maple, Purple Heart, Mahogany. I glued it together and clamped it with 4 bar clamps and also used 4 C clamps and 4 pieces of channel iron to keep it from " Bowing". I went back down and checked on it ( like whats there to check ) it seemed fine. I happen to look at the bottle of glue and realized that I used Gorilla Wood Glue instead of the Titebond 3 that was recommended. Do I throw it in the woodstove and start over? HELP!!!!!! Ed.

According to the Gorilla website, it's a non-foaming PVA type glue, so I'd keep on with it. I think it will probably work ok. Sounds similar to the Titebond.

 

[boomer12831]

Thanks Alchymist, I will sleep a little better tonight. Also thanks to everyone who gave me advice on this little project that I'm doing. Ed.

 

[Kevin54]

Boomer...make sure you post up the process and the finished product

 

[MoonRise]

A little late to the discussion, but for cutting boards I like:

- a tight-grained 'hard' hardwood.

I don't want an 'open' grain, so oak, etc are out of the running. I don't want most 'tropical' hardwoods, because of the possible 'oily' resins in the wood that may or may not be all that food/people safe (look up cocobolo and allergic reactions, for instance). Poplar is too soft (for me), so Hard maple (aka 'rock maple') is my usual choice (for a 'working' cutting board, as opposed to an 'artistic' one).

Glue is usually Titebond II or III. I'm not going to be soaking a wooden cutting board, so Titebond II is 'plenty' water resistant. If your use (or heathenish users) might be soaking the wooden object in water, then use Titebond III.

btw, if you go to the Titebond website at http://www.titebond.com, you can get the Product Selector and one of the available question choices is for wooden cutting boards. Which selects either Titebond II or III, as both are FDA approved for indirect food contact.

Gorilla Wood Glue is a water-resistant PVA-type wood glue (similar to Titebond II).

Glued and clamped is -usually- enough. A 'big' cutting board made of several wide pieces of wood might or might not get biscuits or similar, mostly to help make glue-up and assembly a bit easier (the biscuits help to align the faces of the pieces of wood and help in that way, either that or use some cauls across the face of the glue-up).

More than one way to do the task.