The Butcher Block

This was my first attempt at making a "Butcher Block" cutting board. Butcher block meaning that it is considerably thicker than a standard cutting board.  This one checked in at 12" wide x 22" long x 1.75" deep.  

I bought some pre-surfaced Maple and Walnut boards from Rockler Woodworking.  They have a decent selection of Domestic and Exotic hardwood lumbers to pick through.  However, I am really wanting to try out a hardwood specialty lumber yard here in the DFW area just to get a wider selection of some "fancier" wood.  

So after I picked up the wood, I chopped it up into 22.5" planks to make it a little more manageable on the table saw.  I then ripped it down to 2" strips on the table saw.  The boards were just wide enough  (~6.5") to get three 2" pieces per plank with very little waste.

Next was just the process of gluing up the 2" strips on edge, alternating colors, and clamping them together.  You definitely want to use a waterproof glue like Titebond 3 and make sure you cover 100% of the surface area between the individual strips.  This will make sure your board doesn't have any cracks to allow water and bacteria to sit and ruin your board.

Allowing at least 24 hours for the glue to dry, I then removed the claps and began shaping the cutting board.  One problem you might have is a lot of glue squeeze out (which is actually a good thing) or your boards may be a bit uneven.  One way to address this is by using a sander, a hand plane, or a power planer.  

I used a combination of all 3 on this board.  

I started out with a power hand plane like this one (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-6-Amp-3-1-4-in-Corded-Hand-Planer-HPL52K/205509610).  These things will remove a lot of material in a hurry, so any large differences can be fixed pretty quickly.   BUT, they can also get out of hand pretty quick taking off more than you mean or in areas you didn't mean.  It is hard to match the amount being taken off across the whole board also since the blades are only about 3 inches wide and your board is much wider than that.  

Next, I switched to the hand plane to help knock down any slight inconsistencies.  A good sharp hand plane really works miracles to flatten a surface.

After you get a pretty smooth surface, you can switch to sanding.  I used an 80 grit on a power sander to finish shaping, then stepped up to 150, and 220 grit until it was super smooth.  It takes a lot of time to sand down this hard of wood so you have to be pretty patient.

A few optional steps I took on this cutting board was to round over the edges on the router to make it a little easier to handle and also to prevent any major denting along the sharp edges.  This works well to keep the corners from chipping off as easily.  The other step I did was to take a rabbeting bit in my router and rout some hand  grooves on the bottom side of the board.  This just makes a heavy board like this easier to pick up off of the counter and move around.  However, you could definitely leave these two options out and you would still have an option board.

My next board I am going to experiment with routing a blood groove on one side.  I think this will make a great addition to the boards!

My last step is to soak the entire board in Mineral Oil.  You can buy some cutting board specific oils/finishes, but these can be quite pricey so I got with the food safe mineral oil (~$3.50).  You can find this at any pharmacy or Walmart.  Just take a look in the laxative section (no that's not a joke).  I let the board soak the mineral oil in for about 24 hours and I reapplied 3 or 4 times until it no longer absorbed the oil.  This helps ensure the board is well protected against water and bacteria.

Your board is now ready to go!  Grab your favorite fruit, vegetables, and meats and get to choppin'!  After about a month of good use, it is always a good idea to re-apply some mineral oil to help keep the board sealed.  A well made and well taken care of board should last a lifetime!

The Duck and Buck

These are some pretty awesome signs I started making after seeing several in stores like Hobby Lobby, etc.  They are made to mimic different wooden slats nailed together.  However, like my floating shelf panel in my previous post, I used 1/2" plywood for the signs.

But first, I printed out a silhouette image of a duck and a buck to give me the outline I needed.  I then taped the image to each board I was going to use.  It is a good idea to leave 3 or 4 inches on all four sides of your panel so that it doesn't get too thin anywhere around your image.  With the image taped on, you can trace with a pencil, pressing through the paper to leave an outline imprint on your piece of plywood.  Once I have done that, I usually remove the paper and fill in the imprint with sharpie just to give myself a more clear cut lines to cut long.

Next, I drilled a few holes on the INSIDE of my image to give me an entry point for my jigsaw.  So, I busted out the jigsaw and started cutting along my lines.  It gets a little tricky once you get to the smaller sections so just make sure you are leaving plenty of support for the jigsaw so you don't break off the thin sections of the antlers!

After your shape is cutout, the next thing to do is cut your grooves.  That is what makes these signs so cool I think.  Just decide on whether you want a standard width slat or a varying width slat, raise your table saw to about half the depth of your plywood, and run it through at whatever intervals you decided on.  This gives it the illusion of being several different pieces of wood!

Now on to the finish.  To make it look a bit more like individual pieces, I recommend taking black spray paint and painting all of the edges and inside all of the grooves.  Then, take a sander and sand all of front surface of the sign.  This will leave the grooves and sides black to hide the plywood and also leave a bit of black to give the front a 'weathered' look.  After sanding everything down, apply your favorite color stain!  Simple as that!

These signs are great for custom images or for batching out several at a time!  You can also paint these a solid color and they still look great!  Below is an example I did that is similar to the Duck Commander logo and I painted the whole sign blue!

   Another option I have considered doing is attaching a fabric or a different colored panel behind the main panel.  That would add some depth and interesting contrast!

Floating Shelf Panel

 

Yesterday, Allison and I made a Floating Shelf Panel for my sister and brother-in-law.  They showed us a post on Pinterest where separate slats of wood were nailed together vertically and shelving was attached.  After a brief discussion, I knew this was something Allison and could make in no time at all so off to Home Depot we went!

I decided to alter the design a little to make it simpler, more sturdy, and more secure since it is going in their nursery.  So, we started with a 24" X 48" sheet of half inch birch plywood (~$20 at Home Depot).  From there, we cut it down to about 24" X 36", saving the remaining 12" to make the 3 shelves.  We measured out our shelf lines and gaps to make sure we had it all laid out before we started cutting.

Each of the shelves are set into a 1/4" deep groove cut into the main plywood panel using a router and a groove bit.  This was a lot easier than I thought and a technique that I have been wanting to try for quite a while!  My router base has a 3" radius from the edge to the center of my router bit.  So, I set up a fence 3" from where I wanted the center of my shelf to go.  It was a little difficult to get the fence clamped down and keep it in square so Allison really helped me with this one!  Keeping my router against the edge of fence, I then cut a groove the length of each shelf.  It was hard to see the mark of where to stop the groove so that is another place where having Allison there really helped!

After the shelf grooves were cut, we decided on a 4" gap for the vertical "fake slat" grooves.  On a side note, a 24" wide project panel from Home Depot actually runs more around 23 3/4"  wide.  This would make an uneven slat on one end if you just cut a groove every 4 inches.  So instead, we cut a 1/4" groove at 4" from the left, and then 4" from the right.  Then, 8" from the left and 8" from the right.  This left us with about a 7 7/8" gap in the very center.  So we found the midpoint, and made our final groove cut there.  This created a very uniform and OCD calming slatted board look to the panel.

Next was to cut the shelves from the remaining 12" from the original sheet of plywood.  We decided on a 5 1/2" shelf because it seemed to give just enough surface area without sticking out too much off of the wall.  After ripping them down on the table saw, we slid them into the grooves.  Rather than measuring the grooves, we simply marked where the shelf met the edge of the plywood and made a cut on that line on the miter saw.

Lastly was to attach the shelves.  This is probably where Allison was the most help!  The shelves fit nicely in the horizontal grooves, but, we still had to make sure they stayed perpendicular to the panel as we pre-drilled, glued, and screwed them together.  So, we slid the shelves into the grooves, Allison held them square, and I pre-drilled holes through the back of the panel, in line with my grooves and into my shelves.  After doing this for each of the 3 shelves, we pulled the shelves back out, applied some glue, and screwed the shelves onto the panel into their final positions.  If you have a deep enough groove, and you took the time to square up your shelves while drilling your pilot holes, your shelf should go into square without any problems!

We finalized our part of the project by attaching a french cleat hanging system that will give the shelf panel a strong and easy mounting connection.  All in all, it took us right at an hour from running to Home Depot to finished product!

Now it is just up to Candiss and Taylor to paint the project, install, and enjoy!

UPDATE:  Here is a picture Candiss sent me after a bit of sanding and the first coat of white paint.  Looks pretty good!

Texas Cutout

This was one of the first DK WoodWorks projects (before DKWWs was a thing).  I basically was just playing around with a scroll saw I got for free and borrowed the idea from Steve Ramsey of WoodWorking for MereMortals.  If you are into wood working and haven't checked out Steve's Youtube channel you are missing out (https://www.youtube.com/user/stevinmarin)

When I first started playing around with woodworking ,I used to go around on trash day looking for scrap wood in the neighborhood.  You can sometimes find some pretty nice wood if you get lucky.  That is exactly what I did here.  Once I had enough wood, I glued each strip of wood onto a piece of plywood.  Then I traced the Texas outline onto my glued up panel and cut it out on the scroll saw.  Pretty easy project and great for a first project.  If you have a jigsaw or a band saw, these are even easier.  You can also use this technique for just about any shape you want!  These make great gifts or cheap items to sell!