Leaderboard

Need a quick hostess gift and I made this real quick from wood unknown. (maybe brown maple) Pattern is from a CNC file. 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch high. Loaded with trail mix and nuts and wrapped in clear plastic and it was well received.

My latest Intarsia piece. Done for the PAM (project a month) in the Facebook group Just Intarisa. Kathy Wise donated the pattern. Woods used: Spanish Cedar, Rainbow poplar, Walnut, Cherry, Aspen Wenge. The eye highlight is a pencil crayon sharpened and pushed in the hole. Finish is 2 coats of Osmo Satin with a coat of Walrus Oil over top. 25 pieces.

Gave me goosebumps when I finished cutting, took the pattern off and realized I could see "the tracks of her tears."

Last bowl I made was about 3 year ago, I decided to continue making new bowl patterns and here is the first one, everything as usual: 1/4 inch thickness, consists of 13 pieces, size - 8x8 inches. Video of making bowl Bowl pattern

And only take the lightest of cuts with each pass. I've heard of some folks using a planer sled and adding a sacrificial block to the ends of the board, so that it takes the tear out instead of the cutting board. Again, I've never done it and have no intentions of doing it, but I believe it can be done.

The problem with planing end grain on a cutting board where the grain is vertical is that the grain is unsupported at the end of the cut. This will cause the grain to be torn out at of the end of the cut. By routing the edges prior to planeing, the last of the grain has already been cut below the line of cut, so it cannot be torn out. This is the same as when using a hand plane to chamfer the corners of a board, you should plane the corners parallel to the grain first, which will prevent the tear out when the ends are planed. Tom

To avoid snipe at the end of a board when planing you're doing it right, and I think this is the common way, start with stock longer than the finished size. After planing and gluing are complete - trim to final size. But when 'forced' to use stock close to the final dimension (let me insert here I almost always use a sled to machine plane) the same thickness as my project stock, and add it to sled at the end. Any snipe moves to the scrape stock you added. When I read the first post I was imagining taking a 2x4 and trimming the end with a miter saw, or whatever, because the end had a defect and then with a hand plane remove the machine marks. If you tools aren't really sharp that can be hard to do.

Since I'm up at the crack of dawn every morning it's a great time to work in the shop before the afternoon heat arrives. A Steve Good pattern scrolled on 1/4" Baltic birch...

This is my latest Intarsia piece. Pattern found in the issue # 54 of Scrollsaw Woodworking & Crafts magazine, designer Gary MacKay. Woods used Tigerwood, Maple, Canarywood, Quilted Maple, Sapelle. One generous coat of shellac. Used many #5 MG blades.

Emy Lou is still beautiful. Love her voice.

That is so cool. Beautifully done.

Excellent job, RJ

Excellent pattern and cutting. Got to see her twice in concert. Shame that voice has been silenced.

Nice!

As you said Kevin @kmmcrafts, plane first then cut to size. Any tear out on the edges is in the part that will be cut off and discarded. Also, as others have said, make very light passes with the planer. Works for me. You probably will want to sand it to get the final surface.

I have seen people do it on YouTube, but they also say it is kind of sketchy and have shown examples of destroyed cutting boards. I don't quite understand the how, but the blades can catch the end grain fibers and then bad happens. That said, I feel the trick was to support everything really well and very very light passes. Alternatively, a block plane could be used. Its hand powered, and was created for the very purpose of planing end grain. Again, the little experience I have is to make as light a cut as you can.

Well, I was more curious about the process etc.. tear out isn't usually an issue for me because I always make my boards first and cut to size lastly.. I never really knew why it wasn't recommended to plane end grain.. I believe I heard someone mention it could be dangerous so I never attempted to do it.. Then wondered when i seen that video and she said she rounds over the edges and has done it for years just had me curious. IF I were to make one these days I'd just use my CNC with the surfacing bit. Have used that bit many times on projects I needed to smooth out that wouldn't fit through my 13" planer. Most the signs I make that are 15+ inch wide just get surfaced on the CNC.

I glue up 2" maple and walnut strips. They form stripes. After those have dried I cross cut the piece I glued up. That makes strips of squares alternating in maple and walnut. Then I have to glue them back up to create the chess board. Writing is not my strong suite. If you still don't understand what I am saying I will try to find a video tonight that explains it better.

Well done! Spirithorse

I've made a couple end grain cutting boards, but never ran them through the planer to flatten them. I've watched a couple YT videos and believe it could be done, if you took precautions. However, for me, the risk outweighs the reward. I don't want to take a chance of ruining the board after I've put all the time & effort into getting it to that point. For me, it's better to put the time & effort into getting a good flat glue up so that you minimize the flattening required. The last one I made, I took a lot of time to ensure my cross cuts were straight & square. I used cauls to ensure my final glue up was as flat as possible. A few minutes with my 6" ROS, working through the grits, 60 - 100 - 150 - 220. It didn't take long at all, compared to the time I had already invested. A lot of people use a wide belt sander and that would be ideal, but I don't have one and am not inclined to get one anytime soon.

Just a small progress update. Got it carved and sealed the carve area so the wife could paint it and she decided she wanted to leave it as is. Wish I had known that ahead of time because I would have used the nice epoxy finish I’ve had for a while now. Bought pin legs but didn’t like them so ordered some different style legs on Amazon that just came in. Now to decide how / where to mount the table to the legs as one end is a bit narrow and the leg sticks out from the edge about 1/4 inch or so. Wife says she has a unique idea for this so I’m turning the project over to her.

Finished project..

Today I proved that Willie Nelson is “palletable.” Can you spot and explain the nod to my favorite Willie album? Actually my favorite album, period.

The simple line drawings of RED LIP LADIES IN HATS are prolific online and most are stock images that cost little or nothing to obtain. There are also a lot the simple line drawings of RED LIP LADIES and RED WINE. With only minor conversion work needed, using Inkscape to make scrollable patterns from these simple line drawings is a snap. The patterns were each designed for an 11x14 panel. However, for these projects I printed them out scaled down in Adobe to fit 8x10 panels. As usual, the cut panels are 5/32” Maple Solid Core Ply and backers are 1/4” BB Ply. The backers were painted Black with, of course, Red for lips, accessories, fingernails, and wine. And, as usual, painting was done with an Air Brush using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. Although the individual panels were rather simple cuts, using mainly Pegas #2/0 spiral blades and Pegas #1 MGT R blades for the smooth long cuts, the 10 panels did take quite a while to complete. Handling each individually, from start to finish, was quite time consuming. Then there was my choice to make gang frames. IMHO, the smaller panels look better in narrow rail frames, especially when ganged. Although all the construction is like what I do when I make my standard 1 3/4” wide rail frames, the narrow rails are difficult work with. This added a lot of time to the project. The frames were primed and painted Matt Black. Between our cruise, major yard projects, dealing with a stomach bug, and slipping in the Abstract Art Cat and Dog cuttings, this is the results of what has been occupying my shop time over the past few weeks. Comments and critiques always welcome.

Wax free shellac is alcohol based, so it dries quickly. It's mostly used to lock the surface so a different kind of stain or finish can be applied without it being diluted or being affected otherwise by a finish already on the piece. For instance, a water based stain applied first, and now you want to apply an oil based stain over it. Applying the wax free shellac over the water based stain will prevent the oil based stain from being absorbed and mixing with the water based stain, if the wax free shellac is applied over the water based stain. It seals the surface preventing the two stains from mixing as the second is applied. Charley