Blockcross Cutting Board Design??

[SCPDX]

Have a "hey, can you make one that looks like this? request for a cutting board.  Dang you Pinterest!!  Wondering if anyone has some suggestions for how to make the pattern.  I am considering doing a combination with three different species two wide (probably Maple and Walnut) and narrow inbetween contrast strip (Purpleheart?).

My first head scratch is to do one glue layup of face glued Maple, Purpleheart, and Walnut.  Then rip to width (basically making a square).  Then do a second glue up with Maple, Purpleheart, and Walnut face glued strips, followed by the first glue up square strips turned on 90 degrees so strips are perpendicular.  Repeat to width.

Then cross cut and flip to face grain - no need to turn end to end or rotate as pattern should automatically work by cross cutting and turning to face grain up direction.  Glue up a third time.

Correct?  Or better idea?

My concern is keeping all the glue ups in line and precise so as will need to do little surfacing after each gluing to make sure everything remains square and in proportion.  Plenty of culls to keep everything flat and true.

 

[woodbutcher]

Thats an awesome design. I would think getting the pattern would be easy enough, the final glue wouldnt be much fun i imagine. 

[pkinneb]

I really like that design I may have to steal it  

I don't think it would be to bad do the strips with the light color, cut into squares use a simple jig to keep everything in a straight line while gluing up the rows, glue the rows together and send through the drum sander. 

[bushwacked]

2 hours ago, SCPDX said:

 

 

 

wow that is nice looking!! 

 

I have not build one like this but I would assume glueup may be pretty annoying

[Ronn W]

 It's a whole bunch of squares made up of one dark and one light piece (with narrow strip besteen if you like).  Glue a long dark piece to a long light piece and mill to square it up.  You are still a little eversized at this point.  Then cut lengths (thickness of cutting board) and glue 7 of the pieces at a time into strips 7 pieces long.  MIll or sand sides and then glue 7 of these strip together.  Do not try to just cut individual cubes all 49 of them together at once.  Aaarrgh!  

Look likek you will be mill cross grain at some point.  That could be tricky.  Practice with your depth of cut and what machind you decide to use.

[woodbutcher74]

Looks like something from MRM. He's got quite a few videos on Y-Tube. Some of his boards look like 3-D. 

[Marmotjr]

The top one looks fairly simple to me. 

Laminate a dark and a light together, about 1.75" wide and .75" thick perhaps (each piece). 

Dunno how much you'll need in length, but you can count the segments, and the desired thickness, and figure out from there.   Multiple boards would be ok.

Clean up those glue lines and such, and then plane all your laminated boards to the same width and thickness (1.5" in this scenario).    Then take four of them and rotate them for the correct orientation, and glue the 4 of them together. 

Again clean up the glue lines and plane them square again.   Might need a little practice or thought than I am giving this so you don't plane too much off, making some of the segments a bit thin.

Take the (now rather hefty) boards over to the chop/miter saw and cut to a bit more than desired final thickness. 

Design a clamping jig to apply equal forces in all directions and glue up the board.  Use Cauls to distribute the forces and vertical cauls to keep everything as flat as possible.   Or if that's not possible, glue them up in individual rows, but then you'll need jointed edges for the next glue up, so you may lose a bit too much material there to keep the segments square. 

Drum sand to final thickness, edge route to taste. 

 

 

[Marmotjr]

All that said, I would avoid walnut in a cutting board.  Walnut can trigger nut allergies, why risk it?  There was a very recent death attributed to walnut shells in sand blasting.  Yes that is aerosoled walnut, and an extreme case, but still.   If you want to use walnut in a cutting board, O'd keep it on the edges where the least cutting action takes place.  

[Coop]

I bet @Brendon_t can help you on this one. 

[SCPDX]

After some monkeying around -- 

1. Rip lumber to 3" strips.  (to allow for a bit of sizing after gluing.)

2. Face glue 2 pcs of 5/4 and a highlight strip of 1/4" - then square up.

3. Chop laminated staves to uniform lengths.  Then edge glue squares to desired width (probably 6 pieces) rotating every other one by 90 degrees.

4. Cross cut 2nd glue up and turn to face grain, rotate each alternate row.......

I figure easier to work with fewer larger glued up pieces in order to keep consistent sizing.

Sort of like a rough diagram.....not really to exact scale but close enough for my pay scale.

 

 

[ghost]

sounds workable.

to replicate what is is the picture, use an odd number of squares in your step 3, and an odd number of rows. (your drawing shows 6 squares x 8 rows, if you see what i am getting at. the picture looks like 7 x 7. comes out symmetrical along the edges with an odd number. if that is what you are shooting for.)

[Brendon_t]

On 11/1/2017 at 3:26 PM, Marmotjr said:

All that said, I would avoid walnut in a cutting board.  Walnut can trigger nut allergies, why risk it?  There was a very recent death attributed to walnut shells in sand blasting.  Yes that is aerosoled walnut, and an extreme case, but still.   If you want to use walnut in a cutting board, O'd keep it on the edges where the least cutting action takes place.  

I know this is said all the time but why?  Has there ever been a verified case that walnut in a cutting board has triggered a dangerous reaction in someone with a nut allergy?

I have asked before and it's always crickets.

This was lifted from the American Academy of allergens.

The question you posed has been dealt with many times on lay websites but to my knowledge, and according to a literature search, there are no scientific studies addressing the issue of potential crossreactivity between the allergens found in walnut wood and the major allergens (juglones) of walnuts. It is known, however, that juglone is contained in walnut wood. Nonetheless, it is not very soluble in water, and since the cutting board has been dried, I would think that there would be little chance of a reaction to a walnut wood cutting board in a patient with walnut allergy.

Walnut is used across the country in  everything from flooring to high-end pens. I've never seen one come with a warning label for nut allergies. Why does this keep getting spread?

[Just Bob]

3 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

Walnut is used across the country in  everything from flooring to high-end pens. I've never seen one come with a warning label for nut allergies. Why does this keep getting spread?

Agree, I am deathly allergic to walnuts, and was so concerned I never had walnut in my shop.  I spoke to my doc about it, he did some skin tests with some sort of sawdust concoction he created.  I had no reaction to those tests, and I happily ruin walnut all the time.  This was 30 some years ago, and I have never had a reaction to the wood, or sawdust.

[Gixxerjoe04]

The way everyone is nowadays about nut allergies, if there was actually a concern about it, it would be known, people would actually be afraid to use walnut in anything and the lumber would be reasonably priced haha.

[pkinneb]

2 hours ago, Gixxerjoe04 said:

The way everyone is nowadays about nut allergies, if there was actually a concern about it, it would be known, people would actually be afraid to use walnut in anything and the lumber would be reasonably priced haha.

lol no kidding

[AJ_Engineer]

41 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

lol no kidding

So you're saying we should start some fearmongering on Facebook and get the price of walnut down?

[SCPDX]

I was on an Airbus 380 flying to London in September - one of those giant double decker planes. 500+ passengers (I guess it holds over 800 if you took out all the first class suites and business class recliners)  Just after the plane took off they came on and announced "Due to a passenger with severe peanut allergies, please no peanuts during the flight, as even any peanuts in the atmosphere would be an issue"  What?  I felt like a terrorist with a package of NutterButter Cookies, Peanut M&Ms, and a bagle with peanut butter stuffed in my back pack.  (Us peasents in steerage class need to fend for ourselves in the back).  Truly a moral dilema.  9 hours on a flight and a package of NutterButters I am suppose to ignore?

And what about the months and months of peanuts that have been on the plane?  It isn't like those all got scrubbed out preflight.

My concern with wood is not from the allergies but from the irritant from sawdust - particularly hardwoods.  Oak, mahogany, beech, walnut, birch and elm have all been linked to increases in nasal cancer.  The risks from fires, contact dermatitis, decreased lung capacity from inhaled particles, and nasopharygeal cancer to me are all greater that the risk of allergic reaction.  BUT if proper hygenie and safety are practiced the risk of allergic reaction is greatly reduced along with all the other health risks.

And the walnut I bought this week was down over a $1.00 per board foot - so maybe the fearmongering is working?

 

[Marmotjr]

I've seen with my own eyes Peanut reactions from nuts that never came in contact with the patient.  As I mentioned, there was a very recent death attributed to a nut allergy from walnut shells in sand blasting, and he wasn't the guy sand blasting.  So there is a definite concern for nut allergies. 

But it's one thing if you are selling these to the public, and another if you are giving them as gifts to people you know don't have nut allergies.   As a gift, I'd love to use walnut.  But for sale, I'm not going to put myself up for the kind of lawsuit, and stupid as it is. 

[rarefish383]

Well, since we are on the subject of dangerous woods. What are the dangers of sanding or planing "Spalted Woods"? A friends brother was a custom cabinet maker, many years ago. He died of a lung infection. From the time of symptoms to diagnosis to treatment to death was only about 6 months. The doctors said it was caused by breathing the dust of Spalted Maple he had been working with. I have stacks of Spalted Maple, Hickory and Birch stacked all around my yard. When sanding these I've always used a double filter painters respirator. Is that over kill? Would a simple dust mask work? Thanks, Joe.

[Marmotjr]

You should always wear a mask or respirator when dealing with dust of any type.   You can really never be 'overboard' when it comes to safety.  It just boils down to what you are comfortable with.  After my eye surgery, I try to be pretty fanatical about eye pro.  In your case, I don't see anything wrong with a paranoia with dust.   Wear whatever is the most comfortable for you.  If you are laboring to breathe through a resp, then change the filter or the respirator itself.   Make sure you are using the appropriate filters for your resp though, the manufacturer should have a list of available filters and their specific purpose.   Painters/Finisher's filters usually aren't designed for dust (but the double filter might be), while a dust filter doesn't do so well against vapors.  

As for cutting boards, while walnut is highly debatable in its place in a cutting board, I would never put a spalted wood into one. 

[Brendon_t]

20 hours ago, Marmotjr said:

I never put a spalted wood into one. 

Agreed on that front.

[SCPDX]

Well one thing that I have realized is that I am not very good at accounting for the saw kerf - and the more cuts/glue ups = huge waste of wood when compounding the saw kerfs, cleaning up a little glue up offsets, surfacing, etc..... So ended up adding some cherry I had sitting around to get a bit more width along with a frame of walnut.  And ran short of stock so ended up with a cutting board and a cheese board (yeh, thats right - I wanted to make a matching cutting board and cheese board and thats the story I am sticking with)

Need a lot more sanding, routing edges, and oiling which will reduce the contrast.

Sort of have mixed feelings.  Can't decide if I like it or not.  I guess if the wife looks at it and says "Wow nice." It stays and if not - wrap it up for Christmas for someone.