Recent End Grain Islands


Pwk5017

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OMFG ! So what sanders and grits did you use ?  I've never done endgrain thicker than my drum sander can take.  

I use 3 tables all shimmed up to the infeed & outfeed height. 3rd table is alongside the sander. I keep hands on pushing or pulling to prevent and slip or stall from cutting a divot. Then slide the top over to the third table & slide back to run again. Never have to pick a slab up, just slide, rotate or flip . I have done tops in sections then drum sanded and assembled w dominos and finished it off with a random orbital.

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Yeah, the walnut piece was just about the absolute maximum i could pick up by myself. Even then, i still had my wife help me lift it onto the jointer for 3-4 passes. I didnt want to do anything stupid at that point and drop it. I forget what walnut weighs per cubic foot, but it feels like a solid 175lbs. The good thing is it is narrow enough to carry it under your arm. I think i used roughly 70bdft of walnut to make it. With the price of walnut, i was incredibly methodical with my board selection to make each blank. I wanted to minimize milling waste, so i made blanks around 52"+/- long to account for the final crosscuts i needed and the kerf of my cuts. The thickness of that piece meant i couldnt be sloppy with measurements and calculations, because i would be throwing away a handful of <5" wide lengths of 25.5", because they were too short for the final piece. Despite the planning, it was still about $400-450 in wood, half gallon of TBIII, and then whatever 60 8mm dominoes cost. 

 

The maple glueup wasnt as perfect as the walnut. I started with 40 grit on the rotex and quickly went through 60, 80, and 100. I typically start with the ETS 150/5 at one grit lower than i finished with the rotex. I treat it like a drum sander, i guess. The scratch pattern it leaves in rotex mode is pretty coarse. The maple piece had more square footage and i remember sanding for a few hours. I did that one in January. The walnut one i should have timed myself. I scraped the glue squeezeout off with a beater chisel, ran the sides over the jointer a few times, and sanded all six sides to 180 grit in about 60 mins. After 180 grit, i routed the edges and wiped it down with a wet rag to raise the grain. I finished it the next morning with 220 grit and oiled it up. I havent done too many tests on if pre-raising does any good for maintaining smoothness through use. My personal cherry/Ipe board is pretty smooth, and i use the crap out of it. 

 

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1 hour ago, bushwacked said:

you can find used Felders out there? I want to live where you do haha.

So when are you going to be putting a new butcher block counter in your house? haha

Gotta be patient. I looked for 4-6 months before i found the machine i wanted in my budget. It was 3.5 hours away.

 

I freaking wish i had an island I could make a top for!!! We are still in the 1400sf house we bought right out of school, and it has a pretty small and skinny kitchen. Actually, been actively searching for a house the last 9 months and hope to move this year. I sold my 37" drum sander this weekend as i anticipate the move. I will probably drop some more weight in the next month or two. Im going to be closing up shop soon so we can finish he basement and get ready to list the house. A sad, sad day. 

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I love the light flecks in the otherwise dark walnut surface.  Was this part of the raw walnut, or did you add in lighter colored sticks in your build?  Looks like all walnut in the photo, but I can't tell for sure and I haven't seen coloration like that before.  Love it...

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48 minutes ago, AHD said:

I love the light flecks in the otherwise dark walnut surface.  Was this part of the raw walnut, or did you add in lighter colored sticks in your build?  Looks like all walnut in the photo, but I can't tell for sure and I haven't seen coloration like that before.  Love it...

It is all walnut. The light color parts you notice are the sapwood. This is the younger portion of the tree that grows nearest to the cambium layer. I dont know why walnut darkens with age, but this all becomes quite clear when you see a felled tree. This client saw another project i made and liked the contrast of the sapwood, so i did my best to incorporate some. I had 2 sappy boards that i sprinkled into my primary glueups to give a uniform distribution in the final glue up. This is unsteamed walnut, which maintains the lightness of the sapwood. Steaming the wood in the kiln muddies the light sapwood. Actually, im quite certain the original island they liked was steamed walnut. Im sure you will notice the difference, despite the quality of these photos. 

island1.jpg

island2.jpg

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Thanks.  I love end grain stuff when it's a bit funky like this.  Here's a side table I made from off-cuts from previous projects.  You can probably find pieces of a kitchen sink in there if you look closely enough :D  Sorry if something other than an island is too off-topic for this thread.

IMG_20170916_175415.jpg

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