Jonathan McCully Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 I have rough cut and rough milled numerous strips of wood for these end grain cutting boards that I’m making and am now starting to do final milling. I haven’t done a ton of milling in the past, so I’m just learning but even with rough cutting about 3” longer than my final length, I’m finding that taking cups of about 1/4” out of some of the boards are leaving them significantly shorter than I’d like them to be. I know I can make the cutting boards shorter in the end, but was wondering if any of you have any tips for this. Not really a snipe issue, but I seem to be taking quite a bit of wood from the ends to remove what seems to me to be a fairly minimal cup. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 Chase it with another board of the same thickness that you don't care about is the easiest way to prevent this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 It sounds to me, like you're going to plane your endgrain cutting boards in a planer. Personally, if you do that you need to get yourself a suit of 15th century armor. The possibility of them staying together is slim to almost none. End grain cutting boards should, be cut close to final height, and run through a drum sander. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted October 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 I’ve been taking really shallow passes on the Jointer, could it have anything to do with this? Do I need to take aggressive cuts at the ends at the beginning and then raise the infeed for a shallower cut across the entire face? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted October 31, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 And no, I wasn’t planning to Plane it at the end, just run a random orbit over it to smooth it out. Would like everything to have consistent thickness before I begin glue-up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jfitz Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 I've had a similar issue at time on my jointer - the same issue across the width because the blades were not set correctly (one side was taking off a lot more than the other - and if I set it to a very very light pass, one side would take off some and the other side none at all .... this made the board into a wedge), OR, if the tables are not set correctly. If they tgip "inwards" toward the cutter, you'll tend to take off more at the ends and then less or even none in the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Jonathan, you are doing this on the jointer and not the planer, correct? And are you turning the cup down. Can you post a pic of a board, before and after? I’m having a hard time understanding how you are loosing length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted November 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Alright, so I did a rough milling if a stack of wood a couple of weeks ago in preparation for creating 4 end grain cutting boards for Christmas gifts. Went to start final milling today and found a 3/16-1/4” bow across the length of several of them. Began to joint then with the bow facing downward (two ends contacting the tables) and by the time I got the face flat, I had taken so much wood from the ends that my board was thinner on the ends than my desired final thickness. Trying to figure out if I’m doing something wrong or if that is the consequence of trying to flatten bowed wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mick S Posted November 1, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Jonathan - If these are end grain cutting board sections there's no need to try to straighten the whole length. After all, you're only going to be using maybe 2" at a time. Cut the bowed boards in half and then run them over the jointer. You'll probably yield more doing that than trying to straighten the whole length. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Ah, bowed and not cupped! Not having a reference point to determine the length of the boards, you say the ones in the pic are 3” over the length of the cutting boards? As you may or not know, the shorter the boards, the less you wood you will loose to the jointer on a bowed board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted November 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Yes, I do understand that the shorter the boards, the less you will lose to the jointer. These boards are rough cut to around 41-42” and I want my cutting boards to be around 39” long in the end. Left the boards a bit long in rough dimensioning in order to remove any snipe that I might run into. 8 minutes ago, Mick S said: Jonathan - If these are end grain cutting board sections there's no need to try to straighten the whole length. After all, you're only going to be using maybe 2" at a time. Cut the bowed boards in half and then run them over the jointer. You'll probably yield more doing that than trying to straighten the whole length. I’m a bit confused by this comment Mick. I’m building these board similar to Marc’s end grain board so after final milling, I’ll glue them up across the long grain, then cut into strips and glue up with end grain showing. I’m not sure what you mean by only using 2” at a time. Are you taking about the widths of my boards? It seems to me if I don’t have consistent widths, then my final board pattern might not look consistent. Pardon me though if I’m wrong. I have a hard time visualizing this in my head since I’ll be turning all of the boards to show the end grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 I meant you don't have to glue them up 39" long. You can glue up two 19" sections and yield more than if you try to straighten boards that want to bow. See Kev's comment above also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Mick, are you and Kev thinking jointer or planer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Jointer. Your end result will be 'thickness of the butcher block'. You're edge glueing strips at 'a length'. Ultimately, those pieces will be the thickness of your butcher block. Let's say 2". Why try to straighten a piece 40" long if you're only interested in a piece 2" long? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
difalkner Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Jonathan, you mentioned 'end grain cutting board' but everything else in your description leans toward an edge/face grain cutting board. If that's the case then you probably do want the full length to remain intact. What Mick is talking about is for the end grain cutting board you mentioned. In this case you only need 2" or so and the bow doesn't matter. Unless I'm missing something in the discussion, that is... When we do end grain cutting boards we glue up strips and then cut to the desired thickness, plus a little. Those are turned up and glued together. The photos below may help. Edge or face grain - David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted November 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 13 minutes ago, difalkner said: When we do end grain cutting boards we glue up strips and then cut to the desired thickness, plus a little. Those are turned up and glued together. The photos below may help. This is the step that I’m currently on. I’m trying to mill my wood in order to glue-up these strips. My problem is that when I’m taking the bow out of some of these strips, I’m left with an inconsistent thickness across the strip. If that doesn’t matter, then hallelujah, I haven’t messed up as much as I thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 When faced with a bowed board and a jointer, I 1) use the shortest reasonble length that I can and 2) feed one ond into the jointer (concave side down) until the bow causes the knifes to stop cutting. Then flip the board end from end and feed the piece in until the same thing happens, the knives no longer cut. Rinse and repeat. With each pass more and more of the board will reamain in contact with the knives until you get a complete, full length pass. That is how you remove as little thickness as possible and keep an relative constant thickness. Then you can flatten the other side with the planar. Good luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark J Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 @Ronn W I gather you are using only gentle downward pressur on the work piece? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan McCully Posted November 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 12 minutes ago, Ronn W said: When faced with a bowed board and a jointer, I 1) use the shortest reasonble length that I can and 2) feed one ond into the jointer (concave side down) until the bow causes the knifes to stop cutting. Then flip the board end from end and feed the piece in until the same thing happens, the knives no longer cut. Rinse and repeat. With each pass more and more of the board will reamain in contact with the knives until you get a complete, full length pass. That is how you remove as little thickness as possible and keep an relative constant thickness. Then you can flatten the other side with the planar. Good luck. Extremely helpful Ronn, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 5 minutes ago, Mark J said: @Ronn W I gather you are using only gentle downward pressur on the work piece? Correct. I try to put pressure only near the ends where the board is already in contact with the table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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