Bubble Cutting Board

[Shane Jimerfield]

I've been wanting to make an end grain cutting board for a while. So in typical fashion I choose a complicated one, and complicated it more by using 3/4 stock and an attempt to minimize waste. Still, the thing cost about $80 in materials...sheeshhh. It should last forever though, and looks really cool.

I used this online app - http://www.cuttingboarddesigner.com/#/designer/68781c61-c7c5-fac7-8bd3-903a13708a44    to guide me.

I didn't realize how dark the end grain of the maple would get - I was hoping for more contrast.

 Here are some pics, before and after oil. I just use mineral oil for cutting boards.

[pkinneb]

Thant's really cool Shane!

[Brendon_t]

Shane, could you screenshot you cut/ glue up sheet from cb ? I'd like to have that in my file. I've got dozens stored so far.

[Shane Jimerfield]

Here are the measurements for each row. I used a 20% decrease between rows, but adjusted slightly to minimize waste. You have to make two boards - one with walnut at the center and the other with maple at the center. I made each one 9" long, 1.5" thick. You cut strips off each (at a bit over the thickness you are wanting), alternating from each board, rotate end grain up, trim to width, and glue. I did the glue up in phases so I could get the alignment dialed in. If you're thoughtful you can use cut-offs for a few of the smaller pieces. I started with 1.5" wide stock, and ended up with 13.1" x 13.1" x 1.2"  board. Don't ask me how it ended up over 13" - it's a mystery.

0.43
0.49
0.56
0.64
0.74
0.85
0.98
1.13
1.3
1.13
0.98
0.85
0.74
0.64
0.56
0.49
0.43

[Tom King]

I don't normally care, one way, or the other about cutting boards, but that one is awesome!

[Art]

I'm trying to understand the steps here.  Your initial glue ups are just the alternating woods, cut at the widths you listed right?  Then you cut off the strips off these boards at slightly over the final thickness of your board?  Then you take these strips and rip them to those same widths, and then glue everything up? This sounds like you would end up with significant waste, corrrect?

Thanks for you help in this.

[Shane Jimerfield]

1 hour ago, Art said:

I'm trying to understand the steps here.  Your initial glue ups are just the alternating woods, cut at the widths you listed right?  Then you cut off the strips off these boards at slightly over the final thickness of your board?  Then you take these strips and rip them to those same widths, and then glue everything up? This sounds like you would end up with significant waste, corrrect?

Thanks for you help in this.

Yes that's right. There is indeed significant waste, which is why I did a little tweaking to the widths so I could use some of the off cuts for the narrower pieces. I also used a thin kerf blade. I thought about using the bandsaw, but wanted the precision and cleaner cuts from the tablesaw so that I would get all the corners to line up - and it did, mostly. If you look closely you can see minor misalignment here and there, but barely noticeable - certainly not to a bystander.

[Art]

4 hours ago, Shane Jimerfield said:

Yes that's right. There is indeed significant waste, which is why I did a little tweaking to the widths so I could use some of the off cuts for the narrower pieces. I also used a thin kerf blade. I thought about using the bandsaw, but wanted the precision and cleaner cuts from the tablesaw so that I would get all the corners to line up - and it did, mostly. If you look closely you can see minor misalignment here and there, but barely noticeable - certainly not to a bystander.

Thanks.  I'll definitely be making one of these.

[Coop]

Pretty cool dude! And yep, scrap or not, they are expensive to build! 

[Dave H]

Title of this post is very misleading Bubble Cutting Board  it made me wonder why you would want a board to cut bubbles on when you could just pop them. Great job!

 

[Shane Jimerfield]

1 hour ago, higtron said:

Title of this post is very misleading Bubble Cutting Board  it made me wonder why you would want a board to cut bubbles on when you could just pop them. Great job!

 

You don't cut bubbles? You're missing out. Give it a try.

[gee-dub]

Came out great.  Looks like a fun time.

[Byrdie]

I don't know ... "cutting bubbles" means something very different to my friends and me.

I regret not reading the title of this topic more clearly earlier.

[Bankstick]

Awesome! Can you use the waste to make something else?

[Mark J]

Yes, fire .

[Shane Jimerfield]

7 hours ago, Bankstick said:

Awesome! Can you use the waste to make something else?

much of the waste is due to the number of cuts (saw dust), and the off cuts are usually too thin, so yeah kindling.

[Bankstick]

Stack them,  glue them and sell them as segmented pen blanks?

[Art]

Glue them up and make coasters?

 

[eckorsberg]

On 5/5/2019 at 12:24 PM, Shane Jimerfield said:

Here are the measurements for each row. I used a 20% decrease between rows, but adjusted slightly to minimize waste. You have to make two boards - one with walnut at the center and the other with maple at the center. I made each one 9" long, 1.5" thick. You cut strips off each (at a bit over the thickness you are wanting), alternating from each board, rotate end grain up, trim to width, and glue. I did the glue up in phases so I could get the alignment dialed in. If you're thoughtful you can use cut-offs for a few of the smaller pieces. I started with 1.5" wide stock, and ended up with 13.1" x 13.1" x 1.2"  board. Don't ask me how it ended up over 13" - it's a mystery.

0.43
0.49
0.56
0.64
0.74
0.85
0.98
1.13
1.3
1.13
0.98
0.85
0.74
0.64
0.56
0.49
0.43

I know this was posted 7 years ago, hope you are still monitoring this.  I struggle to see how this is made.  I can understand the laminations of varying widths of wood, and the mirror image on a 2nd panel.  But in all the end grain boards I have made we follow a rough pattern similar to the following:
Normally for end grain boards we cut and crosscut and glueup laminations into a panel (one or more times) and then crosscut that panel(s) one more time to a WIDTH that will become the THICKNESS of the board once we rotate the pieces such that the end grain is vertical.  I am still struggling to visualize how that applies to this board

[wtnhighlander]

@eckorsberg, the original poster hasn't visited in a few years. The illusion this pattern provides is just the result of carefully planning the arrangement of different thickness boards to create different widths when turned to end grain. If you zoom in to the photo, you can even see where some layers were laminated before flipping, to provide the necessary thickness.

[Coop]

Yep, Shane hasn’t been around in a while but I’m glad this came back up. I had forgotten about it and it’s pretty cool! 

[Botch]

That board does a bit of optical illusion, it appears to be undulating while I read thru the OP.  Glad this was bumped, I wasn't a member back then and that's a cool project!