remedial woodworking question

[Tom Sweeney]

Hey All,

Can I do a glue up for a cutting board & then run the whole thing through a planer to make sure it's nice & even & flat?

It will be maple & cherry endgrain with titebond II glue.
It will only be about 15" X 10" & I'd run it through a 15" planer. I figure I should make some kind of sled or tack longer runners on the sides to eliminate snipe.

Does this sound reasonable? Please don't tell me to use a hand plane. Let's just say that is not my forte'. The only other thing I could use is a belt sander & to be honest I haven't had great luck with that either. :confused:

Thanks for any thoughts & suggestions :)

[Garrett Lambert]

Slowest feed rate and the lightest possible cut(s). If it tears out, try turning it a bit so that is slices. If all else fails, find a friend with a sander.

Cheers, Garrett

[Jim Young]

First scrape off as much glue as possible, then run it through the planer. I would make the boards six inches longer for the snipe, but I'm guessing running two loner boards through at the same time could work also.

[John Miliunas]

Been there, done that, works fine (Well, ok, it did for me, anyhow.) As mentioned, scrape excess glue first, mate up a couple same-thickness sacrificial boards to entry/exit ends and nice, light passes. Also, as strange as this may sound, with glue-ups that shifted considerably, I've actually sanded FIRST, then ran them through the planer. Belt sander w/aggressive belt to get the bulk of it, then plane it for final thickness and flatness. That way, you ensure taking very light passes w/planer and reduce chance of tearout. Worked for me. YMMV. :cool:

[Jim Becker]

I'll second the "been there, done that" comment. The advise to remove the glue squeeze-out that Jim Young mentioned is important, too.

[Jim Baker]

Tom, It sounds like a perfect excuse to buy a drum sander to me. Isn't that every woodworker's motto? Each project for LOML requires a new tool.

[Jim Izat]

Hey Tom,

One more thing, If you can make sure the grain runs the same way in all the individual sticks. I've learned the hard way that if you don't there's no way to avoid tearout.

Jim Izat

[danny haber]

I do it that way all the time. Scrape the glue away and send it thru. All the ideas that you have gotten are excellent. In fact, when my cutting board gets "ratty" looking from wear, I send it thru the planer again to make it look brand new again. Of course you can only do this so many times but it takes alot of planing to get that far down in thickness.....Danny

[Tom Sweeney]

I had already crosscut the wood to a little more than the finished size So it will be about 17" when I run it through - I'll tack some longer side rails on to help with any snipe issues.

Thanks for the tip on the grain Jim I - I was trying to arrange them for looks - but it's all close enough that I'll do what you said to alleviate tear out instead.

Jim B - A drum sander for a cutting board - Yeah that'll work :rolleyes: My shop isn't big enough now - no way I'd fit a cot in there for me to sleep on when I get kicked out ;)

Thanks again guys - I got most of the peices cut yesterday - ran into a little snag due to not thinking about wood dimensions when I designed it - so I'll try to figure that out today then glue it up, sand it & run over to my buddy's to borrow his planer.

[Lee Schierer]

The preceeding posts all seem to ignore the fac tthat he will be planing end grain. I've never seen this work well in a power planer, did I miss something or are most of you suggesting he plane end grain? :confused:

I'd be very careful trying to plane end grain on a power planer. You are apt to get lots of tear out. The training edge will be particulalrly prone to tear out.

I'd go the belt sander route if it were mine.

[Jim Becker]

Yup...I missed that "endgrain" part even after reading Tom's description twice. Therefore, you are correct that the planer might not be the best tool for this job. The belt sander it is...unless, of course, that shiny new drum sander finds some space in his shop!
:D