Another Cutting Board Question

[Jim Riseborough]

I have glued up some boards to make a end grain cutting board. I was going to use the table saw to cross cut these, with my incra miter thing. How do I do the last few cuts when its not stable against the miter guage. Can I put it against the fence, logic tells me not too.


also, once I get this glued up, can I run it thru the planer end grain? I know I will get tear out, but can cut that off.

[Bob Haskett]

I have glued up some boards to make a end grain cutting board. I was going to use the table saw to cross cut these, with my incra miter thing. How do I do the last few cuts when its not stable against the miter guage. Can I put it against the fence, logic tells me not too.


also, once I get this glued up, can I run it thru the planer end grain? I know I will get tear out, but can cut that off.

Why is it not stable against the miter gauge? I would not pin it against the fence AND miter gauge. Asking for trouble there. Also, I would probably not run it through the planer, but rather sand it. But, I have heard some people here say they run them through the planer with great results.

[Jay Allen]

I would not run an endgrain board through a planer. Not only is it potentially dangerous, you wouldn't get a good cut anyway. It is possibly explosive and damaging to the machine in the process.
A wide-belt sander is the best way to go, but not everyone has access to one. A hand-held belt sander is the next choice, it just takes more care to keep the piece flat.
If you have a lot of leveling to do, a router may be your best bet. A pair of straight rails and a large sub-base can make easier work if it. The largest diameter straight cutting bit that you can safely run will help too.

[Jim Riseborough]

Why is it not stable against the miter gauge? I would not pin it against the fence AND miter gauge. Asking for trouble there. Also, I would probably not run it through the planer, but rather sand it. But, I have heard some people here say they run them through the planer with great results.

I guess I am thinking when I get down to where the crosscut is less than the length of the cut. i.e. a long cut, with only maybe 2" bearing against the fence of the miter guage.

[Jim Riseborough]

I would not run an endgrain board through a planer. Not only is it potentially dangerous, you wouldn't get a good cut anyway. It is possibly explosive and damaging to the machine in the process.
A wide-belt sander is the best way to go, but not everyone has access to one. A hand-held belt sander is the next choice, it just takes more care to keep the piece flat.
If you have a lot of leveling to do, a router may be your best bet. A pair of straight rails and a large sub-base can make easier work if it. The largest diameter straight cutting bit that you can safely run will help too.

Thats what I thought, but I seem to remember someone else doing this, and only had a bit of tearout. I do have a shelix head, and that in my mind would be ok with small cuts.

[Bob Haskett]

I guess I am thinking when I get down to where the crosscut is less than the length of the cut. i.e. a long cut, with only maybe 2" bearing against the fence of the miter guage.

I guess I am confused, if it is a long cut where you need to leave 2" to the left or right of the blade couldnt you just flip your work piece and have the long side bearing against the gauge?

[Jim Riseborough]

Maybe I am not explaining right. If I glue up my boards lengthwise say 12x12, and then want to cross cut to rotate to glue again for endgrain board, eventually If I start with 12" lengths, crosscut 2" off each time giving me 12" long x 2" wide endgrain, the next cut will only have 10 against the miter guage, then 8, 6, 4, 2 all while makeing a 12" crosscut. Does that make sense?

[Eric DeSilva]

This is where a panel sled comes in handy, esp. if you have a way to clamp the piece down on the sled. That is the way I've done it. Then again, the end grain boards I've made were at least 1.5" thick, so there was a little more to grab onto.

Not sure I'd run end grain through a planer, although in prior threads I recall people saying they have done it and it has worked. If you do, I would take very, very, very light passes. I've usually run mine through an open frame sander. Even taking very, very, very light passes, I would get burning. End grain is tough.

[Rick Bunt]

I use a cross-cut sled for exactly this type of cut to make end-grain cutting boards. I find it works much better than a miter guage (though mine is not a fancy miter guage). I used 1/4" hard board to make the base of the sled and some popular for the rails (any hardwood will work) so I can still cut thick pieces. Lots of plans around on web for quick and easy cross-cut sleds. I use blue-painters tape to hold down wood when it gets too narrow and close to the blade

[Kent A Bathurst]

If I understand you correctly - pull the incra, run your piece against the TS fence set at 2". Just like ripping a 12" x 2-1/2" piece of solid sawn down to 12" x 2"? Put the freshly-cut side to the fence, to have a flat, square face against the fence, of course.

Or, I might be missing something here - but seems straightforward.

[George Beck]

The Wood Whisperer has a nice two part podcast on this topic http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-7-a-cut-above-part-1/
Marc uses the rip fence, which kinda scared me. I used a radial arm saw instead and have since made a sliding sled for the mitre gauge slot with a sliding clamp. That is one problem. To surface the end grain, I used a low angle jack plane with a toothing blade and finished with the standard blade. A low angle BU plane is basically, a big block plane and were originally used for this exact purpose. Just something else to ponder.

George

[Jim Riseborough]

If I understand you correctly - pull the incra, run your piece against the TS fence set at 2". Just like ripping a 12" x 2-1/2" piece of solid sawn down to 12" x 2"? Put the freshly-cut side to the fence, to have a flat, square face against the fence, of course.

Or, I might be missing something here - but seems straightforward.

This is what I was thinking, since my flat edge will be against the fence, and the 'rip' will be longer than the piece is wide. Sorta like cutting a piece of plywood against the fence I think. Worst can happen is it kicks, and knocks my head off.

[Bob Childress]

I have used the rip fence for this with mixed results.

The Incra miter sled works great until you get to the last couple of cuts, as the OP said.

I think a shop-built miter sled with support on both sides might be the answer.

Also, if you don't mind wasting wood, you can make the first glue up much longer than you need, giving some some extra wood for the last cut(s).

[Kent A Bathurst]

This is what I was thinking, since my flat edge will be against the fence, and the 'rip' will be longer than the piece is wide. Sorta like cutting a piece of plywood against the fence I think. Worst can happen is it kicks, and knocks my head off.


This is how I've always done it, with zero issues. One other thought - screw it down to a sheet of ply, and use the Incra. Put it in the middle for final glueup, and you'll never see the holes. I would also be comfortable with heavy-duty double-faced tape instead of screws. [EDIT: - I am not this week's expert on shop safety, obviously - second opinion advised]

[Bill Huber]

I have made about 50 end grain boards now and have never had a problem.

After the first glue up, I set the fence at 2 inches or what ever I need and cut them into strips. I use a push stick at all times to push the board though the blade.

A push stick may be the wrong name, I guess a push block would be a better one, its long and you are putting pressure down on the board.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11073&filter=push%20block

Once cut I do the final glue up and its ready for the planer.

Yes the planer.......

Scrape any glue that you find on the board from squeeze out and then you are ready for the next step.

The first thing is to bevel ALL the edges for the board so I do not have any end grain at the edge of the board. This is normally about a 45 degree bevel that I just sand off with the belt sander. The edges will be rounded over any way so it's not going to change the look of the board in any way.

Now when you put the board though the planer you must make very very shallow cuts. The first few cuts I make I use a push stick (flat 1 by) to get the board all the way though.

Again these cuts are really shallow and the blades of the planer are cutting off just a very small amount, less then about a 64th. Never stand in front of the infeed, stand to the side so that if you do get a kick out it will not hit you.

After 3 or 4 boards I always check the planer blades and clean them of any glue that may have gotten on the blades

With the bevel and taking the very small cuts I do not have a problem with tear out of the end grain at all. The boards come out ready to do the finial sanding and router work.

Here are a few of my boards.
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/cutting

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[Dave Lehnert]

1+ what Bill said. Good info.

Using the rip fence to cut your glue up is no different than riping a solid(natural ) board. Just don't use you miter gage at the same time.

[Jim Riseborough]

Ran this thru the planer last night, worked great, little tear out at the end, but just cleaned up on jointer. I have a 15" griz with spiral shelix dealy on the planer.