Update to Cutting Board Project Fail & New Questiosn

[Eddie Knapp]

Original Post here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?178704-Project-Fail-Anti-Boast

So I went out and got the 24 tooth saw blades for my circ & TS. They worked wonders! And i was able to get everything cut down to the right sizes, and i glued them up.

My new problem is this. Once i took the glue up and ripped the new pieces down, flipped them to expose the end grain, i realized that all of my sides are not flush to one another. See pictures:

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I have not yet glued this up yet. Is there a way to fix these edges? I don't own a hand plane (and as my previous post explains, my jointer is basically worthless). Is it worth going out and purchasing a hand plane? If so, how big? Can I get away with one of these from the depot:
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Any advice is greatly appreciated. And thank you everyone who has helped me so far!

[Bill Huber]

I am not sure how it will work out but you can sure give it a try.

Use some spray glue and glue sheet of 100 grit paper to some 3/4" MDF and then sand each one flat. Then do the same thing with some 150 grit to finish them up.

Good Luck.

[curtis rosche]

skip the hd plane and go with a quality one that wont give you problems. lee valley, or some of the others mentioned in the neander section

[Brian Kent]

No, that plane will only make you hate the plane. Can you run those through the table saw again, making a nice straight edge on the sides to glue up?

[Dan Bowman]

I think you'd be better off starting over. The cost of wood is trivial compared to how much time you're spending on this, and it's probably only going to get worse. You might want to watch this before embarking on a new one: http://thewoodwhisperer.com/butcher-block-cutting-board/. Find someone who will give you time on a drum sander to get top and bottom of at least the first glue-up flat and parallel. Without that you'll have gaps.

[David Hawxhurst]

i'm with bill accept i have psa type sand paper and use a flat surface and sand them flat. with 80 or 100 grit it should be pretty quick and easy.

[david brum]

This seems like a prime opportunity to fine tune your jointer. There are lots of low tech, inexpensive methods for doing the necessary adjustments which will turn it into a useable machine. It's not that difficult, although it takes a while at first. If you need to, you can most likely find replacement blades in stock at your local Sears.

Heck, you've got the thing; You might as well use it.

[keith micinski]

I just realized from your original post it doesn't look like you have a Planer at all? If thats the case then working with rough sawn wood is going to be near impossible. All that a jointer does it make one side flat, not parallel to the other and in your case your Jointer doesn't even do that. If your sides aren't parallel your never going to be able to make that cutting board and using a hand plane on those pieces now isn't as easy as it sounds plus a nice hand plane costs more then a used lunch box planer on CL. You may want to look at getting a lunch box planer before you go any further because you are going to need to plane wood parallel and set the thickness on every project you do. Plus you can actually use a planer to joint one face of your wood so if money is tight it takes care of both of your needs. And I still say take your jointer out and leave it by the curb hoping someone thinks it has some value. Although I guess if you have the time and the want to trying to tune it up would probably teach you a lot about jointers so there is that.

[James White]

And I still say take your jointer out and leave it by the curb hoping someone thinks it has some value. Although I guess if you have the time and the want to trying to tune it up would probably teach you a lot about jointers so there is that.

I am not sure why you insist on this. I had that jointer and I was able to tune it to produce a "perfect" strait edge and face joint up to its max width. Yes it has low hourse power and small beds. But it is perfectly usable. I agree with David B.. This is a good opportunity to learn how to tune a jointer. It is an essential skill. Do a search on you tube. "how to set jointer knives" or similar key words.

If anything I would set that table saw to the curb. It is not capable of holding any precision and will lead to as much frustration as that Home Depot hand plane you asked about. Yes you will need a planer. But you could start out with a decent hand plane and a reliable table saw.

If you want a good "off the shelf" hand plane. The wood river would be my recommendation. Otherwise you can rehab a vintage plane.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2021170/29725/WoodRiver-4-Bench-Hand-Plane-V3.aspx

James

[Eddie Knapp]

I just realized from your original post it doesn't look like you have a Planer at all?

No I've got a planer. It's a lunchbox grizzly (bought on craigslist for $50). Can I use this to flatten each piece individually? I figured since both sides were a little off, i couldn't get a true parallel side regardless of what I did.

[Brian Kent]

Unless I misunderstood, the problem was not the end-grain surface, but the uneven sides that made the pieces not fit. That can be fixed by a fine pass on the table saw, a re-tuned jointer (which would mean that the frustrating tuning job would also pay off on our next project), or using a jack plane (old Stanley, Mujingfang)

[Andrew Kertesz]

You should NOT try and plane/joint pieces as small as you have in your cutting board. That is disaster waiting to happen. That is a step that should be done before the wood hits the TS.

[shane lyall]

Whateva' you do DON"T run those short pieces thru a planer! As soon as they clear the first feed roller and catch the cutterhead they become a sack seeking missle with no remorse! I made the mistake many many years ago with a jewery box. I had my lunchbox mounted to an old stand from a borg TS I had upgraded. DAMHIKT but if you run that piece you're begging for it to be fired at speeds approching mach 2 at, depending on hight of your planer, an area from your knee to your..um...well, you get the idea!

[Doug W Swanson]

If it were me, I would take a pass on the table saw just to even up the edges. It looks like the blocks are slightly different sizes and that's causing part of the problem. If you took just a whisper off each side of your longer glue ups, that should at least give you a clean edge for gluing.

You are also don't want to run the edge grain through your planer. It was cause major problems. It either needs to be run through a sander or sanded using a RO sander.

Hope this helps....

[keith micinski]

The reason I am saying that jointer is not worth the time to tune up is because it isn't. I completely get that people are on a budget and have to make do with what they have but if it is at all possible try and find another used option that is at least worth the time to put into it. A lot of the fun of woodworking is taken out of it when you are fighting ridiculously poor tools. There is a reason that very few people have ever tried to use a third horsepower 24 inch long jointer to build Furniture quality work. Can it be done yes. Would I suggest it if there was at all another option, NO. Running those pieces through the table saw will help but if you don't have at least one side relatively flat it won't solve the problem. I can only speak from my experience with building stuff but if you can't even start out with one flat surface I don't care what you do from there your not going to end up with a satisfactory piece. Unfortunately I would tend to agree with chalking those pieces up as a learning experience and starting over with new flat pieces. I take that back, what you could do is take the pieces that you have and find the flattest pieces and make a smaller cutting board or make it into pot and pan rests. SO, I think the next step before any more wood is wasted is that you should either make the decision to try tuning the jointer up to the best of your ability or look at CL and see what kind of used 6 inch floor model jointer options are out there in your area.

[keith micinski]

No I've got a planer. It's a lunchbox grizzly (bought on craigslist for $50). Can I use this to flatten each piece individually? I figured since both sides were a little off, i couldn't get a true parallel side regardless of what I did.

This is true except for the fact that you can make what is called a planer sled for your planer to joint work or do this which I use all of the time for a piece too wide to go across my jointer. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?155589-Hillbilly-Planer-drum-sander-sled&highlight=hillbilly+planer+sled I'll be honest with you I did a bunch of research on building planer sleds and was already to go when I started a project and needed to get it done before I could build a sled so I tried the tape method and it worked so well I kept doing it. Then I progressed into double stick taping shims to the bottom of boards that were really far out and it worked so well, is so easy to use, is cheap and takes up no extra space in the shop having to store a planer sled, I will probably never build a planer sled now.

[John Hollander]

I would run them through the table saw again. After reading you previous thread I make sure to use a nice and sharp thin kerf blade

[James White]

I just wanted to post this as an update. For the benefit of anyone who has this craftsman jointer. I know it is not ideal. But it can be a good stepping stone for someone new to woodworking.

Below is a PM that Eddie had sent me. I am posting it with his permission.

James -

Actually I did follow your advice and spent about 2-3 hours correcting and aligning the beds, as well as sharpening the blades. I got everything almost perfect (within .0015" alignment), except for the front left corner, which is still a little bit out of whack (i measured it at (.0060"), but i didn't have the right tool to adjust it. (Funny how i have a table saw, a jointer, a planer, a drill press, a router, a miter saw, a full chisel set, a 25 router bit set, but I don't own a simple wrench).

Anyways, I did a test run, and the snipe is almost entirely gone, there is still a little bit at the end of the cut, but it went from being 3" long to maybe 1/8" long.

I really just need to buy new blades instead of sharpening them, and finish leveling the beds, but i think i'm going to be able to use this jointer for a long time.

Thanks for your advice.

Eddie

[James White]

Eddie,

Have you tried jointing to board edges and see if they make a tight joint? Say perhaps to 3' pieces. What about face jointing. Have you tried that? Go with light passes if you do. That is where this jointer can really fall down. Due to lack of HP.

James

[Gary Kman]

Why hasn't anyone told the OP that that much end grain assembled into a giant slab is going to crack badly over time with changes in moisture content? Sorry. Save your time and frustration and study up on wood's properties before generating more unhappiness for yourself.

[Russ Ambrose]

Gary, not sure i understand your comment. people have been making end grain cutting boards/slabs for years. if made well (and properly maintained) they last a lifetime. i've made many end grain cutting boards that are many years old and have yet to crack or warp. sorry if i misunderstood your post.

[Jerome Hanby]

No I've got a planer. It's a lunchbox grizzly (bought on craigslist for $50). Can I use this to flatten each piece individually? I figured since both sides were a little off, i couldn't get a true parallel side regardless of what I did.

If you have some MDF scraps, you can use a chunk of that as a planer sled. You know that stuff will be flat. Use some double sided tape and some shims if necessary to mount the board (or the board strips) on the MDF then run them through your planer over and over dropping the head just a bit each time until you have one side perfectly flat. Then ditch sled, put the now flat side down and plane the other side. You should end up flat and parallel.

As far as getting rid of the gaps, other poster may be right about your saw. If it can't be adjusted to give you a smooth consistent cut when you are using a good blade, then it's time to do some work on it or replace it.