Butcher Block Top

[Martin West]

Hi All, I am building an end grain butcher block top for a portable cart using 2x2 hard maple. The top will be about 20”x36”x4”. My plan is to glue 10 2” x 12” strips together (20”x12”), dry, then cut those into 3 to give me the 4” thickness I want, then glue up all those strips (20”x4”) to the 36”dimension.

Question: My thought is to lightly plane the 20x12 strips in a Dewalt 735 planer to get a consistent flat surface for glue up of the 2x4x20 inch strips. They would need to go in the 13” planer with grain at 90 degrees to “normal” side/face grain orientation as when running boards through normally. Is there a problem with this approach (really bad tear out, etc). Am I over thinking it and just skip the planer? Should I go all Chris Schwarz and hand plane it (shudder)?

Thanx in advance

Martin

[Jerome Sidley]

I run a router with a round over bit around the edge first then through the planer and then after this prevents the tearout.

[Martin West]

I run a router with a round over bit around the edge first then through the planer and then after this prevents the tearout.

Thanx good suggestion although I was more concerned about face grain tear out due to the grain orientation and planing over the 2” strips running laterally through the planer (washboarding problems?). Any experience with that? All I’ve ever done is thickness plane boards length wise...

[ChrisA Edwards]

Or, just a thought, add a couple of extra strips on the front and back edge to take any possible tearout and trim those off later.