20" cutting board

[allan kuntz]

I have been asked to build a 20" wide by 30" long end grain cutting board. I only have a 15" planer and a 24" dual drum sander. I am wondering if the drum sander will flatten the initial glue up prior to cutting the strips to be flipped and re-glued. Or should i seek out a 20" planer
thanks
Al

[Neil Gaskin]

Make the initial glue up in two parts 1st, run those through the planer, then glue up to get to the 20" width. You can then probably use your drum sander to flatten that. Alternatively you could create a router sled to flatten it out.

I'm not that familiar with drum sanders, I know my wide-belt will "flatten" out the end grain boards but do not have experience with a drum sander to speak to that.

I've found it's quicker to use the router sled to get down to flat.

[Mitchell Ristine]

I have heard (no experience) that end grain boards in planers can be dangerous. Maybe research this a little.

[Dustin Bullard]

While a planer would be preferred as its faster a drum sander will do just fine to flatten your strips, initial glue up and final glue up without much fuss...

A couple pointers, scrape off as much glue squeezeout as possible before sending it through the drum sander, a little glue is ok, a lot will melt onto the sandpaper and burn the wood.
Take many small passes to avoid burning the wood and flip the pieces every pass so that you build up heat evenly. When the board is noticeably warm let it cool down before continuing, if you let it get too hot it will be perfectly flat, until it cools down and turns into a potato chip ;). I normally do about a dozen or so passes (6-10 per side) then let the board cool down for an hour or so and then do the final passes.

[Patrick Kane]

Two things going on here. One, i think you are talking about flattening your first step of the end grain process, which is making a standard face/edge grain panel. Depending how many pieces you have, i would do it in two <15" subsections, plane them, and then glue those together. Depending on the joint discrepancy, i would drum sand the entire panel, or go ahead and cross cut my strip to make the end grain board. After you have your strips cut, you can drum sand them individually, or take a real like cut at the planer. It is across the grain, but i usually dont see much if any tearout taking 1/32"ish cuts. I always oversize my blanks anyways to allow me to square up the piece afterwards.

Now, everyone above is taking about flattening your final glueup, which is all end grain. You can plane this, but i try not to. The tearout across the piece even with a byrd head is a lot to sand. That all goes without getting into the danger to you and your machine. I sold my big 37" drum sander a year ago, and ive since done pieces that are 2-3x the one you are talking about. Honestly, the final flattening comes down to how accurate your final glueup is. In my experience over the years, I spend my time on that facet of the project to save the most time. If the piece is large enough, i get fantastic crosscuts off my slider followed by dominos for the final glueup. This typically results in 1/32" discrepancies between joints, and i can quickly clean that up with a rotex.

[Roger Feeley]

I did an end grain cutting board years ago (still have it). I found that the planer tore out the end grain so I did the whole thing with a 16/32 sander. It took an afternoon to get it flat. Just put on the tunes and zen out.

Mine was interesting. We had this tile backsplash that used three colors of tile. I took a rubbing of the tiles where I was going to store the board vertically. and then wrote in the colors. I then replicated that exact pattern in the board. I don't think anyone visiting ever noticed but my wife did. I always got a little chuckle. When we sold the house, I thought about leaving it behind but the bride intervened.

[Jim Riseborough]

Use the sander. Get the glue up as close as possible, maybe hit the high spots with a belt sander. If you use a planer, glue sacrificial pieces on the edges to saw off afterwards.

[Mark Bolton]

If you dont clamp up your blanks with sacrificial support through the planer you will blow the ends off in a blink. 3 passes and your blanks will be shorter by half the width or more than your billets for the end grain top. Your best bet would be to find someone with a widebelt or an abrasive planer nearby (may be hard). Just like with boards (long grain) a planer doesnt get you flat, it gets you a consistent thickness. If the board has a cup, or twist, the planer will just mash it down flat, make it a uniform thickness, and when it comes out the other end it will spring back to cupped and twisted.

The best answer if you dont have access to an abrasive planer or a widebelt, or someone locally with a CNC to deck it off two sides for you, is the router sled.

[Bob Falk]

I have made several endgrain cutting boards and ran them through my planer....no problems if you take a very, very, very light cut. Of course, the planer will tear and chip at the trailing (and sometimes leading) edge of the endgrain. I always glue sacrificial boards that are a little thicker than the cutting board around the perimeter. These boards prevent the tearout and also allows you to sneak up on the end grain when planing. Works particularly well when the glueup is not flat.

[Al Launier]

Could you make a sled for the sander (similar to a planer sled) in which you average out the top surface? Once the top face is sanded then sand the opposite side parallel.