Surfacing End Grain Cutting Boards

[BOB OLINGER]

I'm intrigued about making some end grain cutting boards. However, most of the utubes I watched put the boards through a drum sander for surfacing. I don't have a drum sander. I have a thickness planer, but that, given it's equipped with standard blades, isn't recommended. I have belt sanders, hand-held and floor model. I thought about a hand held electric planer (I don't have one at present). Does anyone suggest a good way to surface these other than a drum sander? Thanks.

[Zac Martin]

I've sent my end grain cutting boards through the planer before with no issues, but ymmv. If you do, take very light passes and glue a sacrificial board to the back end. Other than that, try to make sure everything is as lined up as possible, clear squeezeout before its dry, etc., and go to town with a ROS.

[Doug Garson]

I've only made two end grain cutting boards, if you do a good job of alignment when doing the glue up it's not that hard to flatten with a hand held belt sander or ROS. Not sure why so many are hung up on making the surfaces perfectly flat, it's a cutting board, slight imperfections really don't affect it's functionality or looks.

[Mike O'Keefe]

I 've make alot of end grain cutting boards. I have run them thru the planer until I had 1 fly back at me. Since then I use a belt sander or drum sander. If you do use a planer I agree with adding a sacraficial board to the back. Mike O'Keefe

[David Bassett]

Not an expert, but took a class on making end grain cutting boards once. The instructor mentioned some of the hazards of the different machine options and that he avoided them by using a hand plane. He used a low-angle jointer plane to great effect. (I'd bet a LA jack would work well too.) Since he was careful about alignment there was really very little material to remove and, OK he was a young guy, it didn't look like too much work.

[Michael W. Clark]

This is one application where a Rotex shines. I have done them with belt sanders and used a drum sander on the last one I did. The drum sander tried to burn it and put some very deep scratches in it, so need to troubleshoot that, or could be operator error.

A Rotex with 80 or 120 Grit is where I start. I also wipe off all squeeze out that I can and use parallel clamps instead of pipe clamps.

[Jon Grider]

This is one application where a Rotex shines. I have done them with belt sanders and used a drum sander on the last one I did. The drum sander tried to burn it and put some very deep scratches in it, so need to troubleshoot that, or could be operator error.

A Rotex with 80 or 120 Grit is where I start. I also wipe off all squeeze out that I can and use parallel clamps instead of pipe clamps.

This is how I do them also. Careful glue up to keep things aligned and 80 grit Rubin to start out at.

[Patrick Kane]

I have a byrd head planer, and i still dislike planing end grain boards. It has a tendency to blow out the back of the cut quite a bit, and it tears out the surface of the board. Its one thing if your glue ups are off by something crazy like 1/8", but if you have slight ridges between your glueup, then i suggest sticking to a sander. Thats my 2 cents. Its certainly possible to plane end grain in light cuts, but it can cause more harm than benefit.

Drum sander is certainly easier. However, i found 60-80 grit on my double drum sander would leave scratches that were difficult to ROS out. Not to mention the occasional burning. I sold my drum sander, but it was similar to the planer in that the results werent always worth the effort.

I make a handful of boards a year, but i used to make a ton to pay for tools and i think it comes down to your final glue up. Its hyper critical your end grain crosscuts be dead nuts on to one another. Im about to make an odd statement, but i believe my sliding table saw to be more efficient in processing end grain boards than my supermax 37x2 drum sander was. One of my first commissions after setting up my used KF700 was a large end grain walnut island. It was like 4-6' long and 3ish wide, but more importantly, super thick around 6". One, that project nearly paid for the machine on its own, and two, it was immensely eye-opening after having made 100 end grain pieces prior to using the Felder. Between the slider and the domino, that final glue up was excellent.

[Jim Becker]

If you have a belt sander, that will do a similar job to using a drum sander. Just have the workpiece locked down well. Once it's fully level and on the way to smooth, you can use your ROS to take over and run up through the finer and finer abrasives.

[Warren Lake]

Belt sander is fine or the grown up version a stroke sander. Simple work on a stroke sander.

[Mel Fulks]

Cutting boards dull knives quickly when they have been sanded. To test ,run knife over an unsanded board a few times . Hard to not notice
how much longer it will stay sharp. Those beautiful multi piece boards are for hanging on the wall !

[Warren Lake]

Mel, what you said in my mind as i typed. ive said before not to machine stuff after its been sanded old guy taught us that 40 years ago. Embedded grit. I guess I draw the line at a kitchen knife, I usually hone knives fast before I use them

[Paul Tubergen]

I have used a router sled (like for flattening a slab but smaller) followed by a sander. It worked fairly well.

[David Powell]

I run my end grain cutting boards through my planer with a byrd head. But, I round over the edges with a 3/8 radius router bit before doing so, which removes the chance of blowout. And I take very slight cuts each time.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Glue a sacrificial long-grain piece on the edge(s) to avoid blowout when running through the planer.

[Dennis Peacock]

I make a lot of end-grain cutting boards.....Belt sander with 80 grit to start, then 120....Faster than running them through a planer and hoping they come out without too much blow-out damage on the edges. Well, at least that's what I do.

[al ladd]

I've literally made thousands, as it was mainstay of my livelihood for about 20 years. The internet and the cult-like craze of "make you own end grain cutting boards for fun and profit" and the race to the bottom of Et*y and Custom**de.com has more or less killed that end of my business. If you do lots of them, abrasive cost becomes significant using sanding as mainstay, and you often end up with deep marks from earlier grits that won't come clean. Also, if you do boards with different woods, the abrasive cuts differently into different woods, so you can never get the whole board clean.

I quickly learned to plane them. One major aid is a sled, (3/4 mdf is fine) about 6-8 inches longer than the longest board, and as wide as will fit through the planer on a cant. The sled should have a cleat towards the back end, but this cleat should be several inches in front of the sled's end. The sled will mitigate the effects of the bed rollers, and give you something big and less scary to hold on to. I line my sled with very coarse abrasive cloth to grab the board, and provide just a hint of cushioning. Take light cuts and flip the board end for end often to get as flat as possible. It's critical to roundover all edges first (or glue sacrificial pieces, but that's much more time consuming, and you're going to round over the edges anyway, right?). For short boards, glue two together end to end. Take light cuts, at as severe an angle to the knives as will fit through your planer. If you have a straight knifed planer consider carbide knives. I had a four knife planer for many years, and I'd sharpen and replace knives in pairs (1st and 3rd, 2nd and 4th). Those little diamond hones are very helpful for extending time between grindings. I'd say about 1 in 500-1000 blew up, always from being insufficiently flat, and not being aware of that, almost always when my helper was doing them. It would shake us all up, but no one ever got even remotely injured. The sled is a bit like an air bag in that respect.

Of course a Byrd head makes it a lot easier --and a whole lot quieter, and they're carbide and so last and last. Since '08 I've had a 24" Bridgewood with a Byrd head, and dial in feed speed. I follow up with a wide belt sander with 120 grit only. Raise grain with water, and orbital sand with 120 .

[Gail Ludwig]

I used a belt sander for a long time to flatten. But I would have problems getting the board perfectly flat. So, I bought a new sander—the big 6in Bosch with dual mode. I found that using the turbo mode sander with 80 grit paper worked MUCH better than the belt sander. Like others have said, if you are careful in cross cutting your boards, they will be pretty flat when glued. But, I have messed up a time or two and found that using a router sled got things flat pretty quickly. So now I use my Bosch sander and/or router sled. Best of both worlds!

[Steve Demuth]

If you're making just a couple, for your own use, then I'd recommend careful glue up to minimize the surface variation, followed by hand planing with a block plane. If you happen to have a good low angle jack, then start with that and finish with the block plane. But really, with a properly sharp, well-tuned block plane, it's not a big deal to get to a perfectly good, and visually attractive surface.

I would not surface end grain with a straight blade planer. With care about depth of cut, and by rounding edges before you plane, you can make it work about 99% of the time, but when it doesn't, it can go bad rather spectacularly, and the results can be dangerous to an operator and to the machine (assuming it's a light luncbox sort of machine - you probably wouldn't damage a big guy with some real mass in the mechanism).

[Robert Engel]

I think you can glue on a thick sacrificial backer.

or you can use a router sled to flatten followed by a belt sander.

[Wes Grass]

As I understand it, the reason low angle planes are technically classed as 'block planes', is because they were designed for use on end grain butcher blocks ... cutting boards ...

Or maybe they're just cheaper, and easier for a non-woodworker to sharpen and set than a typical bench plane.

[Joe Hendershott]

Not wanting to veer too far off topic but since it is a captive audience of cutting board experts- what pads or feet to you use? Details matter and never do see many with good bumpers on the bottom?

[Stephen Bandirola]

Don't need any kind of bumpers or feet. You want to be able to flip it over and use both sides. End grain cutting boards stay put on the counter just fine, and if needed just put a kitchen towel down first.

[Patrick Kane]

Forgot to mention, IF you intend to plane end grain, i found wetting the surface 10-20 seconds before planing made a decent difference. That is an old-timer trick for minimizing tearout on figured material.

[Jim Becker]

Don't need any kind of bumpers or feet. You want to be able to flip it over and use both sides. End grain cutting boards stay put on the counter just fine, and if needed just put a kitchen towel down first.
Additionally, feet can, in some cases, cause a sag from use over time. Flat on the counter is best. If slipping is an issue, a thin, non-slip material can be used under the board. My "working board" has a lip on one end extending downward that keeps it from moving laterally to the right with the way I orient it on my island surface...kinda like a bench-hook in reverse.

[Prashun Patel]

The odd times I have to make these (I hate doing it) I run them through my planer. Light passes as mentioned.

The issue is blow out near the end. That will ruin the trailing row of blocks. It is therefore highly advisable to glue on a sacrificial rail to the end that is grain oriented horizontally either (ok) perpendicular to the feed direction (best) parallel to the feed direction). Running the sacrifical row perpendicular will still tear out the corner, but not as viciously or dangerously as vertical end grain. STAND OUT OF THE FEED PATH.

Sacrificial infeed and outfeed rows will also reduce snipe.