What would happen if I planed this?

[scott kinninger]

I am in the process of making my first end grain cutting board. I've got it all glued up but don't have a drum sander to get the faces level and the thickness uniform. I know a planer isn't made for this type of thing but what could I expect if I tried to plane it taking "a hair's thickness" off with each pass? I tried hand sanding with some 60 grit sandpaper but man that's going to be a lot of work and the uniformity will suffer.

It's approximately 12x12x2
I don't have a belt sander either.

Thanks.

[Mark Rios]

Take a look at this board in post number 6 of this thread; http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=33790&highlight=cutting+board

All the wood except the very outside maple border is endgrain. I don't have a thickness sander. I used my DW735, light passes as you mention, then sanded to 220. Worked out great.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you run that vertical grain through the planer, you're quite likely to see two things. First, you'll see tear-out at the trailing edge. Second, you'll see high wear on the knives. You can avoid the tear-out in several ways. You can bevel the edge so that knives don't cut at the edge, or you can make the board overlarge and trim off the chipped edge, or you can glue on a sacrificial block which you trim off later. I don't know of anything you can do to avoid the high wear; planers don't like end grain -- that's why nobody edge-joints plywood.

[Larry Crim]

I've done same as mark with my 735 but added a little moisture with some MS and this helped with the tearout
larry

[Ian Gillis]

12" is too short for many thickness planers because of the distance between the drive rollers. Planing end grain is dodgy at the best of times. If the cutting board flexes the least little bit on its way through, the cutters will grab and turn your cutting board into shrapnel - destroying the cutting board and possibly damaging your planer.

Try phoning a kitchen cabinet shop and ask if they'll run it through a drum sander for you. Tell them it's a Xmas gift and I'm sure they won't refuse you.

If you are planning to do a lot of boards the same thickness, you could consider making a sort of planer sled. Your sled would have to be made to the desired finished thickness and hold the cutting board tightly in a cutout to prevent tipping or blowout.

This might be a good time to consider a nice sharp block plane and a straight edge to check your progress. Set the plane very fine and plan on couple of hours to finish the job.

HTH
Ian G

[Alex Shanku]

I agree with Ian.

I had an end grain board ripped apart using my planer, similart to what he described.

I ended up using a couple of hand planes, and spent a long time sanding.

[Steve Dewey]

I've built a few boards - my method is:

1 - Get it close with a low angle handplane or if your handplane is dull, a stationary belt sander
2 - big RO sander (6" bosch) not the little "palm" version to sand out the planing or belt sander marks.

These couple steps take me as much time as making the cutting board in the first place. I'd be time ahead if I took them to a shop w/ a drum sander especially when building more than one at a time.

A drum sander is on my list...

[Steve Dewey]

Here's a pic - not nearly as fancy as some I've seen on here...

[Mike Weaver]

What about planing this with a router & straight/mortising bit?

You could set up two rails, say, 1" higher than the cutting board that are edge jointed straight.

These rails would then have short spacers between them & the cutting board.

A quick square 'U' shaped cradle with a slot cut in the middle on which the router rides & voila.... a planer.

Or, assuming you have a flat workbench, a router mounted jig, like:
http://www.woodzone.com/tips/tip-images/planer/rplane.jpg

Just a thought,
-Mike

[scott kinninger]

I have considered using a router and router rails. This might get it close enough so that I the only sanding I would have left is the "finish" sanding. I wasn't sure how good a router would trim away end grain though.