Cutting Board Process

[Don L Johnson]

I'm making end grain cutting boards; I've finished the first glue up and have run the boards through the drum sander at 100 grit to smooth then down. The question I have: Is the 100 grit okay to gule up when I recut the boards in order to do the end grain glue up? Or, shoud I have a smoother surface (i.e., sanding with a higher grit paper) to glue with?

[Mike McCann]

Don

you should be ok. I just run mine thru a planer and the cut and reglue.

[Bill Huber]

I do the same thing as Mike, run it though the planer and check for any snip and then cut and do the next glue up.
Now if I do find any snip I will run each block thought the jointer the same number of times on each board.

[Chris Padilla]

Don,

When in doubt, try some test cases. Cut a piece off your first glue-up and cut it in half and glue them together or just put them together and look at them. Are you satisfied? I bet you'll be fine but if it were me, I'd run 'em through the planer. The sander is good for glue removal that isn't kind to planer knives.

[Dave Hale]

I found 100 grit still left 'ridges' that would show in the final glue-up as small, small gaps. I used the drum sander to get the majority of the boards leveled and glue removed, then back to one pass with the planer on each side.

After cutting the end-grain strips, I knock off any wood fragments (splits) with a quick stroke of a sanding block on all 4 edges and get ALL of the dust, chips, etc removed before doing the glue-up. Learned the hard way that any little bit of wood stuck in between the strips will show as a gap. :o

I also learned, the hard way, that a cutoff sled is the best way to ensure evenly sized strips. If you're doing the 'alternating method' of combining the strips, any difference in beginning and ending widths will be a real pain to sand down evenly.

Another hint is, if you're resting the strips on your clamp's body, get the glue drips off of the bar. This also helps in a consistent height result.

Another hint. :D
I now use 5/4 lumber to start instead of 4/4. Planed down to 1". Much easier to glue-up 15 1" strips than 23-25 5/8" strips.