How Do They Do This

[Mike Conley]

Take a look at this cutting board.

Any ideas how they do this?

[Mike Conley]

Here are some more.

[John Keeton]

Mike, I have seen these and wondered the same thing. What about using a stack of various species of uniform width, thickness, length - and running them through the bandsaw cutting through several at a time with a random serpentine cut? You would then have a mating piece out of another species down in the stack, and I guess you could turn them or flip them end to end to get some variance. Also, could do a couple of different stacks and intersperse them.

[Matt Ocel]

I saw this done a long time ago on TV.
If I remember correctly the guy was making a holding case for a tape measure, but you could use the same method for a cutting board.

Lets say your cutting board is going to be 12" x 16" and
your going to use 4 different species.

Cut each species to 12 x 16.
2 face tape them on top of each other.
Run them thru your band saw any way you want. (keeping track of your puzzle pieces)
When finished you can arrange the different layers to make your cutting board(S) as you will end up with 4 cutting boards.

Good Luck!

[Joe Chritz]

It would generate more waste but it shouldn't be a hard CNC project.

I be the glue up would still be a treat.

Joe

[Chris Padilla]

A BS pancake stack-up might be it at Matt describes but I wonder how you clean up the cuts to make clean, gap free glue-ups?

I suspect a template was made and a router used to flush trim. The template could be made very clean and perfect complements if the bit cuts both sides of the template at the same time. It would take careful setup but it's easily done.

GREAT idea!!

[Karl Brogger]

My vote is for CNC

[Dewey Torres]

Not knocking CNC router Karl, but some folks still enjoy doing this by hand to impress the family once per year which isn't a "business" and doesn't warrant an expensive CNC. Hmmm did I say that just because I can't afford one myself:rolleyes:? Seriously though!
Dewey

[Bob Feeser]

Using wood pieces stacked with a band saw, or possibly a scroll saw. Then take the mating pieces and glue them together. Then cut strips and glue them together.

[John Karas]

Hi Mike

This is a very easy & fast thing to do do you ever heard of a frontline bandsaw jig? I do have a Frontline bandsaw jig is ideal for cutting complex shapes such as this & i can do this with easy without any problems or marking the pieces by using a simple wooden jig & cutting each piece separate and all pieces fit to each other very accurate so you not wasting any wood & all the pieces are exactly the same without any deep blade marks as you get when cutting free hand.

Check it out for your self www.frontlineengineering.com.au (http://www.frontlineengineering.com.au)

Regards
John

[Greg Cuetara]

I have seen this done with pen blanks. There is a tutorial on the IAP website. Basically you make two or more boards then cut them in random patterns and switch the pieces and reglue up. After the glueup you can do this again and again until you get the desired effect. The best way is to use a scroll saw with a fine blade as it will provide the cleanest cut but can be done on a band saw and then clean up the blade marks. I would think a cutting board would have to be done on a scroll saw with a very thin blade which provides a clean cut.

Greg

[Dave MacArthur]

I think John Keeton has it--stacking up species, making serpentine cuts, then using the mating pieces. This is how marquetry is done, it's ALWAYs easier to make "X" number of pieces where "X" is the number of woods in the design.. stack cherry, walnut, maple, cut two wavy curves, you can make 3 perfectly fitting boards with 3 pieces each (1 of each wood).

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
My vote would be they use the same technique the Chinese do to laminate plywood.;)

[Lee DeRaud]

A BS pancake stack-up might be it at Matt describes but I wonder how you clean up the cuts to make clean, gap free glue-ups?

I suspect a template was made and a router used to flush trim.Second that. I've done the bandsaw-stack thing and the joints just aren't good enough for a cutting-board or bowl-blank glue-up: you end up needing some kind of gap-filling epoxy.

Making a perfect set of templates is the hard part...probably CNC or laser comes into play for that step. (Or at least that's how I'd do it.:p)

[Jack Camillo]

who cares, it's crap if you ask me. good question for curiosity, though.

[Steve Flavin001]

I will try to describe without going to the trouble of photo. :rolleyes:

Mine has 3 horizontal stripes what appear to be 2 half fishes in the center. Clearly you can change species and patterns but using that as an example:

Stack boards walnut and oak for the fish 2" wide; a 1" wide piece of teak, 2" wide of maple, and 3" wide piece of oak. Stack the 5 pieces common to top planed edge, all single edge planed for later glue up.

Starting from the top down view, cut the one fish half from the top edge. The fish are cut through both boards simultaneously - critical - and all remaining boards are simply ripped individually. Flip fish over vertically and later you will swap this walnut half with the oak half of the fish within their respective layers.

All remaining work is simply straight ripping and edge joining the new edge for glueup. Rip 1/2" for the teak strip 1" originally, rip the maple in half; etc.

Having ripped each species in half, take one piece and flip it up to the top - remember we started at the top edge for the fish which now puts the fish into the center as two contrasting half fishes, incidentally pointed in opposite directions upstream and downstream alternatively because of the original cut :cool: . the strips just cut in half goe above and below in whatever pattern you want.

[Steve Flavin001]

My first comment that sentence that cutting two contrasting at a time is correct but not necessarily required. As Chris here points out, cut the irregular pattern - in this case the fish - with a bandsaw pattern and then skim the saw edges with a router on a pattern for glue tight fit. Since all the pieces are identical, flip two to make a matching fit and then interchange species for contrast.

[Anthony Whitesell]

The bandsaw is the tool, and the trick is cutting a stack of woods at once. The interesting thing is that fact that the mirror image of the same breadboard should also be (or can be made) available.

For exmaple, take a piece of maple and a piece of mahagony. Stack them and cut a pattern through the middle. Now you you have four pieces of wood, 2 maple and 2 mahagony. The left maple will fit perfectly into the right mahagony, the same with the right mahagony and the left maple piece.

To get the fancier patterns, glue up those first 2 pairs and then re-cut with taped with another piece of wood or glued pair and do the same thing again.

[M Toupin]

Ya'll putting way too much thought into it, they are very simple to make.

#1 - Make two (2) identically sized strip cutting boards with random strip widths.

#2 - Stack the two cutting boards on top of each other and attach them to on another. Hot melt glue, works well or double sided tape.

#3 - cut a random serpentine strips from the stack with the band saw.

#4 - as each cut comes off the BS, reassemble the boards by alternating the top and bottom pieces. Each piece will fit as it's a duplicate of the one above (or below) it.

#5 - glue the pieces back together and surface just like a normal strip cutting board.

I learned to make these in HS shop class over 25 years ago, here's an example of one. It's a bit worse for wear, but it still works fine. I actually financed my first car making and selling those cutting boards!
87756
Mike

[Greg Cuetara]

mike since you have done this how do you get a clean surface for glueup?

[Steve Flavin001]

The local adult education program out here in California, using a left over high school wood shop setup to teach basic woodworking to us seniors :rolleyes: has a repetoire of simple projects like a child's step stool etc. That's where we got our cutting board like shown in Mike's photos; mine is identical to the top one in second photo att. They donate them for door prizes for fund raising for the program.

BUT, I really like Dewey's idea and tried for a CNC budget appropriation for the once a year event but everyone is still laughing at me :mad: .

I'll try to get a shop setup and sen a photo of one in progress to the forum :D

[M Toupin]

As long as your cuts are fairly smooth and true the glue lines will be fine. The most important thing is to have the blade square to the table so your cuts are square and the pieces fit back together square. The only time I've had a problem is when the blade was worn or not properly tensioned and I got barrel cuts which screwed up the fit or when I was putting side pressure on the cut causing the blade to cut at an angle relative to the face.

Don't loose sight of the end goal here, your making a cutting board, not a fine period piece of furniture. Even if your glue line is off just a touch, is it really something to obsess over? The bottom line is you're the only one who cares if it's perfect to within 1/10000". other than another obsessive woodworker, you'll never had anyone say "jeeze, you screwed up that glue line, it's off 1/10000 inch". The medium is wood, it's not perfect to begin with, put down the micrometers, verniers and eye lopes and enjoy the hobby.

Mike

[Greg Cuetara]

The medium is wood, it's not perfect to begin with, put down the micrometers, verniers and eye lopes and enjoy the hobby.

Mike,
This is great advice. I hope we can all learn that sometimes we are our own worst enemies.
Greg

[Chris Padilla]

Don't loose sight of the end goal here, your making a cutting board, not a fine period piece of furniture. Even if your glue line is off just a touch, is it really something to obsess over? The bottom line is you're the only one who cares if it's perfect to within 1/10000". other than another obsessive woodworker, you'll never had anyone say "jeeze, you screwed up that glue line, it's off 1/10000 inch". The medium is wood, it's not perfect to begin with, put down the micrometers, verniers and eye lopes and enjoy the hobby.

Mike

I'd be happy with 10 mil or about a 100 times worse than you suggest! :D Epoxy will fill that gap easily! ;)

[Terry Fogarty]

Hi Mike

This is a very easy & fast thing to do do you ever heard of a frontline bandsaw jig? I do have a Frontline bandsaw jig is ideal for cutting complex shapes such as this & i can do this with easy without any problems or marking the pieces by using a simple wooden jig & cutting each piece separate and all pieces fit to each other very accurate so you not wasting any wood & all the pieces are exactly the same without any deep blade marks as you get when cutting free hand.

Check it out for your self www.frontlineengineering.com.au (http://www.frontlineengineering.com.au)

Regards
John

100% Spot on. I have one of those jigs and its one of the best new ideas i have seen in 15 years of woodworking. A perfectly mated breadboard like that in different timbers would take no more that 2 or 3 minutes freehand.