John Loftis
10-05-2008, 1:32 PM
Sorry about this long first post. I have several questions that I’m sure you folks can answer. I’m in the middle of my second attempt of my third woodworking project, which is an end grain hard maple butcher block island for the kitchen. First attempt resulted in $170 worth of scrap wood due to numerous rookie mistakes with milling rough lumber. My strategy when I screw up seems to be, ‘buy more stuff,’ so I now have a new (used) Biesemeyer fence for the old Delta, new jointer blades, and a benchtop planer.
This time, I milled the 8/4 maple down to 1.75” thick and ripped the boards to 1.75” strips. I rotated each board 90 degrees to give a checkerboard grain pattern. My strategy is to glue up all the strips, then cross-cut the strips to give me rows of butcher block. I did a trial section of four strips and noticed that despite my best intentions, I didn’t glue them perfectly flush. Two of the rows are maybe 1/32” off. But to glue up correctly, they will need to be perfectly flush.
1) Planer: Can I run the glued boards through the planer? I read that a planer will make a mirror image of the bottom face. I confess this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Seems like if the planer knives move up and down over the course of the cut, they would have to move up and down over the entire width of the board. Is that right? So would a planer work to flush up one face of the glued boards, allowing me to then flip the thing over and flush up the other side?
2) Clamps: Is there a clamp I should buy that will help me ensure the strips are flush when I clamp them together? Right now, I have 2 pipe clamps, 2 bar clamps, and 2 quickgrip clamps.
3) Routing: when the island is all glued up, the edges will be sharp. So I’ll need to soften the edges. Can I use a round over bit and rout the end grain blocks? I’m pretty new to the router, and the idea of getting that deep into the project and then screwing it all up scares the heck out of me. I could just sand the corners, but that probably wouldn’t look very clean. If routing is the right way to go, what bit should I use? Anything I should be paying particular attention to?
4) Depth of blocks: I was thinking of making the table 2” deep. Is that deep enough (enough surface area) to make the table strong with only Titebond III (food safe) holding the thing together?
5) Biesemeyer: When I installed the Biesemeyer last week, I noticed that the handle only moves about ½” down between contacting the guide bar and locking. Seems like the fence stays in place pretty well, but the handle is protruding out at an angle that is likely to neuter me at some point. For those of you who own a Biesemeyer, does your handle lock down all the way perpendicular to the table? I haven’t fiddled with it yet, but I guess it’s possible that loosening the hex screws would give me a bit more play and potentially allow the handle to lock down farther.
Thanks so much for reading patiently. Hopefully you can steer me in the right direction. My wife’s been tapping her foot. She wants that ugly laminate island out of her house.
Best,
John
This time, I milled the 8/4 maple down to 1.75” thick and ripped the boards to 1.75” strips. I rotated each board 90 degrees to give a checkerboard grain pattern. My strategy is to glue up all the strips, then cross-cut the strips to give me rows of butcher block. I did a trial section of four strips and noticed that despite my best intentions, I didn’t glue them perfectly flush. Two of the rows are maybe 1/32” off. But to glue up correctly, they will need to be perfectly flush.
1) Planer: Can I run the glued boards through the planer? I read that a planer will make a mirror image of the bottom face. I confess this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Seems like if the planer knives move up and down over the course of the cut, they would have to move up and down over the entire width of the board. Is that right? So would a planer work to flush up one face of the glued boards, allowing me to then flip the thing over and flush up the other side?
2) Clamps: Is there a clamp I should buy that will help me ensure the strips are flush when I clamp them together? Right now, I have 2 pipe clamps, 2 bar clamps, and 2 quickgrip clamps.
3) Routing: when the island is all glued up, the edges will be sharp. So I’ll need to soften the edges. Can I use a round over bit and rout the end grain blocks? I’m pretty new to the router, and the idea of getting that deep into the project and then screwing it all up scares the heck out of me. I could just sand the corners, but that probably wouldn’t look very clean. If routing is the right way to go, what bit should I use? Anything I should be paying particular attention to?
4) Depth of blocks: I was thinking of making the table 2” deep. Is that deep enough (enough surface area) to make the table strong with only Titebond III (food safe) holding the thing together?
5) Biesemeyer: When I installed the Biesemeyer last week, I noticed that the handle only moves about ½” down between contacting the guide bar and locking. Seems like the fence stays in place pretty well, but the handle is protruding out at an angle that is likely to neuter me at some point. For those of you who own a Biesemeyer, does your handle lock down all the way perpendicular to the table? I haven’t fiddled with it yet, but I guess it’s possible that loosening the hex screws would give me a bit more play and potentially allow the handle to lock down farther.
Thanks so much for reading patiently. Hopefully you can steer me in the right direction. My wife’s been tapping her foot. She wants that ugly laminate island out of her house.
Best,
John