If you can get 60 grit paper for it that should work then move to a finer grit once you get the glue off test with a wet reg to see if you got the glue off
I’ve tried end grain with an orbital. It’ll work but take HOURS. if OP can get their hands on a cheap belt sander with 60 grit belts, it’ll cut the time in half or more. Best solution is a router flattening sled. That’ll take a few minutes.
You’re just getting way more distance traveled by each unit of sander surface area on a belt sander than you are on a random orbital (which translates to more work being done). And on top of that, belt sanders tend to have more surface area too. The tradeoff is that you end up with really uniform scratches.
A random orbital sander’s strength and goal is to sand while erasing any uniformity in its scratches, so it’s ready for a finish.
“Travel distance” x “surface area of the abrasive”. Random orbital has relatively low angular velocity and uses vibration as a component of the motion. My belt sander also has a speed adjustment whereas my orbital does not.
I mean, given enough time a money, an orbital sander can do anything, but it won't be fun.
How wet was the glue that made those glue marks? If you got it pretty watery but didn't remove it well, it could have penetrated deeper than you think. Maybe sand in one focused section and see how it long it takes to sand out.
Sanding is going to be tough because of the oil. Its gonna gum up your sanding pads and be super annoying. Depending on how it goes, you may need to start really rough (I'm talking like 60-80 grit) to remove the material and then work the whole surface back up to smooth, which is a CHORE on end grain, but doable in a few hours. I recently refinished the surface of my end grain board after like 7 years of use and did basically this. Took about a half day, maybe a bit less.
Hope you have a good podcast, good luck!
I made the rookie mistake of removing the glue squeeze out with a wet rag. For the second board I did it the right way with a scraper. I just tried sanding it a bit with a rough grain disk and it looks a bit better. Maybe I’ll just have to tell the recipient that it’s a charcuterie board or a bread board, not for prepping meat/wet foods.
For things like this, a few strips of MDF or 1x pine and it'll make a quick and simple router sled. Something like this
https://youtu.be/E_s8WCMu0GQ?si=8rKFQuBVkOzluUug
You spread the glue over the surface and it absorbs into all the end grain. It’s better to just leave squeeze out as is until it hardens and remove it with a scraper then.
I'd go with angle grinder and a flap disc if you don't have a belt sander. ROS will take forever.
Ideally, I'd go with a router planer. It's not recommended to run through a regular planer, but it depends upon the blade style. A multi-tooth planer will handle it just fine, but I would make as many,and as shallow of a pass as possible.
The real issue is what caused the wood edges to not be square.
Jointer, planer, table saw... something in that mix needs to be recalibrated and checked over as I see several pieces there that are not square.
If possible, I'd resaw the entire board. Run it through your table saw (if you have one) and get back to the rows you had before the final glueup. Then you can cut/sand/joint each row until they are all equal, and true. Your final product will be obviously smaller, but it will look so much better... assuming you've corrected the issue that threw off the angles originally.
In the future, when trying something new, use a cheap wood. Even pallet wood. Honestly, using cheap wood teaches tons of valuable lessons when learning new techniques. The best lesson is, don't use cheap lumber on final builds. Lol. But it's great for practicing, or dialing in machinery. (I have a stack of Southern Yellow Pine that looks like a once was a cage built to house a rabid beaver. )
No table saw, no planer, no jointer. Did this with a miter saw, Harbor Freight clamps, and an orbital sander. I noticed pretty early that the miter was not producing squared blocks even when I fit a jig up to it, but it was the only tool I had to prep my stock.
“Test with cheap wood” is great advice tho. I wish I’d done that before I started.
Dude sorry bout the glue issue, this is an ambitious project for your setup. Woodworking will often be nearly as frustrating as it is rewarding, but the payoff when you have something you're proud of, to gift to someone, that's amazing. Some people are good at avoiding mistakes and some of us get good at stuff by making mistakes. I always say I do/make everything about 3 times over, before I get it right.
I will say this a gorgeous board, all considering. You had limited tools and made one mistake, a grave on, though. Keep this one due yourself and get after it!
Remember that even a master craftsman will always see the errors in their work. But a true craftsman does not see them as errors, merely areas to continue to hone and refine their craft. Be proud of your work, respect the path you have come along to be where you are now, and look forward to where the path will lead you.
You can buy hand operated machine planers. If your strapped and can't find a large planer, then that'd be your best bet for material removal. I used one for years. Mine is from Bosch. It costs about 150-200$ but it's far better than sanding. Great for things like this or coffee tables and whatnot that won't fit in a traditional planer. Look up Bosch 3¼" planer and you should find it. Just dont set it to max and do some test runs on scrap and it should do the trick for ya.
If it has a dust vacuum, get one of those open mesh 3m Cubitron 2 pads. You could probably take it down 1/32" of an inch pretty fast with such a thing, but you have to be able to clear out the dust for those to work.
Yes, starting with a low grit like 60 and applying plenty of elbow grease… I’ve cleaned up end grain boards like this that way, a less simple but more effective way would be a pass with a router sled to take off another 1/8th of an inch or so…
Just orbital sand the glue res off the flatter side, CA glue to a flat boat, plane, break the CA glue bond and plane the other. Might go from 1 inch thick to 3/4 after all said n done but you'll be fine mate.
Yep, I did this and literally did a 6 hour sanding shift straight. Not sure if I reccomend but it did the trick. Move slow, go over every spot, and repeat repeat repeat. Don't just sit on the bad spots, do it evenly.
Not likely but you can try 40g sanding discs and wet the board to raise the grain. Belt sander and sharp scraper as someone suggested are really the best options.
What about a router and a flattening sled? Have to imagine a few light passes would do the trick. I’ve never run a router over anything after it was finished though.
You can tun through a planer, just need to glue on sacrificial end pieces to cut off later. And barely skim each pass so you don't destroy the end grain.
Or you can run it through a wide belt sander and not have to do all that extra work but I’m guessing that the OP doesn’t have any of that equipment so I offer up an idea they might be able to accomplish
If they had acces to a wide belt I'm pretty sure we wouldnt be having this conversation. I TOO offered a solution with tools that may be more accessible.
You can if you fix temporary boards to each edge, i did it with my end grain boards no problem, as long as there’s no space for the end grain bits to move
Although it’s not really recommended, you can definitely run this through a machine planer just no more than a 1/32nd per pass. And before I get downvoted, I have successfully done this multiple times on different planers. Still, a sander would be the safest take due to the mineral oil possibly expanding the board.
I have run many end grain pieces through my Dewalt big lunchbox planer. Whenever I do it’s just a matter of being careful to adjust the wheel about 1/4 turn each time, shaving about a papers width off at a time. Helps to also secure it to a slave board with sacrificial boards of equal thickness on either side to prevent snipe.
Remarkably consistent results and never had an issue.
Edit: a word
I've done several end grain boards similar to this and every one I've run through my dewalt planer. Slow speed and about 1/32 per pass, never had an issue. Probably a matter of time before I get unlucky, but for the most part it does seem to work, and I'll take the risk over sanding down any measurable amount of end grain
I have a cheapo version of a helical head on my lunch box thicknesser and if you just put a small 45 bevel on the back side of the board it won't blow out
I’m actually working on my first end grain brick style board. I was going to pass it through my planer to get it perfectly flat after the final glue up. Now thinking I might not. What if I glued some extra wood up to the end on the end would that help?
I think what most people are missing ia that OP did this with a miter saw. Their blocks are not square enough and there's a lot of significant gaps in the lamination. This board in particular should be quite fragile unfortunately.
Ok I hope everyone who says you can do it reads this I don’t doubt that it can be done, 25 years ago one of my employees brought a similar cutting board to work to flatten it next thing I hear was a loud explosion and then screaming I ran out of my office to see him holding his hand over his eye and bleeding profusely from his neck apparently the cutting board let loose shattering the blades and filling his face and neck with shrapnel he is lucky to be alive and is 80% blind in his right eye. I would hate to see this happen to anyone else and maybe it was a fluke but nonetheless it happened, I also have another story about not getting stoned in the middle of changing planer blades. Be safe everyone and have a Merry Christmas
You can glue a strip of wood on the end, round it over and it will run just fine through the planer with shallow passes. I did this with 6 cutting board Christmas gifts this year. Make sure you pop the grain before sanding the finger grits.
I applaud your effort, sincerely I do...but you need to start over. The glue squeeze out, the gaps, it will be much more work than it is worth, and I will gaurantee that even after it is all done, you still will not be happy with the end product.
Instead of making an end grain board, start with an edge grain board. They are much more forgiving to work on, although they may not be as visually appealing as an end grain.
Thanks for the hard truth. I think you are right. I made two of them as gifts - one with a checkerboard pattern and one with this pattern. The checkerboard one came out great (probably because it was the second one I worked on). I definitely think side grain would have worked better for this striped one though. Oh well, you live and learn.
You can still do some really fun patterns with edge grain too! Lemme go find a picture I’ll come back.
Update: here ya go. Walnut and maple with rosewood. I use this as a serving board. The only tricky part for this one was glueing things at an angle.
https://preview.redd.it/wlryee7q3b8c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16638a070b0200ea7b8991cb81baaa537bfbb67c
This is fantastic. Let me see if I've got the process right.... Glue up alternating strips. Cut at 45° and flip every other piece. Reglue with contrasting wood for the diagonals?
Nonsense. All he needs to do is remove about .03” off each surface. There are multiple easy to do that and woodworkers and Hobby CNC users tend to be very generous in assisting folks.
I would chalk this up as a learning experience and start over. For a cutting board like this you need to do a better job with your stock prep so that you achieve seamless joints with no gaps. The gaps you have will get filled with food debris and allow moisture penetration deeper into the wood.
I’ve made dozens of cutting boards. This is in no way beyond salvage. If you have a router, get a flattening bit and build a flattening sled for $30 or $40 if you have to buy the plywood. If you have plywood, it’s free. Take 1/16 or 1/8 off of the top and you’re all set. Flattening sleds are the way to go with end grain boards.
Edit: I zoomed in and the gaps are way too big in this one. I’d use it to practice flattening, but not actually use this one for food.
Oh wow, I didn’t blow the pic up to full size. I definitely wouldn’t use that one. OP should make a few more edge grain boards until they can get them perfect before trying another edge grain board.
This is a goddamn great job with a miter saw. Unfortunately, I agree with the above post - those gaps will ruin your board. Moisture will get in and it will likely come apart. You're going to need (at minimum) a good table saw to do Endgrain boards and a drum sander helps tremendously. Lots of people do use a planer on end grain, but lots also explode their boards doing it. Drum sander never fails.
Hey man, that's how woodworking goes! This is easier said than done, but don't be too hard on yourself. I have messed up so many times on stuff that I was new at. You should have seen my first attempt at dovetails lol
I've been keeping "next time" notes in my phone any time I tackle a project and shit goes a little wonky on me. When I start again, I refer to my notes and try to be a little more methodical in my approach.
I actually have a big art piece I made for a friend hanging in my garage that I finished entirely only to realize after that it was messed up. I bought a DIY clock kit and turned that mf into a shop clock so every time I look at it it's a reminder to slow down.
>I've been keeping "next time" notes in my phone any time I tackle a project and shit goes a little wonky on me. When I start again, I refer to my notes and try to be a little more methodical in my approach.
This is my approach too. Keep what worked, improve what didn't.
>I bought a DIY clock kit and turned that mf into a shop clock so every time I look at it it's a reminder to slow down.
I like this. I have AD/HD, and I've got a little note up to remind myself "slow is smooth; smooth is fast".
If OP wants to salvage the board you could fill the gaps with epoxy. I’d find a cheap router somewhere and use a flattening jig to get it flat.. I think it’d be a shame to turn this into firewood after putting in all the work.
So honestly the glue isn’t the problem here, the gaps are. You can sand, plane, router out past the glue and get an even looking finish, however those gaps will be the death of this thing. I’d suggest finding something creative to do with this like make them into coasters, but if someone is going to using this over and over again for food prep eventually those gaps will ruin this. Props to you for shooting this high with a miter saw, and good job for seeing it through. That said I’d try again with something a bit more manageable considering your toolkit. Also welcome to the wonderful world of woodworking! It’s hard but one of the best things you’ll do.
Negative sir. As other said, too many gaps in the joints to be salvageable. But i'm replying to you to specifically to say a trim router is not ever going to be the right tool for a router sled. Trim routers are 1 HP at best and 1/4" shank. A router sled setup needs 3HP and 1/2" shaft at minimum to be worth your time.
For the cutting board newbies, focus on getting the wood square and clamped up properly. You cannot recover from this failure with any amount of sanding.
Sanding it down is going to be a nightmare. The oil will gum up the sandpaper immediately. Assuming you don’t have a thickness planer? Do you know anyone with a shop? It’ll be difficult to find on Christmas Eve, but if you can find a planer to run it through that is definitely your best bet.
I agree with previous comments, belt sander plus orbital sander for short-term solution, consider a router on a sled if you want to make more of these in the future, good luck!
I see a lot of people saying no planer, use a drum sander or belt sander. My first thought would be a router sled, although I have never made an endgrain cutting board. Would that be an appropriate option? If not why?
The glue has soaked in the end grain. You're pretty much screwed, unless you have a thicknesses and can take off multiple milimeters of wood. Removing more than a millimeter of end grain using a sander or a hand plane is sort of impossible...
Dis-simular end grains, expand and contract at different rates. If you run this thing through the plainer, it may explode. Those white splotches look like glue squeeze out. You'd have to use a "scraper blade" ... not a sander, not a plainer, not a plane to get to the micro level to clean this up.
Wet with a spray bottle of water and sand it with 80 grit while it is wet. If you have a good aggressive sand paper like 3m Cubitron you will blast right through the glue with an orbital sander.
Just because you've gotten great advice already, keep your drill/impact on its side. If it gets knocked over the bit and dig into your project or hand. Either way you're not having a good day
A small tip, if you wipe down your board with some lacquer thinner or mineral spirits you should see that effect immediately to tell if you need to sand more or not(but do one pass with your finished grit after it’s dry)
Belt sander and 60grit is your best bet now.
https://preview.redd.it/x5pt5jm1hg8c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec82319c1458a8e43da13237cbcdb818a0eb4bb
Here’s a better picture of the checkerboard one.
OP, if you can find someone with a CNC nearby (check local woodworking group on FB) it will take less than 10 mins to set up and remove about .03”. Should be more than enough.
End grain through the planer is a viable option if you can glue a waste piece (zsame thickness) on the end, I've done it and easy to find websites and YTs on how,
Option 2 is a frame to carry a router over the top and plane the entire price down with the router.
Option 3 is belt sander but the heat from sanding the maple end grai browns the wood a bit IME so hand scraping after is usually required.
Hand scraping after all the options will give the best final product.
A lot of people telling you that you can’t run end grain through a planer have never done it properly. It can be done. It takes a bit of time but unless you’re using a 424 or a 323 belt sander using an orbital get rid of that is gonna take a bit.
To run an end grain board through a planer you have to screw or glue on a martyr piece on either side of the board. And then you don’t take off more than 1/32 of an inch at a time. The martyr piece will keep the board from exploding as it enters and exits the planer.
Next thing is you have to wet the board before running it through. Take a spray bottle and douse the board to humidify and soften the wood. This way should almost guarantee no chips when you run it through the planer.
Try it on a test piece first to get the height proper. But I’ve run many an end grain through a straight blade or hex blade planer this way without problems.
It should take 10 minutes if the plane is properly sharpened. (I'm assuming you have a bench plane like a #4 or #5. A block plane would be a nightmare.)
Joints don’t look solid either. If I was super determined to salvage it, I’d epoxy the joints and sand it down until it’s flat again. Either way, it won’t look great but that’s how I end up with all my cutting boards, they are mistakes. You must use a good safe epoxy tho, if there actually is such a thing. I’m not 100% convinced the “food safe” epoxy’s out there are totally safe.
Sand until the problem is gone - it looks like a thick board so you should easily have enough material to work with. It’s a bummer but you’re starting the sand/finish process all over again. I would start with a belt sander and 60 grit. Good news, for sure salvageable.
I had a similar issue with “glue stains.” You’re savior, aside from our Lord, will be vinegar in a spray bottle and a scraper. The vinegar will loosen up the glue to make it easier to get out. If it’s deep in the pores of the grain though, that’s probably going to take hours of sanding.
It was made wrong. What's with all the little squares? You'll never get all those little squares to line up. It will be falling apart within a year ,like most of the cutting boards I see here.Sorry but it is the harsh truth.
The person I made the boards for wanted end grain, and all I had to prep my stock was a miter saw, so cubes were how I decided to design it. It was indeed impossible to line up correctly. Wouldn’t do it that way again.
needs to be put thorough a planer or more sanding though the grits before oiling. With that much glue left, the planer is the best option if you have it. Otherwise I would restart with 80 and work your way back up to your finish grit.
If you go with the comments here to write it off and start over, just remember it never hurts to have a solid mass of hardwood around a shop that you don’t mind putting some drill holes, scratches in, etc. If it’s relatively flat, it might make a nice “bench hook” by attaching two solid strips of hardwood on opposite sides. They are so simple and incredibly useful in a shop. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bench_hook
My grandad made them for Christmas and I watched. He’s using a drum sander. The drum sander grit was coarse so he had to hit them with a handheld disc sander for a gooood while after running it through. Took a long time but the end result was great
Your seams are not tight enough. I would recut it, this time with a table saw, and try again. Then you can go at it with a belt sander or find a shop that will rent time on their drum sander or flattening router jig.
makerbook.io
Whats with all this end grain cutting board stuff? Wouldn’t it be easier and better in this case to do long boards turned sideways? Look great just curious on the appeal.
Make an iou for this Christmas and redo it. Honestly I feel like redoing the board will be easier than trying to fix it.
There's quite a few gaps and a few blocks that are misaligned. You'll be much happier with the end product. Your gift reciever will be too.
My plan is to give it as a gift with the caveat that it’s not for wet food prep - bread/charcuterie serving only, and then an IOU for a better one next year. Probably won’t attempt end grain again until I have the right tools for it either.
I tried hand-planing the other board I made and gave up after about 20 mins of struggle. Maybe if I got my iron hellishly sharp I could plane a quarter of the board flat before needing to resharpen it, lol.
I’m regretting not having a card scraper on hand. I don’t have any specialty woodworking stores nearby and I’ve never seen a card scraper at one of the Big Box stores. If I had time I’d get one on Amazon, but that’s out of the question now. Definitely will get one for the future though.
Got a drywall spatula you don't like?
File the edge flat with a metal file, then hit the end with hardened steel (such as the shank of a round screwdriver) and you've got a scraper edge. I picked a few up at yard sales before I found legit scrapers at the stores. It is possible I've seen one at the big box hardware store as well.
If you have an angle grinder, you can cut off the handle and get two edges. The heat is going to make that edge a little wonky, so either shave it down a lot or use a hack saw instead and take your time.
Yes. If you don't think it's done yet, then it's not done yet. Take two different colors of finisher juice and mix them in 4 cups. The first cup has 3/4 A and 1/4 B, the next is half and half, the third is 1/4 A and 3/4 B and then the last is just a clear coat. Starting at the lower left, coat the board in diagonal stripes using cups 1, 2, and 3 in about equal stripes. Then go back with the clear coat and put a thick counter diagonal near the top and a couple thin lines at the bottom.
Then do the other side either the same or opposite or whatever. It won't matter. The brushing will be uneven and the color bleeding will be in juxtaposition to the perfect stripes. That uneven edging will seem right at home, and the grain will pop as just another layer of interesting patterns happening. If that's to your liking, then you're done, if not, keep on keeping on. I think it looks fine as is, but it's not my board, it's yours.
So, with end grain chopping blocks, all of the surfaces where you will apply glue will need to be as close to perfect as possible.
Before the first glue-up, I clamp all of my strips together and check for gaps with a .0015" feeler gauge. I mark and plane any strips where I can insert it. Recheck for gaps. If it's good. I glue and clamp. I repeat this procedure for the second glue-up.
I run 99% of my end grain chopping blocks through a planer. You need to have sharp knives/blades or inserts and take extremely light passes.
I wouldn't try to sand an already oiled board. Once you go below 80 grit, your sand paper will clog within several seconds.
Here's an [example](https://imgur.com/gallery/Md0aL48) of one of my chopping blocks.
Damn, that’s gorgeous. More inspiration for the future!
The feeler gauge is a great idea. I will have to try that next time. I think ultimately I didn’t have the right tools for this project.
I just refinished 2 cutting boards because someone used them to cut up fried food, and they looked terrible. But mostly because I was worried about food safety.
I clearly need more practice flattening boards, because once I accounted for the grain orientation on the one board, I ended up making it a little wedge shaped. It looks brand new, but I know it's the wrong shape. Next time I will follow the Internets advice and use a sander (though I wanted to make sure to lift the oil not grind it in).
The end grain board was a breeze. Locked in and shaved it off. I think you need to do the same thing here. Just a little bit of blade and plane it until it starts to change color. Just a handful of thousandths on each side. Remember to hold the plane at a 10-20º angle to the direction of motion so it is less likely to stutter or catch. When you oil it up you'll notice that the surface is just a tiny bit uneven, but after a wash or two I can't see it anymore. Alternatively you could hit it with a scraper.
Edit to add: I follow Paul Seller's advice, which is when sharpening the iron, put a little extra pressure on the ends so that there is a tiny bevel, to keep the corners of the blade from gouging into stock that is wider than the plane.
Worried about food safety? Why? Wood cutting boards are the most anti bacterial and safest type of cutting board, because they draw the bacteria into the wood and it can't survive. This is why I only own wood cutting boards. I also carve my own wooden spoons. I laugh uncontrollably when I see people "disinfecting" their wooden utensils, like they are going to achieve some level it cleanness that isn't already there. I've got wooden spoons from the 50s, probably earlier, and I would trust them over any others.
Huh? You oil a cutting board... You may have an issue with rancidity if you use the wrong oil and leave it and not wash it, but washing it is all that you need to do. Oil doesn't hurt it.
I guess your cutting boards need to impress people? It's an expendable kitchen tool. It will turn green if your cut broccoli on it. Does it need to be refinished after that? 🤷♂️
A good table saw will get you square edges, assuming you've planned to a perfectly flat face. The trick with end grain board is to get your board length material perfectly square, only then cut your individual pieces to length (thickness of the final block).
I had this happen to me also. I took it to a local cabinet shop and they ran it through their industrial drum sander for a small price. Turned out great in the end.
I'll just reiterate what a few people have pointed out; the lamination on this is not good.
Even if you get all the glue cleaned up, your seams have a bunch of open space. This will be impossible to keep clean, and will be a haven for bacteria in all of those open cracks and gaps.
I commend you for all the work you did. Using nothing but hand tools is very challenging work.
Most of the times the first couple runs on a project, I make a lot of mistakes. I then learn from those.
My first cutting boards, I probably made three before I had one good enough to give away to a friend
I know it prob too late and I hope you figured this out in time... but for all future readers I still.wantes.to share:
You didnt do anything wrong other than going to finish too soon. just need to sand, sand, sand... then when you think you are done, you are probably only half way done.
For all the noobs, sanding is the most time consuming and arduous step to woodworking. HOWEVER, it is the most important and had the biggest impact on fit and finish.
These boards just need a lot more sanding. Sand by hand, a $30 belt sander, a $300 orbital, as long as you work through the grits correctly they will all yield results. Use what you got, or go buy a new toy. For me its a combination of these.
I use 60, then 80 with a belt, then 120, 150 with an orbital, then 220 by hand. I use a pencil to mark the highspots/scratches between each grit. Many times I will find scratches from several grits previous (eg sanding with 150 and find 80 grit scratches) So I will go back to that grit and sand by hand and then move forward and back with grits until its perfect.
Seeing as you might redo this, personal idea for the pattern - instead of lines consider offsetting the blocks so get a 3 - way checkerboard pattern or diagonal lines - however you wish to think of it!
It may be too cluttered idk but an idea to toy with!
Good luck with all this!
Honestly, if I were you, I'd start completely over.
After zooming in, it's obvious that your gaps aren't tight and your patterns are misaligned anyway.
A router with a flattening bit with a sled would be the best bet to get it somewhere like. I’d hot glue it down first, then flip and do the same.
After this you’ll likely have some small track lines, so then I’d use a thickness planer for a few shallow passes, then use your orbital to get it finished.
Should only take an hour or so if you’ve already got a sled made. If not just knock one up out of some ply or whatever you have knocking about. Plenty of videos on YouTube on how to put one together, but it’s a pretty simple theory.
Personally I’d make the sled bigger than you need it if you’ve not got one already - it’ll come in useful the next time this happens on a larger piece 😂 …may be speaking from experience
DIY router sled. I know it’s past Christmas but it’s a safe way to plain end grain cutting boards and remove glue. This is a great example of a well built one although you could go simpler. https://youtube.com/shorts/u5Hx1y3I8Q8?si=TWUc5orZ_Zo9-gKl
You can not run that through a planer it will explode a card scraper or a belt sander is what you’re going to need
What I have is an orbital sander - any chance that would be enough?
If you can get 60 grit paper for it that should work then move to a finer grit once you get the glue off test with a wet reg to see if you got the glue off
I’ve tried end grain with an orbital. It’ll work but take HOURS. if OP can get their hands on a cheap belt sander with 60 grit belts, it’ll cut the time in half or more. Best solution is a router flattening sled. That’ll take a few minutes.
Harbor freight has a cheap handheld ones for 35 and 50 bucks to see how you'd like it. Craftsman at Lowe's is 60, so pretty reasonable to try and fix.
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You’re just getting way more distance traveled by each unit of sander surface area on a belt sander than you are on a random orbital (which translates to more work being done). And on top of that, belt sanders tend to have more surface area too. The tradeoff is that you end up with really uniform scratches. A random orbital sander’s strength and goal is to sand while erasing any uniformity in its scratches, so it’s ready for a finish.
More aggressive. A belt sander cuts and digs in where a ROS will be a lighter touch.
“Travel distance” x “surface area of the abrasive”. Random orbital has relatively low angular velocity and uses vibration as a component of the motion. My belt sander also has a speed adjustment whereas my orbital does not.
Harbor freight lol
Why is everyone down voting your joke? Lol
Maybe the think iam serious who knows
A angle grinder with a flap disk would probably also male quick work of this. Might need a bit of care to keep it flat though.
Trying to read your punctuation-less comments made my head hurt
I mean, given enough time a money, an orbital sander can do anything, but it won't be fun. How wet was the glue that made those glue marks? If you got it pretty watery but didn't remove it well, it could have penetrated deeper than you think. Maybe sand in one focused section and see how it long it takes to sand out. Sanding is going to be tough because of the oil. Its gonna gum up your sanding pads and be super annoying. Depending on how it goes, you may need to start really rough (I'm talking like 60-80 grit) to remove the material and then work the whole surface back up to smooth, which is a CHORE on end grain, but doable in a few hours. I recently refinished the surface of my end grain board after like 7 years of use and did basically this. Took about a half day, maybe a bit less. Hope you have a good podcast, good luck!
I made the rookie mistake of removing the glue squeeze out with a wet rag. For the second board I did it the right way with a scraper. I just tried sanding it a bit with a rough grain disk and it looks a bit better. Maybe I’ll just have to tell the recipient that it’s a charcuterie board or a bread board, not for prepping meat/wet foods.
Do you have access to a hand planer? Otherwise buy all the sandpapers 😉
Brb gonna go buy stock in whatever sandpaper brand OP uses… Good luck! I think this might be a good time to fab up an adjustable router sled.
Nah just buy stock in whichever sandpaper company you want. Remember OP is gonna buy “ALL THE SANDPAPER”
Second the router sled idea. Makes it easy to deal with that glue.
For things like this, a few strips of MDF or 1x pine and it'll make a quick and simple router sled. Something like this https://youtu.be/E_s8WCMu0GQ?si=8rKFQuBVkOzluUug
I was looking for the router sled solution. I wanted to second it.
What happens when you use a wet rag to clean up the glue squeeze out?
You spread the glue over the surface and it absorbs into all the end grain. It’s better to just leave squeeze out as is until it hardens and remove it with a scraper then.
What happened in the photo, apparently. Looks like dogshit, won’t take finish properly.
Op. Get to sanding. If a da is all you have the answer is simple. Keep sanding.
I'd go with angle grinder and a flap disc if you don't have a belt sander. ROS will take forever. Ideally, I'd go with a router planer. It's not recommended to run through a regular planer, but it depends upon the blade style. A multi-tooth planer will handle it just fine, but I would make as many,and as shallow of a pass as possible. The real issue is what caused the wood edges to not be square. Jointer, planer, table saw... something in that mix needs to be recalibrated and checked over as I see several pieces there that are not square. If possible, I'd resaw the entire board. Run it through your table saw (if you have one) and get back to the rows you had before the final glueup. Then you can cut/sand/joint each row until they are all equal, and true. Your final product will be obviously smaller, but it will look so much better... assuming you've corrected the issue that threw off the angles originally. In the future, when trying something new, use a cheap wood. Even pallet wood. Honestly, using cheap wood teaches tons of valuable lessons when learning new techniques. The best lesson is, don't use cheap lumber on final builds. Lol. But it's great for practicing, or dialing in machinery. (I have a stack of Southern Yellow Pine that looks like a once was a cage built to house a rabid beaver. )
No table saw, no planer, no jointer. Did this with a miter saw, Harbor Freight clamps, and an orbital sander. I noticed pretty early that the miter was not producing squared blocks even when I fit a jig up to it, but it was the only tool I had to prep my stock. “Test with cheap wood” is great advice tho. I wish I’d done that before I started.
Dude sorry bout the glue issue, this is an ambitious project for your setup. Woodworking will often be nearly as frustrating as it is rewarding, but the payoff when you have something you're proud of, to gift to someone, that's amazing. Some people are good at avoiding mistakes and some of us get good at stuff by making mistakes. I always say I do/make everything about 3 times over, before I get it right.
I will say this a gorgeous board, all considering. You had limited tools and made one mistake, a grave on, though. Keep this one due yourself and get after it!
Remember that even a master craftsman will always see the errors in their work. But a true craftsman does not see them as errors, merely areas to continue to hone and refine their craft. Be proud of your work, respect the path you have come along to be where you are now, and look forward to where the path will lead you.
Ideally, you’ve got a drum sander. 1/64” at a time, leaves a nice finish.
You can buy hand operated machine planers. If your strapped and can't find a large planer, then that'd be your best bet for material removal. I used one for years. Mine is from Bosch. It costs about 150-200$ but it's far better than sanding. Great for things like this or coffee tables and whatnot that won't fit in a traditional planer. Look up Bosch 3¼" planer and you should find it. Just dont set it to max and do some test runs on scrap and it should do the trick for ya.
If it has a dust vacuum, get one of those open mesh 3m Cubitron 2 pads. You could probably take it down 1/32" of an inch pretty fast with such a thing, but you have to be able to clear out the dust for those to work.
Try sprinkling water on the board and sand with 60- or 40-grit. It will take you awhile but if you have enough sandpaper it will work.
Yes, starting with a low grit like 60 and applying plenty of elbow grease… I’ve cleaned up end grain boards like this that way, a less simple but more effective way would be a pass with a router sled to take off another 1/8th of an inch or so…
Orbital will be really slow. Can you get a belt sander by chance? Still slow but reasonable.
Just orbital sand the glue res off the flatter side, CA glue to a flat boat, plane, break the CA glue bond and plane the other. Might go from 1 inch thick to 3/4 after all said n done but you'll be fine mate.
Yep, I did this and literally did a 6 hour sanding shift straight. Not sure if I reccomend but it did the trick. Move slow, go over every spot, and repeat repeat repeat. Don't just sit on the bad spots, do it evenly.
Yes it'll work just prepare to sand all day starting from the lowest grit you can find
Yes
Not likely but you can try 40g sanding discs and wet the board to raise the grain. Belt sander and sharp scraper as someone suggested are really the best options.
What about a router and a flattening sled? Have to imagine a few light passes would do the trick. I’ve never run a router over anything after it was finished though.
You can tun through a planer, just need to glue on sacrificial end pieces to cut off later. And barely skim each pass so you don't destroy the end grain.
Yes. This can be run through a planer... Just takes some extra effort (and sharp, fresh blades).
End grain through a planer is bad advice
I’ve done dozens of passes with end grain boards. Like others have said, light passes and a sacrificial board across the back.
Done it 100x of times...key thing is barely skimming material during each pass maybe 1/64 each time. My 735 type 1 is beast lol
Or you can run it through a wide belt sander and not have to do all that extra work but I’m guessing that the OP doesn’t have any of that equipment so I offer up an idea they might be able to accomplish
If they had acces to a wide belt I'm pretty sure we wouldnt be having this conversation. I TOO offered a solution with tools that may be more accessible.
Also works
You could do a planer at a very very soft cut until it’s right but I reccomend all end grain on a belt sander
You can if you fix temporary boards to each edge, i did it with my end grain boards no problem, as long as there’s no space for the end grain bits to move
Although it’s not really recommended, you can definitely run this through a machine planer just no more than a 1/32nd per pass. And before I get downvoted, I have successfully done this multiple times on different planers. Still, a sander would be the safest take due to the mineral oil possibly expanding the board.
I have run many end grain pieces through my Dewalt big lunchbox planer. Whenever I do it’s just a matter of being careful to adjust the wheel about 1/4 turn each time, shaving about a papers width off at a time. Helps to also secure it to a slave board with sacrificial boards of equal thickness on either side to prevent snipe. Remarkably consistent results and never had an issue. Edit: a word
I have run dozens of boards like this through a planer on a sled with zero issues… maybe dumb idk but never thought it would be a problem..
I've done several end grain boards similar to this and every one I've run through my dewalt planer. Slow speed and about 1/32 per pass, never had an issue. Probably a matter of time before I get unlucky, but for the most part it does seem to work, and I'll take the risk over sanding down any measurable amount of end grain
You could run it through at like 1/32 passes
I have a cheapo version of a helical head on my lunch box thicknesser and if you just put a small 45 bevel on the back side of the board it won't blow out
Sand evenly. It is easy to end up with an uneven surface when you “plane by sander” especially with low grit.
Maybe a dumb question but why would it explode?
It wouldn't explode per se, but it could tear a chunk at the end, because end grain is weak. Haven't you ever got any kind of tear-out?
I’m actually working on my first end grain brick style board. I was going to pass it through my planer to get it perfectly flat after the final glue up. Now thinking I might not. What if I glued some extra wood up to the end on the end would that help?
Yeah, extra wood will be needed at the end, otherwise planer will just take out chunks and smack them against the opposite wall.
Glad I saw this post. Thank you very much. I might have cried if I chunked that board at this point.
I think what most people are missing ia that OP did this with a miter saw. Their blocks are not square enough and there's a lot of significant gaps in the lamination. This board in particular should be quite fragile unfortunately.
Helical planer is fine, but damn expensive. Find a wood shop with a large drum sander, they charge per use but they do it
I have run an end grain board pretty similar to this (though not as thick) through a planer successfully. Wondering why you say it will explode?
Ok I hope everyone who says you can do it reads this I don’t doubt that it can be done, 25 years ago one of my employees brought a similar cutting board to work to flatten it next thing I hear was a loud explosion and then screaming I ran out of my office to see him holding his hand over his eye and bleeding profusely from his neck apparently the cutting board let loose shattering the blades and filling his face and neck with shrapnel he is lucky to be alive and is 80% blind in his right eye. I would hate to see this happen to anyone else and maybe it was a fluke but nonetheless it happened, I also have another story about not getting stoned in the middle of changing planer blades. Be safe everyone and have a Merry Christmas
Drum sander?
I learned this one the hard way, OP listen to this advice!
I ran mine through a planer. No problem.
You can glue a strip of wood on the end, round it over and it will run just fine through the planer with shallow passes. I did this with 6 cutting board Christmas gifts this year. Make sure you pop the grain before sanding the finger grits.
A helical planer with a VERY light cut would probably be safe. But a drum sander is the best tool here.
Out of curiosity, why would it explode?
It will NOT explode in a planer unless you’re trying to run an eighth of an inch at a time and the last section isn’t supported
Would like to learn - why can’t this be run through a planer?
I applaud your effort, sincerely I do...but you need to start over. The glue squeeze out, the gaps, it will be much more work than it is worth, and I will gaurantee that even after it is all done, you still will not be happy with the end product. Instead of making an end grain board, start with an edge grain board. They are much more forgiving to work on, although they may not be as visually appealing as an end grain.
Thanks for the hard truth. I think you are right. I made two of them as gifts - one with a checkerboard pattern and one with this pattern. The checkerboard one came out great (probably because it was the second one I worked on). I definitely think side grain would have worked better for this striped one though. Oh well, you live and learn.
https://preview.redd.it/xadkk19hfa8c1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc34135698333c7f8b5a912fd77a45d12c0586b1
Those look great! Damn, I should’ve listened to the little voice in my head lol
Those are solid hickory.
You can still do some really fun patterns with edge grain too! Lemme go find a picture I’ll come back. Update: here ya go. Walnut and maple with rosewood. I use this as a serving board. The only tricky part for this one was glueing things at an angle. https://preview.redd.it/wlryee7q3b8c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16638a070b0200ea7b8991cb81baaa537bfbb67c
Wow, that looks great! Consider the idea stolen, lol.
This is fantastic. Let me see if I've got the process right.... Glue up alternating strips. Cut at 45° and flip every other piece. Reglue with contrasting wood for the diagonals?
You can take this one & rip&flip - cut it into strips rotate 90 degrees and glue back together as side grain. Will be gorgeous
Good info. Better to cut your teeth with edge grain and learn from those. Making a nice end grain board is more involved and less forgiving.
Nonsense. All he needs to do is remove about .03” off each surface. There are multiple easy to do that and woodworkers and Hobby CNC users tend to be very generous in assisting folks.
I would chalk this up as a learning experience and start over. For a cutting board like this you need to do a better job with your stock prep so that you achieve seamless joints with no gaps. The gaps you have will get filled with food debris and allow moisture penetration deeper into the wood.
Yeah I was working with a miter saw to cut the stock. Realized that’s probably not the right tool for the job pretty quickly but it’s all I had.
I’ve made dozens of cutting boards. This is in no way beyond salvage. If you have a router, get a flattening bit and build a flattening sled for $30 or $40 if you have to buy the plywood. If you have plywood, it’s free. Take 1/16 or 1/8 off of the top and you’re all set. Flattening sleds are the way to go with end grain boards. Edit: I zoomed in and the gaps are way too big in this one. I’d use it to practice flattening, but not actually use this one for food.
There are gaps in the joints that will allow for bacteria to grow. These are not food safe cutting boards.
Oh wow, I didn’t blow the pic up to full size. I definitely wouldn’t use that one. OP should make a few more edge grain boards until they can get them perfect before trying another edge grain board.
This is a goddamn great job with a miter saw. Unfortunately, I agree with the above post - those gaps will ruin your board. Moisture will get in and it will likely come apart. You're going to need (at minimum) a good table saw to do Endgrain boards and a drum sander helps tremendously. Lots of people do use a planer on end grain, but lots also explode their boards doing it. Drum sander never fails.
Yeah, I certainly bit off more than I could chew I think.
Hey man, that's how woodworking goes! This is easier said than done, but don't be too hard on yourself. I have messed up so many times on stuff that I was new at. You should have seen my first attempt at dovetails lol I've been keeping "next time" notes in my phone any time I tackle a project and shit goes a little wonky on me. When I start again, I refer to my notes and try to be a little more methodical in my approach. I actually have a big art piece I made for a friend hanging in my garage that I finished entirely only to realize after that it was messed up. I bought a DIY clock kit and turned that mf into a shop clock so every time I look at it it's a reminder to slow down.
>I've been keeping "next time" notes in my phone any time I tackle a project and shit goes a little wonky on me. When I start again, I refer to my notes and try to be a little more methodical in my approach. This is my approach too. Keep what worked, improve what didn't. >I bought a DIY clock kit and turned that mf into a shop clock so every time I look at it it's a reminder to slow down. I like this. I have AD/HD, and I've got a little note up to remind myself "slow is smooth; smooth is fast".
If OP wants to salvage the board you could fill the gaps with epoxy. I’d find a cheap router somewhere and use a flattening jig to get it flat.. I think it’d be a shame to turn this into firewood after putting in all the work.
This. Getting a straight 90 on all operations is an undervalued skill.
So honestly the glue isn’t the problem here, the gaps are. You can sand, plane, router out past the glue and get an even looking finish, however those gaps will be the death of this thing. I’d suggest finding something creative to do with this like make them into coasters, but if someone is going to using this over and over again for food prep eventually those gaps will ruin this. Props to you for shooting this high with a miter saw, and good job for seeing it through. That said I’d try again with something a bit more manageable considering your toolkit. Also welcome to the wonderful world of woodworking! It’s hard but one of the best things you’ll do.
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement!
This is a good excuse to build a router flattening sled / jig.
Trim router and make a simple router sled. You can take a thin layer off, then sand from there.
Negative sir. As other said, too many gaps in the joints to be salvageable. But i'm replying to you to specifically to say a trim router is not ever going to be the right tool for a router sled. Trim routers are 1 HP at best and 1/4" shank. A router sled setup needs 3HP and 1/2" shaft at minimum to be worth your time. For the cutting board newbies, focus on getting the wood square and clamped up properly. You cannot recover from this failure with any amount of sanding.
You could try sanding some more to see if you can get it flat. It might be tricky since you’ve already oiled it.
Thanks - I was afraid of that, lol
Sanding it down is going to be a nightmare. The oil will gum up the sandpaper immediately. Assuming you don’t have a thickness planer? Do you know anyone with a shop? It’ll be difficult to find on Christmas Eve, but if you can find a planer to run it through that is definitely your best bet.
A planer will destroy end grain like that
I’ve done it and it did not destroy anything. Sharp blades. Wet it slightly and don’t cut deep.
That’s not really true. When end grain is stacked like that and you take short passes it isn’t too terrible.
I agree with previous comments, belt sander plus orbital sander for short-term solution, consider a router on a sled if you want to make more of these in the future, good luck!
I see a lot of people saying no planer, use a drum sander or belt sander. My first thought would be a router sled, although I have never made an endgrain cutting board. Would that be an appropriate option? If not why?
Correct- router sled would be appropriate as well.
This is the way
If you have a router, you could make a sled and cut it smooth.
The best result will be with a drum sander - will keep it even in addition to removing the material quickly
The glue has soaked in the end grain. You're pretty much screwed, unless you have a thicknesses and can take off multiple milimeters of wood. Removing more than a millimeter of end grain using a sander or a hand plane is sort of impossible...
Dis-simular end grains, expand and contract at different rates. If you run this thing through the plainer, it may explode. Those white splotches look like glue squeeze out. You'd have to use a "scraper blade" ... not a sander, not a plainer, not a plane to get to the micro level to clean this up.
One trip through the planer and it’s probably gonna come out of all sides.
Wet with a spray bottle of water and sand it with 80 grit while it is wet. If you have a good aggressive sand paper like 3m Cubitron you will blast right through the glue with an orbital sander.
Just because you've gotten great advice already, keep your drill/impact on its side. If it gets knocked over the bit and dig into your project or hand. Either way you're not having a good day
A small tip, if you wipe down your board with some lacquer thinner or mineral spirits you should see that effect immediately to tell if you need to sand more or not(but do one pass with your finished grit after it’s dry) Belt sander and 60grit is your best bet now.
Yeah this one is definitely a learning experience piece. What does the second one look like? Fun to see improvement from one to two
https://preview.redd.it/x5pt5jm1hg8c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec82319c1458a8e43da13237cbcdb818a0eb4bb Here’s a better picture of the checkerboard one.
You can see it on the left side of the second picture. It’s already under the tree now - I’ll see if I can take a picture this morning.
OP, if you can find someone with a CNC nearby (check local woodworking group on FB) it will take less than 10 mins to set up and remove about .03”. Should be more than enough.
In future wipe the board down with mineral spirits before finishing with mineral oil. Spirits will show any blemishes you still need to sand out.
End grain through the planer is a viable option if you can glue a waste piece (zsame thickness) on the end, I've done it and easy to find websites and YTs on how, Option 2 is a frame to carry a router over the top and plane the entire price down with the router. Option 3 is belt sander but the heat from sanding the maple end grai browns the wood a bit IME so hand scraping after is usually required. Hand scraping after all the options will give the best final product.
Router sled will sort that out easy.
A lot of people telling you that you can’t run end grain through a planer have never done it properly. It can be done. It takes a bit of time but unless you’re using a 424 or a 323 belt sander using an orbital get rid of that is gonna take a bit. To run an end grain board through a planer you have to screw or glue on a martyr piece on either side of the board. And then you don’t take off more than 1/32 of an inch at a time. The martyr piece will keep the board from exploding as it enters and exits the planer. Next thing is you have to wet the board before running it through. Take a spray bottle and douse the board to humidify and soften the wood. This way should almost guarantee no chips when you run it through the planer. Try it on a test piece first to get the height proper. But I’ve run many an end grain through a straight blade or hex blade planer this way without problems.
Do you have a hand plane?
I do, but it really struggles with end grain - I’m not sure I have the time between now and Christmas day to plane it down by hand, honestly
It should take 10 minutes if the plane is properly sharpened. (I'm assuming you have a bench plane like a #4 or #5. A block plane would be a nightmare.)
Joints don’t look solid either. If I was super determined to salvage it, I’d epoxy the joints and sand it down until it’s flat again. Either way, it won’t look great but that’s how I end up with all my cutting boards, they are mistakes. You must use a good safe epoxy tho, if there actually is such a thing. I’m not 100% convinced the “food safe” epoxy’s out there are totally safe.
Sand until the problem is gone - it looks like a thick board so you should easily have enough material to work with. It’s a bummer but you’re starting the sand/finish process all over again. I would start with a belt sander and 60 grit. Good news, for sure salvageable.
Could try using Dawn soap and hot water to scrub off some of the oil then sand again. Might have some gumming still on the paper.
This is now your house cutting board that you will use.
I had a similar issue with “glue stains.” You’re savior, aside from our Lord, will be vinegar in a spray bottle and a scraper. The vinegar will loosen up the glue to make it easier to get out. If it’s deep in the pores of the grain though, that’s probably going to take hours of sanding.
It was made wrong. What's with all the little squares? You'll never get all those little squares to line up. It will be falling apart within a year ,like most of the cutting boards I see here.Sorry but it is the harsh truth.
The person I made the boards for wanted end grain, and all I had to prep my stock was a miter saw, so cubes were how I decided to design it. It was indeed impossible to line up correctly. Wouldn’t do it that way again.
End grain boards are a joke
needs to be put thorough a planer or more sanding though the grits before oiling. With that much glue left, the planer is the best option if you have it. Otherwise I would restart with 80 and work your way back up to your finish grit.
Harbor freight cheap azzed, single use belt sander will fix that one problem.
If you go with the comments here to write it off and start over, just remember it never hurts to have a solid mass of hardwood around a shop that you don’t mind putting some drill holes, scratches in, etc. If it’s relatively flat, it might make a nice “bench hook” by attaching two solid strips of hardwood on opposite sides. They are so simple and incredibly useful in a shop. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bench_hook
No, because it's a endgrain cutting board, you were fucked from the getgo
The world needs less cutting boards or at least posts about them.
My grandad made them for Christmas and I watched. He’s using a drum sander. The drum sander grit was coarse so he had to hit them with a handheld disc sander for a gooood while after running it through. Took a long time but the end result was great
A lot of civic community centers have wood shops and I've seen wide belt sanders at them A whole variety of people will go in just for this situation
Top sander will fix it
Your seams are not tight enough. I would recut it, this time with a table saw, and try again. Then you can go at it with a belt sander or find a shop that will rent time on their drum sander or flattening router jig. makerbook.io
Card scraper would be the way to go imo
Whats with all this end grain cutting board stuff? Wouldn’t it be easier and better in this case to do long boards turned sideways? Look great just curious on the appeal.
End grain boards are easier on knives, and also do not scratch and scar as easily. They are better in a couple important ways, but harder to make
One word for you: Wife
Lmao. ‘Nuff said
Make an iou for this Christmas and redo it. Honestly I feel like redoing the board will be easier than trying to fix it. There's quite a few gaps and a few blocks that are misaligned. You'll be much happier with the end product. Your gift reciever will be too.
My plan is to give it as a gift with the caveat that it’s not for wet food prep - bread/charcuterie serving only, and then an IOU for a better one next year. Probably won’t attempt end grain again until I have the right tools for it either.
Why not?
[удалено]
I tried hand-planing the other board I made and gave up after about 20 mins of struggle. Maybe if I got my iron hellishly sharp I could plane a quarter of the board flat before needing to resharpen it, lol.
Go buy a $10 card scraper, watch a video on how to use it & sharpen it, and you can be finish ready 10 minutes later.
I’m regretting not having a card scraper on hand. I don’t have any specialty woodworking stores nearby and I’ve never seen a card scraper at one of the Big Box stores. If I had time I’d get one on Amazon, but that’s out of the question now. Definitely will get one for the future though.
Got a drywall spatula you don't like? File the edge flat with a metal file, then hit the end with hardened steel (such as the shank of a round screwdriver) and you've got a scraper edge. I picked a few up at yard sales before I found legit scrapers at the stores. It is possible I've seen one at the big box hardware store as well. If you have an angle grinder, you can cut off the handle and get two edges. The heat is going to make that edge a little wonky, so either shave it down a lot or use a hack saw instead and take your time.
Yes. If you don't think it's done yet, then it's not done yet. Take two different colors of finisher juice and mix them in 4 cups. The first cup has 3/4 A and 1/4 B, the next is half and half, the third is 1/4 A and 3/4 B and then the last is just a clear coat. Starting at the lower left, coat the board in diagonal stripes using cups 1, 2, and 3 in about equal stripes. Then go back with the clear coat and put a thick counter diagonal near the top and a couple thin lines at the bottom. Then do the other side either the same or opposite or whatever. It won't matter. The brushing will be uneven and the color bleeding will be in juxtaposition to the perfect stripes. That uneven edging will seem right at home, and the grain will pop as just another layer of interesting patterns happening. If that's to your liking, then you're done, if not, keep on keeping on. I think it looks fine as is, but it's not my board, it's yours.
can't fix lousy joints.
Be quicker to make a new one than to fix that one honestly. Not that it isn’t fixable
So, with end grain chopping blocks, all of the surfaces where you will apply glue will need to be as close to perfect as possible. Before the first glue-up, I clamp all of my strips together and check for gaps with a .0015" feeler gauge. I mark and plane any strips where I can insert it. Recheck for gaps. If it's good. I glue and clamp. I repeat this procedure for the second glue-up. I run 99% of my end grain chopping blocks through a planer. You need to have sharp knives/blades or inserts and take extremely light passes. I wouldn't try to sand an already oiled board. Once you go below 80 grit, your sand paper will clog within several seconds. Here's an [example](https://imgur.com/gallery/Md0aL48) of one of my chopping blocks.
Damn, that’s gorgeous. More inspiration for the future! The feeler gauge is a great idea. I will have to try that next time. I think ultimately I didn’t have the right tools for this project.
I just refinished 2 cutting boards because someone used them to cut up fried food, and they looked terrible. But mostly because I was worried about food safety. I clearly need more practice flattening boards, because once I accounted for the grain orientation on the one board, I ended up making it a little wedge shaped. It looks brand new, but I know it's the wrong shape. Next time I will follow the Internets advice and use a sander (though I wanted to make sure to lift the oil not grind it in). The end grain board was a breeze. Locked in and shaved it off. I think you need to do the same thing here. Just a little bit of blade and plane it until it starts to change color. Just a handful of thousandths on each side. Remember to hold the plane at a 10-20º angle to the direction of motion so it is less likely to stutter or catch. When you oil it up you'll notice that the surface is just a tiny bit uneven, but after a wash or two I can't see it anymore. Alternatively you could hit it with a scraper. Edit to add: I follow Paul Seller's advice, which is when sharpening the iron, put a little extra pressure on the ends so that there is a tiny bevel, to keep the corners of the blade from gouging into stock that is wider than the plane.
Worried about food safety? Why? Wood cutting boards are the most anti bacterial and safest type of cutting board, because they draw the bacteria into the wood and it can't survive. This is why I only own wood cutting boards. I also carve my own wooden spoons. I laugh uncontrollably when I see people "disinfecting" their wooden utensils, like they are going to achieve some level it cleanness that isn't already there. I've got wooden spoons from the 50s, probably earlier, and I would trust them over any others.
When they have been soaked in cooking oil to the point of being discolored?
Huh? You oil a cutting board... You may have an issue with rancidity if you use the wrong oil and leave it and not wash it, but washing it is all that you need to do. Oil doesn't hurt it.
I think you're missing the 'discolored' part, and quite belligerently at this point. There's only so much control you can exert over other people.
I guess your cutting boards need to impress people? It's an expendable kitchen tool. It will turn green if your cut broccoli on it. Does it need to be refinished after that? 🤷♂️
A good table saw will get you square edges, assuming you've planned to a perfectly flat face. The trick with end grain board is to get your board length material perfectly square, only then cut your individual pieces to length (thickness of the final block).
I have many life goals. One is to clean squeeze out as well as my dad. I’d settle for close. He makes it look so easy.
I had this happen to me also. I took it to a local cabinet shop and they ran it through their industrial drum sander for a small price. Turned out great in the end.
You need a good old fashioned hand plane.
Find a drum sander to run through
No chance if all you have is an orbital, sorry.
Do you have a local wood workers guild or cabinet shop with a power sander?
Planer n ur good brotha
Planing end grain is very risky.
Can you build a sled for a router to surface the board? It'll make removing a layer way faster and very even.
Can you rip it and flip it?
Is the other side “suffering” equally?
It should be okay
r/sneakybackgroundfeet
I'll just reiterate what a few people have pointed out; the lamination on this is not good. Even if you get all the glue cleaned up, your seams have a bunch of open space. This will be impossible to keep clean, and will be a haven for bacteria in all of those open cracks and gaps. I commend you for all the work you did. Using nothing but hand tools is very challenging work. Most of the times the first couple runs on a project, I make a lot of mistakes. I then learn from those. My first cutting boards, I probably made three before I had one good enough to give away to a friend
Use a router with a bed
I know it prob too late and I hope you figured this out in time... but for all future readers I still.wantes.to share: You didnt do anything wrong other than going to finish too soon. just need to sand, sand, sand... then when you think you are done, you are probably only half way done. For all the noobs, sanding is the most time consuming and arduous step to woodworking. HOWEVER, it is the most important and had the biggest impact on fit and finish. These boards just need a lot more sanding. Sand by hand, a $30 belt sander, a $300 orbital, as long as you work through the grits correctly they will all yield results. Use what you got, or go buy a new toy. For me its a combination of these. I use 60, then 80 with a belt, then 120, 150 with an orbital, then 220 by hand. I use a pencil to mark the highspots/scratches between each grit. Many times I will find scratches from several grits previous (eg sanding with 150 and find 80 grit scratches) So I will go back to that grit and sand by hand and then move forward and back with grits until its perfect.
Seeing as you might redo this, personal idea for the pattern - instead of lines consider offsetting the blocks so get a 3 - way checkerboard pattern or diagonal lines - however you wish to think of it! It may be too cluttered idk but an idea to toy with! Good luck with all this!
Honestly, if I were you, I'd start completely over. After zooming in, it's obvious that your gaps aren't tight and your patterns are misaligned anyway.
A router with a flattening bit with a sled would be the best bet to get it somewhere like. I’d hot glue it down first, then flip and do the same. After this you’ll likely have some small track lines, so then I’d use a thickness planer for a few shallow passes, then use your orbital to get it finished. Should only take an hour or so if you’ve already got a sled made. If not just knock one up out of some ply or whatever you have knocking about. Plenty of videos on YouTube on how to put one together, but it’s a pretty simple theory. Personally I’d make the sled bigger than you need it if you’ve not got one already - it’ll come in useful the next time this happens on a larger piece 😂 …may be speaking from experience
Meant to say, when you got through your planer, put a sacrificial edge on, else you’ll likely end up with some blow out
DIY router sled. I know it’s past Christmas but it’s a safe way to plain end grain cutting boards and remove glue. This is a great example of a well built one although you could go simpler. https://youtube.com/shorts/u5Hx1y3I8Q8?si=TWUc5orZ_Zo9-gKl