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Lastly, I had a third clamp to the middle of the glue up just to ensure even clamping pressure.
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Let us just take a second or two to talk about glue. Now you can use just about any water resistant glue to glue up a cutting board. But since I like it to play it safe, I prefer a glue that is FTA approved for indirect food contact. So just Titebond 2 or even Titebond 3. Now here is some polyurethane glue is like gorilla glue, were also FTA approved but this glues are messy, sticky and there expensive. So I stick my time tested favorite Titebond 2.
Let us take a look at our glued up board. Now you see all these squeeze out over here. This is actually a good thing. It tells me that we have got good surface to surface contact at each on every joint. The last thing we want to on a cutting board is glue start joint. Now to get the excess glue off without creating more problems for ourselves later on, I recommend waiting about 30 minutes and then scrapping the glue off. This prevents the glue from spreading over the surface and into the adjacent grain.
Now well going to let this guy dry overnight before we actually start to smooth the surface.
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To flatten the glued up board I prefer to use my planer or my drum sander. But you could just as easily use a block plane, a scraper or a random orbit sander. Just make sure you get a nice flat surface.
Now we could not stop right here I mean this a pretty attractive board as it is but we are going to take this puppy to the next level by exposing the end grain to a second round of cuts.
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I would like to start by using my miter gauge to clean up one edge.
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And then start cutting the board into one and one quarter inch strips. Watch your hands. Be sure use your favorite push stick for this operation.
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When it is all set and done we should have eleven one and quarter inch strips.
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Now here is the really cool part. All we have to do is turn each piece to 90 degrees to expose the end grain. And we are actually going to create a very interesting pattern. Basically if you take every other strip, flip it around like this. We get the pattern we are looking for. Now all we need to do is glue this pieces together just like we did the first time.
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Spreading the glue this time is very simple, just turn every strip but the last one 90 degrees to the left.
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Spread the generous amount of glue over the entire surface.
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Then reassemble the boards on the clamps in the proper order.
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I would like to use a couple of my calls to make sure the boards are lined up perfectly and then I used them to keep the board flat as I add little bit a clamping pressure. Just like during the first cool up I used the tape covered calls on several clamps to keep the board nice and flat.
Now we have done our final glue up, we are going to let this guy sit in the clamps overnight. Now in part two of our podcast I will show you how to use a rounder to create some nice hand holds. And I will show you how to put the finishing touches on the cutting board.
Now the meantime do not forget to visit the website at www.thewoodwhisperer.com and if you have any question or comments please shoot as an email at the woodwhisperer@gmail.com. And do not forget to check out the Wood Whisperer Store. After producing each podcast I am going to update the stores so that it features specific items of interest from the most recent episode. So until next time, live long and prosper.
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