Day 8 - Catherine
Today was the last day of the Advanced Woodworking A-term and for us seniors the last day of Post Oak J/A Terms as a whole... On another note, I finally finished my cutting board! I had to veer a little from the original design but all in all, I am very happy with the final product and learned a lot in the process.
I started the day by gluing the handle back onto the cutting board with the longer clamps at school. This glue-up called for an additional extremely long waiting period for the glue to dry. Since I couldn’t finish my project just then I spent the morning roaming around the Tinkeria, watching Sutton try to saw off the excess wood from her project, and even started making the A-Term Presentation slides in an attempt to make the glue dry faster.
By the time we finished our lunch break, my cutting board was dry enough for the next step. Recalling yesterday’s incident, I hesitantly approached the router again. Mr. Grisbee wisely decided to stand on the left side of the router this time, clear from flying handles. He immediately rethought this decision though too and decided that he would try using the router again first. He began slowly guiding the board along the blade, sawdust was flying smoothly, everything was great and then all of a sudden I feel a SMACK in my arm and the handle is gone, AGAIN. So much for finishing the board without launching any more projectiles.
The board had spoken (pun intended): the handle had to go. I then cut off all remnants of the handle at the table saw. With my now rectangular cutting board, I used a different blade for the router to round all the edges of the board ever so slightly. I was happy to find this process a lot easier and less intimidating than actually trying to cut wood off with the router.
After I had finished rounding the edges, it was time to sand it smooth. Before doing this though, I filled in the microscopic gap (where a sliver broke apart after the glue-up) with some more glue and maple sawdust. Then I sanded the board with the 150mm, 220mm, and 320 mm sandpaper. The sanding took a decent amount of time because I had several charred edges from the router and there was also the thinnest sliver of wood that was leftover from the table saw cut that did not need to be there but was very resistant to sanding.
With the sanding complete, I was on to my last step: varnishing! This part was most exciting because the contrast and colors of the maple and walnut really came to light. I added one coat today and will add two more layers when I go back to school next week. And that marks the end of my project!
Side view of final board
I started the day by gluing the handle back onto the cutting board with the longer clamps at school. This glue-up called for an additional extremely long waiting period for the glue to dry. Since I couldn’t finish my project just then I spent the morning roaming around the Tinkeria, watching Sutton try to saw off the excess wood from her project, and even started making the A-Term Presentation slides in an attempt to make the glue dry faster.
By the time we finished our lunch break, my cutting board was dry enough for the next step. Recalling yesterday’s incident, I hesitantly approached the router again. Mr. Grisbee wisely decided to stand on the left side of the router this time, clear from flying handles. He immediately rethought this decision though too and decided that he would try using the router again first. He began slowly guiding the board along the blade, sawdust was flying smoothly, everything was great and then all of a sudden I feel a SMACK in my arm and the handle is gone, AGAIN. So much for finishing the board without launching any more projectiles.
The board had spoken (pun intended): the handle had to go. I then cut off all remnants of the handle at the table saw. With my now rectangular cutting board, I used a different blade for the router to round all the edges of the board ever so slightly. I was happy to find this process a lot easier and less intimidating than actually trying to cut wood off with the router.
After I had finished rounding the edges, it was time to sand it smooth. Before doing this though, I filled in the microscopic gap (where a sliver broke apart after the glue-up) with some more glue and maple sawdust. Then I sanded the board with the 150mm, 220mm, and 320 mm sandpaper. The sanding took a decent amount of time because I had several charred edges from the router and there was also the thinnest sliver of wood that was leftover from the table saw cut that did not need to be there but was very resistant to sanding.
With the sanding complete, I was on to my last step: varnishing! This part was most exciting because the contrast and colors of the maple and walnut really came to light. I added one coat today and will add two more layers when I go back to school next week. And that marks the end of my project!
Before and after varnish
Wow! Catherine. Your cutting board turned out beautiful. What an intricate design- it appears to be moving. I think Cheese, fruit, and crackers would be nice on it.
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