This is a project I found on another website about a year ago and had it on my to do list. The creator of the board design and ripping jig is a gentleman that goes by the handle of SPALM. A truly talented and engenius individual. The clamping jig is my own design and has only been tested on scrap material and so far it seems to work well. The following pics are the beginning steps of this project and I will up date as time allows.

The first pic is of the ripping jig. Stock preparation is very critical. The blade is set to 30 deg and the stock was surface sanded on my drum sander to 3/4" (I don't own a planner). In order for this to work the ripped stock wide flat must be exactly 2X the narrow flat and 30 deg angles on the sides. I started out with poplar and crept up on the ripped width and test fitted 3 pieces until I had tight joints.

The board material is Walnut, Cherry & Maple cut to 24" lengths prior to ripping.

Once the stock was milled I set out trying to figure out how best to clamp the pieces. For this clamping fixture I laminated 3 pieces of MDF together 24" in length with glue and decking screws then ripped the laminated MDF 30 deg. I then wrapped these two sections and a base piece with heavy duty packing tape. I the attached one of the laminated pieces to the base board and screwed that in place with 2" decking screws. Once assembled I attempted a test glue up on some poplar.

The last pic shows the hard woods set into the clamping jig. I labeled the ends of the cheery and maple stock in order to set the pieces in correct orientation. This is critical in order to achieve the 3d look.

http://api.ning.com:80/files/xVbOlYXthQqgJmRnCqRqGCnCZEVU7P8q-0uNJqbKHvpoMMzG09ev6iH7ppalBxN8kKEbvr7Sm2KvJnxh*Vfb8hMlSjmraMo6/DSCN0024.JPG' target="_self">

I will post more pics as progress takes place. Thanks for  viewing. And Thanks again SPALM! 

Okay you have peaked my interest. I am following along.

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Mike this has my interest piqued also. I look forward to seeing the finished piece.

 

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Round Barn WoodCrafts, Plymouth WI
roundbarnwoodcrafts@hotmail.com

Excellent Mike! And great pictorial. I know these take a lot of work. Your right, an ingenious jig it is and I can appreciate the nice work that was put into building the jig as well as the work it was made for. Following along as well man!

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

I'll be gluing up a few sections in the morning after work and hopefully I'll have some progress in a few days.

I am a regular follower of Steve's (SPalm) work. He makes some fantastic cutting boards. Can't wait to see your versions!!

Lew

Mike,

That is an awesome design.  Looking forward to seeing more.

SQ

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Happiness is wood chips flying!

The glue up begins! After doing a little research I was able to find a suitable glue for this cutting board which would give me enough open clamp time and still be approved for indirect food contact and exterior use. Tightbond II EXTEND allows for plenty of open time, FDA approved (although you wont find it in their literature), and is suitable for exterior applications. Titebond II or III skins over just a bit to quickly for this glue up.

 

The prep work begins by determining the correct stack up of the 3 different woods and the applying blue painters tape to the surfaces that are not to receive glue. Once the glued up pieces are in the clamping fixture you wont be able to clean the squeeze out but by adding the tape it keeps the squeeze out off of areas you don't want glue.

I use an ink roller to evenly apply a thin layer of glue to the pieces. You only need enough to cover the surface being glued and allow for a very small amount of squeeze out. The piece to the left is the first section that has been glued up. Once all the surfaces are glued it's into the clamp fixture for 2 to 3 hours or until the glue is dry. I apply a layer of glue to a piece of scrap material and monitor this for dryness. Once the assembly is dried I remove it and wait 24 hours before cutting to board thickness.

This fixture is working very well and makes what would otherwise be a tedious and difficult glue up a simple process. I'm off for the next 6 days so hopefully I'll be able to get a finished board in a few days. I should be able to post pics of the next process which will be cross cutting the sections into board thickness and gluing up the sub-assemblies before the final glue up and the surface sanding and finish application. My Jet drum sander has been a God send for this work. Ill keep you posted as progress allows. Thanks for viewing!

The saga continues. First off the clamping jig worked very well. The next step was to build a 30 deg cross cut jig for one of my sleds, then I cross cut the field pieces to 1.125" thick. I didn't mention earlier in order for the 3D effect to work there are 2 arrangements of the 3 woods that make up the triangle sticks and you glue up 2 of each patterns (see above pics) and these are crosscut for the field pieces.

Once the pieces are cut keep the patterns separate and label each piece according to wood species. I didn't label the walnut but the maple and cheery I did, this will help when laying out the pieces. Here are the pieces dry assembled and different views so you can see the 3D effect. The cheery doesn't show up as the medium color but I'm hoping it shows up better once the finish is applied and the 3D effect will be more evident. The next step is some light sanding and then glue up the sub assemblies but first I need to build a clamping jig. I'll post more as progress allows. All in all this is a lot of fun and stimulating as I figure out and build the jigs. Thanks for viewing!

http://api.ning.com:80/files/V0wYAHhvRJaMlwclRGAtsFZgm46cfw8Hl3grumjN3hCb1miz4JS3kGl3BCbQWiXYr-zgoGdhs9q2aoJn54fvBicSmbTakFTt/DSCN0038.JPG' target="_self">

The cross cut sled vertical plywood sections have web supports glued and screwed between them to add rigidity. The pics don't show them. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up a clamping jig for gluing the triangles together.

Do you think "clamping blocks"- the same length as the board- that have angled recesses to match the "triangular" edge of the board might work?

Mike Dillen said:

The cross cut sled vertical plywood sections have web supports glued and screwed between them to add rigidity. The pics don't show them. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up a clamping jig for gluing the triangles together.

Thanks Lewis! for your input and participation in this quest. I did think of that but I need to be able to adjust each triangle due to slight irregularities in order to have tight joints and so the wood joints intersect correctly. Any place that they don't line up will stick out. I found a few clamping jigs on the net and I will try those out with a few modifications. This is the most fun I've had with a project in a long time. The problem solving is stimulating.

 

Any and all ideas are certainly welcome!

There was a guy at "the other site" who posted a clamping jig for irregular shaped items. Did a search but couldn't find it now. Maybe it was removed.

Lew

Mike Dillen said:

Thanks Lewis! for your input and participation in this quest. I did think of that but I need to be able to adjust each triangle due to slight irregularities in order to have tight joints and so the wood joints intersect correctly. Any place that they don't line up will stick out. I found a few clamping jigs on the net and I will try those out with a few modifications. This is the most fun I've had with a project in a long time. The problem solving is stimulating.

 

Any and all ideas are certainly welcome!

I think I started a reply to this earlier and must have forgotten to post. Now where was I?

I love the design and the look it is getting. That is going to be a really good looking cutting board. You are doing a great job of documenting it also. Might want to think about making a blog out of it when you get it completed.

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Lewis I did find the one using bolts for each piece as levelers / clamps and I think that makes the most sense, it's simple to build with out a bunch of angled cuts, plus with the bolts I'll be able to tweak each piece individually before final clamp pressure is brought to bare. I'll be modifying it a bit, instead of having on bolt for each piece I'll use two so I have the flexibility for adjustment. Well I'm off to get "T" nuts and bolts. I'll post pics later when I have the clamp built.  

Lewis Kauffman said:

There was a guy at "the other site" who posted a clamping jig for irregular shaped items. Did a search but couldn't find it now. Maybe it was removed.

Lew

Mike Dillen said:

Thanks John I'll do that. I just hope it turns out as well as I'm hoping.

John Moody said:

I think I started a reply to this earlier and must have forgotten to post. Now where was I?

I love the design and the look it is getting. That is going to be a really good looking cutting board. You are doing a great job of documenting it also. Might want to think about making a blog out of it when you get it completed.

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Here's what I came up with for the triangle clamping jig. This is a jig I found on another website  Instead of one bolt per triangle I added a second bolt which allows me to tweak the triangles into alignment and I added thread protectors to prevent marring of the wood from the bolts. This jig will allow me to provide adequate clamping pressure to one row of triangles at a time. I have eight rows total so I made 2 jigs. Once all the rows are glued and cured I'll clamp up the rows with parallel clamps. Before assembly of the jig pieces I covered the base boards and the straight edges with heavy duty thick packing tape. All the hardware is standard 1/4 - 20 , and 3/8" bolts, "T" nuts, & thread protectors and available at most hardware stores. Hopefully I won't have to build anymore fixtures but these jigs will allow me to build these boards in less time in the future. Thanks for viewing! 

I made a couple of additions to the clamping jig. I added a piece of 3/8" cutting board material between the screw clamps. I also cut some strips from a flexible cutting mat I found at the dollar store and I added a small triangle block to each end clamp. I dry clamped all the pieces with these new additions and all but a few of the pieces and those I lightly sanded on a piece of belt sander paper that I cut and double sided taped to an MDF board. Once every joint was tight I added blue painters tape to all the edges that were not glued, clamped everything up added a caul with packing tape to the face and clamped with parallel clamps and after 4 hours I removed the assembly from the jig. All the joints are tight and the edges are flat. The cutting board material worked great, nothing sticks to this stuff. Now I just have 6 more to do. I should be able to assemble the final assembly tomorrow evening. Thanks for viewing!

That's the jig I was thinking of, but couldn't find. You must have bought every T-nut the big box store had!!

Lew

Mike Dillen said:

I made a couple of additions to the clamping jig. I added a piece of 3/8" cutting board material between the screw clamps. I also cut some strips from a flexible cutting mat I found at the dollar store and I added a small triangle block to each end clamp. I dry clamped all the pieces with these new additions and all but a few of the pieces and those I lightly sanded on a piece of belt sander paper that I cut and double sided taped to an MDF board. Once every joint was tight I added blue painters tape to all the edges that were not glued, clamped everything up added a caul with packing tape to the face and clamped with parallel clamps and after 4 hours I removed the assembly from the jig. All the joints are tight and the edges are flat. The cutting board material worked great, nothing sticks to this stuff. Now I just have 6 more to do. I should be able to assemble the final assembly tomorrow evening. Thanks for viewing!

Lewis I didn't buy all the "T" nuts but pretty close. "T" nuts ar indespensible for jigs and projects, I use them a lot.