Does anyone have a simple way of sanding end grain cutting boards.  I'm flattening them out with a drum sander with 60 on it, which works pretty good but leaves lots of scratches.  I could switch the grit to a finer and hit them again, but I'm finding that the 100 or 120 burns pretty easy.  After the drum

Ron, I have seen the same thing. I flatten mine with 80 grit on the drum sander and I have put the 120 on but you have to take really light passes and make multiple passes before moving the handle. On the additional passes it will usually remove the burn places. Most of the time I am running mine though at least 3 times on the same setting before I move the handle down. With the higher grits I move the handle maybe less than an 1/8 turn and probably more like a 1/16 which is going to take off a very small amount.

Depending on have fast I need to clean one up, after the 80 grit on the drum sander I will switch to my belt sander at 100 grit and then 120 to remove the lines left by the 80 grit on the drum sander.

Sanding is the most labor intensive part of the putting the cutting boards together.

Simple? No.

End grain is hard and won't sand as easily as face grain. Some species of wood are worse than others when it comes to sanding and they will tend to burn more easily. So sanding endgrain boards is always a pain in the bee-hind.

I have a Jet 16-32 drum sander and no matter how hard I have tried I have never been able to get it perfectly parallel to the table. So I will typically start with 60-80 grit (occasionally down to 32 grit when I have a number of boards to do to make things move quicker) rotating each pas 180 degrees until the visible high spots are knocked down and the switch to only one direction until I have a flat level face (even though when completed both sides will not be perfectly parallel to each other but it is not visible to my eye as it is about 1/32" to 1/16" across the entire face of the drum). All I care about is that when I lay it down on a perfectly flat surface it will not rock. Anyhow, when I finally get a face perfectly flat (I will put pencil marks across the face parallel to the drum and diagonally corner to corner and sand until all the marks are gone) I make a couple of light passes at a slight angle so that it will lay in a new scratch pattern. Then I will put pencil marks across the face again and then do some more real light passes in the original direction until the pencil marks are gone. When completed it will still have a scratch pattern, but it will be considerably shallower.I will then put on 100 grit paper and do it again with really light passes so as not to burn the wood. Once I finish it to this point on the drum sander and I verify that both faces are flat (I use my kitchen granite counter top for verification), I will switch to my ROS starting at 80 grit to remove all the scratches left from the drum sander. I will then go to 150 grit and then 220 grit. I have found that it makes no real difference by skipping 100 grit and 180 grit like I would do on something else that I would be putting a higher quality finish on. Anything over 220 grit is a waste of time in my opinion. After all it is a cutting board not a dining room table.

A belt sander might be better, that's what

I use for big wood.

I have used my belt sander for a lot of end grain. It is one of those that stands on end with a small table that can be set at different angles. With a long straight edge, I hold the piece at a very slight angle and work my way across. I use the sander top roller round edge the most with curved or corner sanding.

I don't see anything attached here, but I had thought about doing it with a router. I'll have to think about building some sled or jig for it.

Gene Howe said:

Anybody ever use a router sled to flatten your cutting boards?
Here's an interesting article about the process.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/flattenaworkbenchwitharouter.aspx' target="_blank" rel="nofollow">

I have not tired the router method, but I have considered it. Like a lot of things I have been so busy I just didn't have time to make the jig or maybe to stop and make the jig.

As long as it didn't blow out the edges it would work great. I tried a block plane and had to be careful on getting too close on some of the edges.

The drum sander does a real good job of getting them flat. You do have the issue of burning when you go to the higher grits but if you take really small bites and make multiple passes it will clean up good. With a good belt on my hand belt sander I can get the ridges out pretty quick and if you keep it moving you don't have to worry about taking off too much.

Gene Howe said:

Sorry guys, I tried using the "insert link" icon and it didn't work. Here it is again.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/flattenaworkbenchwitharouter.aspx

John, what brand of drum sander do you use? I don't know an awful lot about them and may someday get one, if I can find a bargain.

I purchased a Performax (Jet now) 16/32 off Craig's list recently. It had the extension tables and roller stand included. It looked to be in very good condition. I am very happy at this time with the purchase. Paper is pretty quick to change, just have to make sure you get it tight. It is the 1 hp motor and 2 1/2" DC port. The new one is 1 1/2 hp and 4" DC port. Other than that they seem to be the same unit.

Ron Altier said:

John, what brand of drum sander do you use? I don't know an awful lot about them and may someday get one, if I can find a bargain.

I got good results from it on the chess boards I just finished. I cut the strips a little thicker on the first one until I could see how well I could control the thickness with the sander. The second one j made I cut the strips 1/8 to start with and took them to 3/32. Did a really good job. Now if space and money were no problem I would get a closed end that would do 38 to 40 inches. But I guess I am in this realm fora now.

John

Gene Howe said:

John,
Glad you like your 16/32. I had one I bought new about 11 years ago, IIRC. I had nothing but problems with it. Mainly, I couldn't keep it aligned. For 1/8' veneers, It just couldn't be trusted.

Built a "V" sander from a kit (Stockroom Supply). Haven't looked back.

If I were wealthy, or in business, I'd get me a closed end sander like this one. http://woodmastertools.com/s/drum.cfm

I love the concept of a cantilevered design but, I love reliability more.