Scrap Wood Cutting Boards

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After all my various projects, including my workbench, I had quite a few scrap pieces of wood left over. Random thicknesses and widths. Some were 5/8″ thick and 7″ X 14″, some were 1″ thick and 2″ X 72″. I decided to utilize all this scrap wood by making a handful of cutting boards. Here is a sneak preview of the finished project. A few of them received a special walnut “ribbon”.

Rough Cuts and Milling

I started by cutting all the boards down in length to roughly 16-20″ depending on the initial board length. If any were shorter than 16″ then I just left it as-is.

I jointed one face and one edge on each board. I marked each jointed surface and set back on the bench. The jointing process was probably the single longest time I stood in front of my jointer, about an hour and a half or so. I also separated the boards into similar thicknesses to pass through the planer at the same time.

Next part of milling was to pass all the pieces through the planer. I passed the groups of boards through the planer to get a parallel surface.

Ripping Stock to “Width” (aka thickness) and Clamping

Since all the boards are different thicknesses, I am going to rip them all to 1 5/16″ wide an then flip on edge to form the thickness of the cutting boards. Each cutting board will start out 1 5/16″ thick except for one which will be thinner. The thinner board is actually from scrap during this ripping process. The gripper is excellent to use for this process as well as a 24 tooth rip blade.

After ripping all the boards I sent them through the planer in groups to remove the saw/burn marks. I sorted the boards into groups of consistent length and visual appearance. After sorting, it was time for glue up.

Glue Clean Up, Flattening, Squaring Up

Once the boards got out of the clamps, I scraped all the excess glue off and started to flatten the boards. They can develop a little un-eveness or even twist once clamped.

During the flattening process, I start across the grain and then move onto 45 degrees across the the boards. Every so often I check to make sure I am not twisting the board.

Winding Sticks (I think the rear right is high)

I finish up with a few passes with the grain. After flattening one face, I sent all the boards through the planer. It usually takes two to three thin passes and then I flip it over and give the flattened face a few thin passes. Once all of them were planed they were cut to rectangular shapes on the table saw.

Creating Ribbon Through Board

This part of the project had the most trial and error since I had never attempted it before. There are quite a few videos and some instructables on the process. Essentially cut a section out of the cutting board that is the same diameter as the inlay pieces and glue it back up.

The thickness of the ribbon boards and the ribbon jig have to be planned in conjunction with each other. The thicker the ribbon boards, the smoother the curves have to be. You can’t bend a thick board that much. I overestimated how flexible thin pieces of walnut would be and made a few jigs that would not work.

The Ribbon Jig

The above jig has too severe of bends for two 1/16″ walnut strips = 1/8″ thick ribbon. It has about a 2″ peak to peak measurements. I made another one at 1″, still too much. 3/4″ peak to peak seemed about right and I could force the walnut to conform with my hands.

The jig was created by making two parallel lines 3/4″ apart on some 1/4″ MDF. Then, I used a 5 gallon bucket to rough out some curves and smoothed them together. Cut near the line on the bandsaw/jigsaw and then sand it smooth. I made a bunch of kerf cuts in 1/2″ plywood and then used spray adhesive to attach some 150 grit.

Making the thin walnut ribbon pieces

Another error I made during this process was trying to consistently create 1/16″ thick pieces. I tried to resaw them on a bandsaw first, but it was too inconsistent and there would be gaps all over. The process that worked was the following:

Make two cuts on the table saw a little less than 1/8″ thick with a small piece left over to keep the pieces together.

Finalize the cut on the bandsaw

Next step is to get the pieces thinned down to 1/16″. I don’t own a drum sander, so my only repeatable option is the planer. There is a good chance that a few of these may explode in the planer, so I made some extras. To plane it down I used a 3/4″ piece of plywood and some double stick tape. (The double stick tape is a must for this project). I didn’t have any explode in the planer and was taking 1/128″ passes.

Due to the thickness of the tape there may be some slight inconsistency in thickness, but it still worked out pretty well. Carefully pry the piece off the tape and voila, thin flexible pieces.

So, now I have a jig made and some thin walnut pieces, lets cut the cutting board apart.

Routing The Ribbon

First, place the jig on the cutting board and make a couple lines for reference. Use some more double stick tape and attache the ribbon jig. I used a guide bushing and 1/8″ thick straight bit in the router table. The bit is raised so it makes ~1/8″ thick cut into the surface of the cutting board.

Next step was to cut the board apart. I used the bandsaw and cut down the center of the groove.

The next step is to use the router table again and flush up the bandsaw cut to align with the 1/8″ groove that was cut first. I had to do this in two steps because I didn’t have a long enough bit. The first pass had the 1/8″ groove down so it would ride along the bearing.

I flipped over the piece and switched out the router bit to a top bearing.

After all the flush trimming, I had to do some light sanding to clean up the surface. Using the three different bits I had some slight offsets to align.

Glue Up and Clamping

Before the glue up I needed to modify some cauls I had by making a small window cut to allow the thicker ribbon pieces above the surface. The picture will probably make more sense of it.

After a trial clamping I found that the most important thing is to make sure the edge (edge facing the camera in the above picture) is aligned really well. Also, I need to use a pump type clamp so the two pieces will pull together.

Post Glue Up

After the boards were removed from the clamps, I cut off the excess ribbon material with a flush trim saw.

Then, I re-flattened the board with very little work needed and sent through the planer.

Next step was to create some small recesses to be able to lift the board off the counter or sink bottom. I didn’t have the correct bit for this. I really needed a spherical shaped bit, but I only had a rabbeting bit, so I used it.

I used a file to round over the corners and then some sandpaper. I couldn’t remove all the burn marks that were left by the bottom of the rabbeting bit. Some research is needed to find the correct bit for this, maybe a ball bit or something.

After the recesses, I sanded down everything to 150 grit. Some of the boards had some snipe from my planer, so I started at 60 grit on them to help flatten the boards. After sanding, I added a chamfer to all the edges and hit it with some 220 grit and a small block. I should also note that that I used some clear epoxy to fill some cracks/voids.