Maple Mania part 3

I am not sure how many post are going to cover building this butcher block island, but I am having a good time building it.
I got the other lamination done that will make up the field of the top. This glue up made a lamination that is 12" wide by 48" long by a little over 1.5" thick

Both top panels will now be ran through the planner to make sure they are the same thickness. Then both pieces will be glueed together to make a 21" wide panel. Below is what that will look like.

This monster panel will be cut into 2.75" strips and then rotated to expose the end grain the same way I build end grain cutting boards. That will yield the field of the butcher block which will be 21" x 21" x 2.75".

Maple Mania part 2

This is a continuation of the last post about the Maple Butcher Block island. Last week I took another trip to the hard wood dealer, I needed another piece of maple to replace the ambrosia piece, and I wanted to get an extra board encase there was more waste than I anticipated.
Over the weekend I surfaced these new maple boards. I shot some video showing the process of surfacing the boards.

Next I selected a few boards from each batch of milling and surfaced them again to remove any warp that may have formed after they had been initially surface. Then I ripped each board to just over 1.5" and glued them up into the first blank for the butcher block top.

This slab is 9" wide, 43" long, and 1.5" thick.

I used several boards to make this glue up with hopes of the final product having a random look to the different colors in the maple. This was just the first of several glue ups that going to be required for this project, I would like to get at least 3 more done this week/weekend.

While at the hardwood dealer I picked up some 8/4 (2" thick) hard maple and walnut for more cutting boards. I also got a piece of hickory to build another knife block from.

Maple Mania

Over the last couple of weeks I have began working on a Maple Butcher Block island. I am building it to look like a old traditional style butcher block. I bought about 40 board foot of maple for this project.

Most the boards were a little longer than 9', three of them were around 6" wide and the other three were in the 7-9" range. I cut all the boards in half length wise for easier handling and rip the wider boards in half so they would fit on the 6" jointer. 

I surfaced/milled the boards in two batches. 

Here is the first batch of boards I milled. These are the 6" wide boards.

One of the boards has some nice spalting in it.

This is the second batch of milled boards.

There was some ambrosia maple in the second batch of boards. Ambrosia maple isn't a species of maple, but is a characteristic of the maple that happens when the wood is infested by the Ambrosia beetle  The beetle brings a fungus in with them and that is what causes the discoloration in the wood.

Ambrosia Maple

Ambrosia Maple

The ambrosia maple won't mix well with the regular maple in this project so it will be set aside for a future project.

A new year, new projects

For the last few months making gifts has been the focus in the shop and on the blog. But Christmas is over and all the gifts have been given. There are a few gifts I made and hadn't put on the blog to keep them secret. So here are some of the gifts I made and gave this year.
Of course there are the cutting boards from the "Cutting Board Crazy" post. These made great gifts, everyone who received one was very happy to receive one.

Walnut and Maple cutting board

3 Cherry and Walnut boards, and One Cherry and Maple

My sister told me my brother in law had played corn hole over the summer and that a set of corn hole boards would be a good gift idea for him. He is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan so I knew how I wanted to paint the finished boards. The game boards are made from 3/4 birch plywood and some 1x pine for the frame. I made a circle cutting jig for my router to make the holes. The frame is rabbeted to accept the plywood and mitered on the corners. I painted them with a high gloss interior/exterior enamel latex paint.

Assembled corn hole boards

Finished corn hole boards.

I wanted to build something for my wife since she puts up with me and my crazy hobbies.  She uses the cutting board that I made for her daily and it is stored on the counter next to the knife block.  I thought it would be nice to have a stand to hold the cutting board when its not in use. I found some nice looking walnut in the scrap pile, and decided to just make a simple stand.

Here I was mocking up a the design.

Here it is right after applying a coat of boiled linseed oil.

 Sadly I wasn't able to get it complete it before Christmas, it still needs a few coats of shellac. I always wait at least a week after applying boiled linseed oil before top coating.

I also started surfacing and preparing some maple for the next project. I was pleasantly surprised to see some spalting on the maple while processing the boards. I got about half the boards processed and will process the other half before I start cutting anything.

Spalted Maple

Surfaced Maple stacked waiting to be used.

Another up coming project is a air cleaner for the shop. It will be built with a old furnace blower and will use 20"x20" furnace filters. Hopefully it will capture the fine dust the dust collector can't capture and keep it out of my lungs and off everything in the shop. (I will still wear a dust mask.)

Future air cleaner

Cutting Board Crazy

I've been making several cutting boards lately. I finished four over the weekend and have a fifth ready for final sanding and oiling. Mostly I have just been doing a standard checker board pattern, but I did experiment a little on a maple and cherry board.

I finish the cutting boards with mineral oil.

Experimental cherry and maple cutting board before applying oil finish.

The one I still have to finish is made from maple and walnut. It maybe my new favorite.

I am running out of scraps so this maybe the last batch of cutting boards until I do some bigger projects and build the scrap pile back up. I've also been working on some Christmas gifts and will have to wait to post anything about those.

Finished gifts

The walnut box I was building for my grandma and the cherry and maple cutting board both turned out great.

The cutting board was a gift for my sister and she was very excited to get it. 

 I was really proud of of how the box I made for grandma turned out.

I have a feeling I am going to be making a lot of cutting boards as Christmas gets closer.

This is only about 3 weeks over due. I am going to try and get into a schedule of posting more often.  

Gift making

Saturday morning I managed to got a little shop time in and work on a few projects that are need to be finished up rather quickly.

The maple and cherry cutting board was ready to run the glue up through the planner, next I cut it into strips and reglued it in a end grain checker board pattern. Here is a picture of it out of the clamps and ready to sand and finish.

 I also worked on the box I am building for my grandma. I routed a grove in the sides to hold the bottom, and then after some trial and error I managed to make some acceptable miter joints on the corners. This is mainly a display piece, if it was something that would see extensive use I would add some splines to the miters to strengthen them.

 The piece I used for the bottom is a lot of sap wood but I wanted the to be made completely from wood that was grandpa's. If I add any ascent wood it will be from the few piece of wood I have harvested myself.

 I still have to cut the lid to size and add hinges. I will be working hard this week to have the box ready to give to Grandma this weekend at her birthday party.