Maple Mania part 10, Finally Done

Maple Mania is finally over. I delivered the Butcher Block Island to it's new home yesterday and the new owner is thrilled.

In part 9 I attached the legs, after even more sanding it was time for a finish.  I finished the butcher block with General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish. Delivering the project was bitter sweet because I really like it, but I am also looking forward to moving onto the next project.

 I am still amazed all the different tones and colors that exist in the maple.

Maple Mania part 9 and 2 year Anniversary

I can't believe it's been 2 years since I started this blog as a way to share my project that I have done and am working on. Thanks to everyone who continues to read regularly. I have a lot of fun with it, and the last few months the amount of views have really taken off ( almost tripled).

Now back to the maple mania. The weather is getting nicer which means it's harder to get time in the shop. But I am trying, since the last post I've rounded over all the corners and continued sanding.

All corners have been rounded

Next was to attach the legs. The legs are glued and screwed to the aprons.

now it has a leg to stand on

This is where the project stands right now, waiting for a final sanding and a finish.

Maple Mania part 8

I've done more sanding on the top to get rid of scratches from the low grit sand paper used to flatten the top.
Also there were some gaps that I wasn't happy with so I mixed some epoxy with some of the sanding dust and filled any blemishes in the top.

Jut after filling the gaps.

I don't have any pictures but I got the aprons trimmed to length and added some blocking for the legs to attach to.

Last week I also ordered the finish for this project.  I am going to use General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, I will be applying it the way The Wood Whisperer does with his end grain cutting boards. From what I have read this is very durable finish since the end grain will absorb the finish. I wanted to see how the finish was going to look so I sanded one of the cut off and gave it a quick coat.

The finish gave the maple a warmer tone. 

I also wanted to see how the legs were going to look with top so I clamped one on for a test.

Over the weekend I also got the MDO plywood that will be used for the entertainment center I am building for out living room. Now I need to double check the plans and get my cut sheets made.

This is my 100th blog posting and the 2nd anniversary is just around the corner. I have a lot of fun building in the shop and getting to share my projects and ideas here on the blog. Thanks for reading.

Maple Mania part 7

I wasn't plan on this being a 12 step program but it is starting to feel like it. After giving the aprons a good sanding it was time to start thinking about how the pieces need to go together.

I trimmed the two thick aprons a little longer than I need. Then took time to lay out the locations of some dowels to help with alignment during glue up and hopefully add a little strength. After drilling for the dowels I test fit the two thick aprons and measured for the two thin aprons. After cutting the thin aprons to the final size I once again marked out locations for dowels to connect the thin aprons to the thick aprons.

Then it was time for a dry assembly.

dry assembly

 By doing the dry assembly I found I didn't have enough clamps to clamp it all together at once and to get alignment correct I didn't think I could assemble it in stages. That meant I had to get some more clamps.

After a trip to the store I had enough clamps to start the assembly. I wish I had some pictures of it going together but I was working alone and was in a hurry to get it all together and clamped before the glue started to set.

a more appropriate number of clamps

you can't ever have to many clamps

 I scraped as much glue squeeze out off as possible and then let it all set to cure.

Out of the clamps, you can see I left the aprons proud of the top. They will be evened out when flattening the top.

I then used a hand plane to even the corners of the aprons up and a belt sander to flatten the top.

The top is looking really good

Next the aprons need trimmed to length, some more sanding, attach the legs, and apply finish.

Maple Mania part 6

In the last post I had glued up the top section. I did a okay job of getting the pieces even when gluing them all together, but the slab still needed flattening. I chose to use my router sled to flatten underside of the slab. I used the largest bit I had which was a 3/4" straight bit. I was disappointed in the surface this left, but then again it was routing end grain. I also might have been taking to large of a cut. But it is not something sanding can't take care of. I sanded the bottom of the top with both my belt sander, and my random orbit sander and removed most the tear out caused by the router bit.

After flattening the top

Another angle of the flattened top

The top will be flattened once the aprons are glued.

I really wanted to see how the aprons were going to look with the top so I clamped two of the aprons on for a mock up. The aprons are all over sized right now still. I like the way this is looking.

Mocking up the aprons on the top to get a feel for the final look.

 Next I started sanding what will be the inside faces of the aprons.  It will be a lot easier to sand all the these surfaces now than when it is all assembled.

Two of the aprons after sanding

This week I will be trimming the aprons to size and then gluing them to the top.

Maple Mania part 5

Now that the aprons are made I need to get the top section done. First I needed to flatten the glue up that was to be come the top. Even though it is made from two sections and each of those were flattened before gluing them up, the final glue up didn't turn out perfectly flat. And since it was now a 21" wide panel I couldn't run it through my planner.  I decided to use my hand plane and make it flat enough. I used my aluminum saw guide to check my progress.

Flattening the top section

Next the top section was sliced into 2.5" strips and was glued back together like a very large cutting board. 

Next I will flatten both sides and true up the sides.

 

Maple Mania part 4

I got back to working on the butcher block island over the weekend and am pleased with how things are looking.  In the last post Maple Mania part 3 I had glued the two laminations together that will create the top.

This large slab will become the top of the island.
First it will be cut into strips and then glued back together exposing the end grain.

 This weekend I milled the stock for the aprons and got all four glued up.  The thick/wide aprons are what will give this island the look of a traditional butcher block island.

One of the aprons in the clamps

The other three aprons

 After an initial clean up of the apron faces I wanted to see how they looked together. So I did a dry assembly to see how it was looking. I really like the color variation in the maple and think it will really pop with some finish.

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.

Walnut lap desk: milling parts-part 2

I have all the wood for the lap desk planed to the correct thickness now, and will be starting to cut pieces to size soon. 

This week I made another trip to the hardwood dealer and picked up 40 board feet of Maple for a Butcher's Block style island I am making. I am lookingforward to this project, there will be a lot of glue ups that will have to be done, so it should be interesting.

Buying glue by the gallon means things are getting serious.

here is the Maple.

Over the weekend my shop helper was wanting to make something so we dug through the box of small piece of hardwood (it's not scrap if it can still be used) and we found some pieces that would make a nice wooden mallet for her. It is made from oak and cherry and should hold up to what she can throw at it for now. Its not perfect, but she is happy with it.