# Complete and utter failure



## kweinert (Oct 27, 2017)

Ok, so my wife says "You should make cutting boards" and I finally agree. Personally if I'm going to cut up wood into small pieces I'd rather make segmented bowls :)

So I cut strips of wood. Find my first mistake later - when 90% of your wood is the same thickness things don't look alk that chaotic when you try to put them together. 

Anyway, glue those up (3 12x17 slabs) and run them through the planer to get them flat. 

Cut into strips. Mix and match among the three slabs. Try to glue them up. 

Here's where things went absolutely sideways. 



 



 

Massive gaps at the ends on just about every row. 

What a waste of wood. 

Thoughts and suggestions are *greatly* appreciated.


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## Tony (Oct 27, 2017)

My guess Ken is that your blade is not at 90 to the table and/or fence. Tony

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Tony (Oct 27, 2017)

Do you know anybody who has a drum sander?


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## ripjack13 (Oct 27, 2017)

Also, you were glueing too many rows at once with not enough clamps.?

Can you cut the ends off? They'll be smaller...
you may be able to add wood of a contrasting color to make a frame...


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## Tony (Oct 27, 2017)

If you can get your blade square, you can rip it at the joints, glue in thin strips of a dark wood and run it through a drum sander. It'll be fine and look great!


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## Lou Currier (Oct 27, 2017)

You could always market it as exotic kindling

Reactions: Funny 5


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## Sprung (Oct 27, 2017)

Ken, how many clamps did you use? It seems, to me from what I'm seeing, like you maybe didn't use enough clamps.



Lou Currier said:


> You could always market it as exotic kindling



Careful, Lou - if we all did that, the market would become quite flooded!

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Nature Man (Oct 28, 2017)

Drum sander is probably the best idea to take care of this cutting board. Then adjust blade on table saw to 90 degrees for future boards. Chuck


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

Tony said:


> My guess Ken is that your blade is not at 90 to the table and/or fence. Tony



I would disagree with you, but only because these would be the sides that went through the planer. The cut sides are up at this stage.


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

Tony said:


> Do you know anybody who has a drum sander?



Yes, me.


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

ripjack13 said:


> Also, you were glueing too many rows at once with not enough clamps.?
> 
> Can you cut the ends off? They'll be smaller...
> you may be able to add wood of a contrasting color to make a frame...



I was unable to clamp it any tighter. When it was in the clamps there wad another across the top in the middle. 

I did have two boards in the same set of clamps. That worked for the original glue up.


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

Tony said:


> If you can get your blade square, you can rip it at the joints, glue in thin strips of a dark wood and run it through a drum sander. It'll be fine and look great!



I'll definitely try ripping the boards back down and trying again. Thanks for the idea.


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

Also just thanks in general for all the ideas and thoughts. 

It's one of the best parts of being in this group. 

Definitely not the "put down the tools and back away, you're not a woodworker" response I saw in one FB group.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## woodtickgreg (Oct 28, 2017)

kweinert said:


> I would disagree with you, but only because these would be the sides that went through the planer. The cut sides are up at this stage.


Is it possible that the gaps on the ends could have been caused by planer snipe? I usually allow extra material to be cut off for snipe. A couple inches or so on each end. I'm in agreement with @Tony run them back through the table saw at each glue line and then re glue them, and i like the idea of adding some contrasting strips at the glue lines. These could come out better than you thought they would.
Remember, it's not a mistake, it's a design change.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 4


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

woodtickgreg said:


> Is it possible that the gaps on the ends could have been caused by planer snipe? I usually allow extra material to be cut off for snipe. A couple inches or so on each end. I'm in agreement with @Tony run them back through the table saw at each glue line and then re glue them, and i like the idea of adding some contrasting strips at the glue lines. These could come out better than you thought they would.
> Remember, it's not a mistake, it's a design change.



It's very possible. My little DeWalt was struggling to get through these.


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## barry richardson (Oct 28, 2017)

Here is my theory; your planer is not perfectly square, i.e. it takes a tad more off one side than the other, ultimately causing each slice to be slightly crowned if you reversed feed direction. You should be able to determine this by running a wide board through, then checking with calipers. I had a similar problem when I used to make a lot of cutting boards; the wide belt sander I was using would slightly crown the blank; compounded many times during glue up, it was a problem.... My fix for your problem would be slice all the strips apart, joint the cut faces, and reglue... providing you have a jointer....

Reactions: Like 1


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## TimR (Oct 28, 2017)

All good advice...if you can measure the width of the strip adjacent to the gap, at each end and middle, it will help to put credence on where the gap was caused and how to correct.


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## Wildthings (Oct 28, 2017)

I say just ignore it and market it as a "Cutting Board Drainage Area"

Reactions: Funny 4


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## kweinert (Oct 28, 2017)

I did cut them apart and then created a lot of sawdust by skim cutting edges to square them up. One is back in clamps as we speak, we'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Reactions: Like 2 | Way Cool 1


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## Tony (Oct 29, 2017)

Well it's tomorrow.....

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 2


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## kweinert (Oct 29, 2017)

And it looks like it's still in clamps. Didn't get out to the shop at all today. 

Yard work, family, turning my temporary shop addition back into a garage stall so my wife's car isn't out in the snow tonight - just a host of things. 

One of the best part of woodworking is that when you're done the leaves will no longer fall in your yard :)

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Mr. Peet (Oct 29, 2017)

Not sure on the leaves. If the center was sound, I would have cut that section out and changed the name from cutting board to "Cheese Board". Rip it in half and you would have a twin set, one for the wife, one for her sister... or something like that. Then the cut off could have been re-assembled as another small board. However many of the other ideas sounded decent too.


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## kweinert (Oct 30, 2017)

Does the day after tomorrow count? 

Drum sander worked much better than the planer.

Reactions: Like 7 | Way Cool 2


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## Tony (Oct 30, 2017)

Looks good Ken, nice save! Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## Mike Hill (Nov 1, 2017)

Great save - good looking board!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Mike Hill (Nov 1, 2017)

woodtickgreg said:


> Is it possible that the gaps on the ends could have been caused by planer snipe? I usually allow extra material to be cut off for snipe. .



So that's what you call it. Always learning something!

Reactions: Like 1


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## kweinert (Nov 1, 2017)

Mike Hill said:


> So that's what you call it. Always learning something!



Yeah, sometimes you find snipe even when you're not out hunting for it.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Funny 1


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## Schroedc (Nov 1, 2017)

kweinert said:


> Yeah, sometimes you find snipe even when you're not out hunting for it.



That's why i always keep my croaker sack with me.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## kweinert (Nov 2, 2017)

The triplets

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 1


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## Tony (Nov 2, 2017)

Great job Ken! Tony


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## woodtickgreg (Nov 2, 2017)

And there ya go, a great save ken! Just a little design change, lol.


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## Mr. Peet (Nov 2, 2017)

kweinert said:


> The triplets
> 
> View attachment 136511


Same parents, must be fraternal triplets...but they do look closely related...

Reactions: Funny 1


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