Butcher Block

After a year of being up and running in my new shop and only completing a few large projects for others, the boss was antsy for me to do something for our house, so I thought I would start by gaining a little more counter space with a mobile butcher block table/cart.  Although I still don't have a plan for the lower portion of this table, I did know the final size of the top so I figured I could get started on the actual butcher block. This turned out to take more time planning than I had thought.  I did a few simple sketches to see what the final look would be and I wasn't happy with any of them.  Sketching by hand was tedious so I switched to Excel and quickly came up with about a dozen designs based on how many pieces of cherry, walnut and maple I would be using.  The boss picked her favorite one and it was off to the jointer.

Milling all the lumber for the butcher block took longer than anticipated.  I milled all my pieces to 1.75 inches square, 40 inches long.  There are eight pieces of maple, four walnut and three cherry.

After a good hour on the planer I was finally ready for glue-up.  I thought I would be able to go fast enough to get all 15 pieces glued and put in their places.  Unfortunately I over-estimated my abilities and by the time I got everything ready for the clamps, a couple of the first pieces were set up and the cauls couldn't pull them flush.  All in all it wasn't too bad - a couple pieces were out by a good 1/32 or so.  I decided it was a good time to find a local cabinet shop with a big belt sander.  The willing participant had the butcher block true on both sides in less than 10 minutes and it only cost me $20.

After the drum sander

The next step will be slicing it up across the width in two inch segments so when they are flipped, I will have a two-inch thick end grain butcher block.  This time I will glue up in two steps and try to avoid another visit to the cabinet shop.  Before I can continue, though, I need to build a new crosscut sled that will be wide enough to handle this top.