Shop Made Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I made a few end-grain cutting boards for gifts. One went to my brother and sister-in-law, and the other went to Ruths parents. Here are a few pictures of the process, and a video at the end.

I obviously waited to post these pictures until after christmas, because my brother looks at this every day...Hi Eric!

Here is the raw stock right from the supplier...beautiful purpleheart and hard maple. 8/4 thickness is so fun to work with.

Here is the lumber all planed down to final thickness.

Our fist set of cuts, and the pieces layed out in the first pattern.

The first glue-up. Let to dry overnight.

After the glue dried, we crosscut the pieces into what we have here, after rotating them we have our final pattern, glued and turned end-grain up. Back in the clamps it goes.

This is what it looked like before we put the glue on in the picture above.

Here it is all dried up and ready to head to the high school to send it thru the huge belt sander...as I cannot afford one yet. That made it perfectly smooth on both sides.

After the edges were routed with a 45 degree chamfer bit, and the finger holds were cut using a rabbeting router bit, it got about 5 generous coats of mineral oil. Basically we kept wiping on oil until it would no longer soak in.

Here is the final product...I was very pleased by the results, as these were the first ones I have made.

This is a video of me face jointing a slab of purpleheart to get it ready for the planer.



I also made a bar/liquor shelf for my brother and sister-in-law, but I forgot to take pictures. Once they have it hanging up, I will post some pictures.