Finding ways to use up scrap wood in the shop is always a fun challenge. This scrap wood cutting board is a great project because it's made from a wide variety of different kinds of wood that are all a bunch of different sizes - which is to say, it can be made with virtually whatever you've got lying around. The multicolored boards work and look great in the kitchen, but the basic process of making the stripped stock material can be applied to virtually any woodworking project for a colorful outcome. The key elements to this project are using a good waterproof, kitchen friendly glue, like Elmer's® Carpenter's® Wood Glue MAX, and adding in a few bold and colorful woods like purple heart (purple) and paduck (red) to really make the boards pop with color.
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I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to materials and supplies, so it's no surprise that my wood shop is filled with a lot of cut-offs that perhaps other people might just throw away. It turns out that all these odds and ends actually have some real value for making small projects like jewelry boxes, thin strips for inlays, or joined together to form larger boards. This Instructable shows you how to join multiple different sized boards together to make a scrap wood cutting board. Here's what you'll need:
Tools:
Materials:
The woods that I chose to use were basically just what I had lying around from other projects. The cutting board contains maple, walnut, mahogany, paduck, purple heart, cherry and sapele. I've found that one wood to stay away from using in a cutting board is a deep grained oak - the pits allow for food to build up and they are harder to clean. How much wood you need will depend upon the size of cutting board that you're making. I always think that it's a good idea to prepare more wood than you think you'll need because sometimes there are sections of scrap material with knots or blemishes that end up not being suitable for a project.
To be perfectly clear, when I say "scrap wood" I mean scrap hard-woods. And at no point should you attempt to make a cutting board out of a composite material like plywood or MDF, or out of any lumber that's been treated in any way, like pressure treated lumber.
Tools:
- table saw
- jointer
- planer
- router with round over bit and round nose groove bit
- router table
- clamps
- cauls
- glue brushes
- palm sander
Materials:
- various scrap pieces of wood (read below for explanation)
- Elmer's® Carpenter's® Wood Glue MAX
- food safe finish such as mineral oil or butchers block oil and rags
The woods that I chose to use were basically just what I had lying around from other projects. The cutting board contains maple, walnut, mahogany, paduck, purple heart, cherry and sapele. I've found that one wood to stay away from using in a cutting board is a deep grained oak - the pits allow for food to build up and they are harder to clean. How much wood you need will depend upon the size of cutting board that you're making. I always think that it's a good idea to prepare more wood than you think you'll need because sometimes there are sections of scrap material with knots or blemishes that end up not being suitable for a project.
To be perfectly clear, when I say "scrap wood" I mean scrap hard-woods. And at no point should you attempt to make a cutting board out of a composite material like plywood or MDF, or out of any lumber that's been treated in any way, like pressure treated lumber.
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It looks like all of these wods are in this cutting board. As a woodworker, I only use hard maple when I make a cuttung board.
What you don't know can hurt you. If you want to use your scraps, make a box, not a cutting board.
Regarding the walnut, that's truly the first I've heard of anyone saying that it's not food safe. Horses are allergic to walnut dust and shavings, but not humans. Even people with walnut nut allergies are save to eat off of the wood. Humans have been making bowls out of a walnut for as long as we've been eating out of bowls. Perhaps you have to eat a large amount of walnut to feel it's diuretic effects?
And finally, for the padauk, your point about the dust being caustic to some people is spot on, however, in an inert setting, like a cutting board, where, even under the most extreme chopping conditions the wood is not being aerated as saw dust and inhaled, I feel that it's safe to use.
We all make our own choices about risk management and the way we understand adverse effects. I appreciate your input and thank you for your comment.
the only way i can think of is to rip the board into strips, then glue and clamp.
And I was just walking home today and saw a couple of guys breaking pretty long (~1 meter) leftover planks of fine wood into smaller pieces and throwing them into trash :(
Nice wood by the way, I see some cocobolo, purpleheart, some Koa and Cedars maybe?
NICE WORK MAN.
Cheers from Panama
What's a woodworker to do?
I'd recommend using proper protection, like a respirator and goggles when cutting, planing and sanding. Wear long sleeves if you get an itchy skin reaction too. That being said, I wouldn't let it get in the way of my project.
It was assumed in this Instructable that of the scrap wood that you've got lying around to make a cutting board, pressure treated lumber would not be one of them.