Introduction: Making an End Grain Cutting Board With Matching Phone / Tablet Stand

By Visit Ollari's !
About: I make all sorts of stuff. You can watch my YouTube Channel or Follow me on other Social media!

In this Instructable, I'll show you how i made my first end grain cutting boardanda matching phone / tablet stand.It's made from Siberian Larch boards and finished with Mineral Oil. Make sure you watch the Video above for more details!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

I bought some Rough saw air dried Siberian Larch because i really like the color and how the end grain is looking. This wood has lot of knots in it, but we will cut the knots and other defects out, just make sure you have enough to cut away.

Materials:

  • Water resistant wood glue (Tite Bond III)
  • Rubber Feet
  • 400cm x 10cm x 2,5cm Dry Larch Boards

Tools:

  • Chop saw (or any kind of saw to cut the boards to rough lengths so its easier to work with)
  • Table saw
  • Jointer / planer
  • Orbit Sander
  • Router ( for rounding over the edges)
  • Clamps
  • Something to spread the glue

Step 2: Preparing the Wood

Cut the wood to more manageable sizes, and try to cut out the sections with cracks and bigger knots. I cut mine to 50cm lengths.

I use my Jointer/ Planer combo to smoothen the surfaces and get the final thickness of 2cm. The next step is to rip the boards to 3cm wide strips, this is the part where you can sort out the strips that have knots in them.

Use some 120grit sandpaper and do some light sanding so that you get rid off any fuzz and get a tight glue up.

Step 3: The First Glue Up!

Lay out the wood strips in the order so that you like the pattern of the end grain and try to squeeze them to get a look how they line up with each other.

If the slats have a tight fit, turn them so that the 3cm sides are facing up, spread the glue evenly over the whole surface.

Now you can flip over the slats so that the 2cm sides are facing up and clamp the slats together, to makes sure that the board is close to flat, wrap some wood sticks in packing tape and clamp them perpendicular on the board.

Step 4: Cleaning Up & Cutting for the Second Time

After the glue has dried 24h, i scraped down the glue squeeze out before i jointed the first side of the cutting board. with the one side ready i passed it trough the planer to get both sides parallel.

Using my Table saw sled i cut the board into 3cm strips. Make sure you don't mix up the freshly cut strips so you get a nice pattern.

Step 5: Second Glue Up

After a you sanded the strips lightly with 120grit sandpaper by hand, Lay the pieces so that the long grain part is facing up. After that you can put glue evenly on the entire surface and flip the pieces so that the end grain is facing up. Glue on two sacrificial pieces so you don't damage the edges of the cutting board when you clamp it, and it also helps to prevents it form the snipe that the planer makes.

Use again the the straight wood slats which you covered with packing tape to ensure that the board stays flat while the glue dries.

Step 6: Shaping the Cutting Board.

After the glue has dried again for 24hours, and jointing / planing both sides of the cutting board, you can cut off the sacrificial pieces using the table saw.

I use the router to round over all the edges of the cutting board. And sanded it starting with 120grit on my Random Orbit Sander all the way up to 320.

Step 7: Making the Phone / Tablet Stand

All the steps are the same as with the cutting board, just in a smaller scale. I had some leftover pieces from the firs glue up that i glued together like the cutting board. after it was dried i cut a 1cm wide 1cm deep rabbet in the middle of the front half. cleaned out the cut with a narrow chisel and used the router to round over the edges before i sanded it the same way as the cutting board.

Step 8: Finishing

I bought some Mineral oil at my local Pharmacy to coat both the cutting board and the phone stand.

I applied a thick layer of it on both sides and let it soak in for a couple hours, after wiping down the excess i repeated the steps for tree times on both sides, and let it dry for 24 hours.

Then it was just a matter to put on the Rubber feat and enjoy your work!

Step 9: Enjoy Your Cutting Board!

Thank you for checking out this Instructable! If you'd like to see more projects from me, make sure to subscribe to my Youtube Channel and check out my Website. I make new projects every week, so stay tuned!