My End Grain Cutting Boards

I know there have been tons of the pictures and articles about the end grain cutting boards. I started searching the internet to look for how to make one and that lead me to Marc Spagnuolo’s great website of The Wood Whisperer. Most of the articles ended uplinking to his article, which is here. Once here I saw his video on the end grain cutting board and followed it. I ended up making three of them. Two as Mother’s day presents (my Mom and my wife’s Mom) and then one for my wife. Unfortunately, the one for my wife did not get fully finished for about 6 months after the others, but that is a different story.

With so much plans and how-to-sites out there, I will just really show the final pictures. With three of them, I had a few scraps around and glued them together for a small cutting board. This one was made to be a bread type of board.

Attached are some pictures of the one I made with purple heart and hard maple.  

The Cutting Board

 

Different View

Bread Board Made from Scraps

Lilly Supervising the planing of the wood

 

Improving the Dust Collection on my Contractor Style Table Saw

So I have spent a fair amount of time working on trying to cut down on the dust coming from my old Delta table saw.  This is a link to more information on the saw where I made my own riving knife and did work to improve electrical on it with a new switch & outlet for a vacuum cleaner.

I can't say that I can take all the credit for the things that I have done, but I will talk about some of the things that I have done. In the first picture, you can see the front of the saw where I have covered up the big opening with cardboard (held on by Velcro you can't see). The bottom is sealed with aluminum tape, which goes all the way around. The opening at the top near the table is sealed with spray foam insulation.

Front of the Saw - Sealed the openings

In the next picture, you can see the back of the saw. I used a corrugated plastic sign at the entrance to the neighborhood which was for a past garage sale. It was several months expired, so I figured nobody would mind. This was perfect as its fairly rigid, but most importantly, it was free. I used the blue painter's tape to put in on, as I might need to remove it when I change the angle and don't want it to be permanent.

Back of the Saw - Sealed with Plastic Sign

The next two pictures show where I was playing with the dust collector that I built and putting a better vacuum attachment on it. Its one of the nozzle, where it cut it to be right above the blade. The other end of the hose has a fitting where I can use my super vacuum cleaner with the dust deputy cyclone to pull off the dust.

Dust Vacuum on the Guard

Dust Vacuum on the Guard

One other addtion I did that I had read about is increase the hole at the back of zero clearance insert. This makes some sense. The blade is not cutting here, but rather at the front. The picture below shows this. 

Opening the Back of the Zero Clearance Insert

Lastly, I put in an insert to hook up the bottom to a 4" dust port.  The white stuff in the picture is painter's caulk that I used to seal it up.

Bottom going to the Dust Collector

 

Cove Molding Jig to make a Picture frame

I came across a cool article on Marc Spagnuolo’s great website of The Wood Whisperer. I enjoy watching his videos as they are incredibly informative and I like his sense of humor. While on his site, I came across a video on making a parallelogram jig for coves on the table saw. Using Google, one can find many other websites with similar information and one site can even give you a program to determine any cove you want.

With that, I decided to make a picture frame with a large cove molding that I have wanted to do for a long time. Using the information from his website, I built a simple parallelogram jig as shown in the first picture. In the picture, you can see how I tried to raise up the arms (and for the wood to slide under) to keep it parallel and the clamps to keep it on the table saw.

In the second picture, the outline of the picture frame that I was trying to make is visible. I drew the rough profile of what I was looking for in the frame. Then I lined up the jig and set the blade at an angle to get everything to line up. After this, I lowered the blade and started to make the cuts. I would run it one direction and then back over the blade for each piece. Only after each one was cut, I would raise the blade. When raising the blade, I would only do it about 1/16” at a time, so I long lost count of how many passes I would make to get the desired shape. 

Once the cove was cut, I cut the dado where the picture would lay (the upper left corner of my test piece). I then cut an angle (the lower left corner of my test piece) on one side to slope towards the picture. The final cut was down the center of the cove to create the frame. After sanding, cutting 45’s, and finishing the frame, I then put the picture in it. Below are two pictures of the final product.

Three final thoughts on the jig, as there were things I did not like on it. First, getting close to the blade, made me really nervous. When I go to use it again, I am going to create some sort of a cover to go over the blade. I am thinking of clear plastic about 8” long that can have the height adjusted on one side. I also see it having an integrated feather-board to ensure the cut is repeatable.  When I do that, I will add a picture. The other thing that I did not like about the jig, was the amount of dust it would create. I would like to add a feature to collect the dust with possibly a 2” vacuum attachment on one side near the blade. Then to help keep it in, maybe take some part of a soft broom and put it across the front & back of the guard. Also, I think if I do it much more, I would get a one of the stiffer table saw blades designed for cove molding that could better handle the force or the more cost effective stabilizer.

Lastly, I have to say what that is a painting of as some out there will recognize it. The picture is of the “Tooth of Time,” which is located in Cimarron NM at the Philmont Scout Ranch. I painted the picture in some art class I took. I have always loved that landmark, which said you were 7 days to Santa Fe when on the Santa Fe Trail.  I went to Philmont twice as a scout and then was on staff there for 6 summers. Two top memories were cooking French toast at sunrise one summer and feeding a crew and then watching the sunrise & being the first one on the summit on January 1, 2000.

Outdoor Cedar Cooler

My wife came across an outdoor cedar cooler for the back porch.  She sent me a link to one and then asked me to make one like it.  As always, it got away from me. I made two of them at the same time.  One was for my wife and the other was for my sister in law and her new husband as a wedding present.  

Side View

Lots of plans are out there, but having made one without using a cooler, I would do it again using a cooler.  I made mine going a little over the top, which I would not do again to make it easier.  For example, mine was made totally out of cedar (2x4 or 1x6 fencing) and galvanized outdoor decking screws.  I used a Kreg pocket hole jig to make certain none of the screw showed.  This added a lot of work, but was worth it.  The bottom had a shelf, which was a great feature.  All of the boards were sanded with 80 grit paper.  This kept a rough look, without being so rough one could hurt themselves. I used a tub and insulated it, but if I do it again, I will search garage sales/ Craig's list for older square coolers.  The tub was insulated by both pink Styrofoam and that expanding foam from a can.  Once all done, I then applied some water sealant and keep it covered on the back porch. 

 

Groove Cuts for the top boards

Bottom part is done

Top Part before putting on handle

Inside the tub

I overdid the supports

Finished Front with bottom shelf

Top down view of tub

Insulation on lid

My push block

Push sticks such as this are not as safe as push blocks such as this when feeding wood into a table saw.  The main reason being that the longer push blocks allow for downward force along the wood and provides for less chance to slip than a stick.

Lots of designs can be found on the internet for them, such as here.  I had a reciprocating saw break on me and I saved the handle to make my own.  Below are pictures of it. I had some 1" pressed board and made it out of it.  One thing very nice is that it allows me to have 16" of wood pushing down on the piece I am cutting.  In addition, the my hand is unlikely to slip from the large handle.