WoodNoob Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I've been watching Marc's end grain chopping board vid, and I think it would be a great, relatively easy job for me to do. But I'm wanting to make someone I know, a pizza-board for Xmas. See below for an example of what I mean. Now generally these are quite thin, with a chamfered edge to easily slide under pizzas in the oven. I'd love to make an end-grain version of it (with a perhaps a long grain strip up the middle that becomes the handle - this may have it's own problems, mixing end and long grain - ??), but I'm worried that if I made an end grain as thin as I'd like (max 1.5cm-ish) that I'd have problems with grain splitting off during use. Not to mention trying to chamfer the edge of it! What do people think? Perhaps I'm better off going with long grain in alternating dark/light strips? Edit: One more thing! Is just gluing edge to edge (like in Marc's video) enough given the board is going to be thinner? Or should I rabbet lap joint, or dowel or something as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike M Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I'd stay away from the end grain idea. When it is that thin, there is little strength to the wood. Try a thin slice off a hardwood 2x2. You can snap the piece with little force. The long grain in the handle would solve the strength problem but the long to cross grain joint won't work. Finally, the thickness is not a concern when gluing parallel long grain. Using modern adhesives, the joint will be stronger than the wood so you don't need to add strength. Just to be sure to use a waterproof glue. My pizza peel measures about 3/8" in the thickest part (~ 1cm). Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick2cd Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I agree with Mike. i think you are going to run into strength issues with the end grain idea. Furthermore, i've found that with end grain boards, anything less than 1" thick is more prone to warpage issues. definitely stick with long grain and a good wood glue (i like titebond 3), and you'll be fine. you can come up with some great looking patterns just by alternating strips of light and dark long grain woods. im a fan of cherry and walnut together. i would also alter widths of the strips. be sure to post pics when ur finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunkeye Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 A pizza peel needs strength, I wouldn't use end grain, I'd also suggest making it considerably thinner than 1.5 cm. Edge gluing long grain is plenty strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmac Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 One more vote for avoiding the end grain look. The reason end grain cutting boards are nice is because they are easier on your knives, and the nicks and such you put in them during normal use sort of heal themselves. A pizza peel has different requirements (it needs to be thin and strong), and therefore calls for a different approach. -- Russ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 not exactly what you were talking about but since you problems are already solved thought i would throw in a idea i have chewing over that you migh tlike to make. make a cuttin board that is round, with small round inlays mounted randomly in the cutting board. then package it in a pizza box. when you get done it will look like a pizza with pepperoni on it. couldeven inlay small strips so you create the pizza slices. just something i was thinking of making that would go perfect with a pizza board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatworks Today Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 If you're interested I just made a video on one of these for a christmas gift. A pizza peel / bread board is one of my "go to" projects each year for people I know that do a lot of cooking. I really like it, but there are a lot of different designs and options you could do; the concept for construction is relatively the same.. www.boatworkstoday.com The video is towards the bottom of the page. Might help; might not.. I generally cut the board thickness around 3/8" and have a tapered front edge that comes down to about 1/8" for loading / unloading the pizzas.. By the time it's sanded and finished, it's probably closer to 5/16" give or take.... Thin, but plenty strong. I would stay away from an end grain idea for this kind of project. End grain boards are great, but their achilles heel is that they need to have some thickness to them. Thin material for an end grain will snap pretty easily and not be very stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2011 Wow- thanks guys. Lots of terrific comments there. It's as I suspected, so thanks for confirming my fears of end grain. Thanks also for putting my my mind at ease regarding long grain edge joining being strong enough, and patterning possibilities. Duckkisser - crazy idea! I love it. I might have to do that for my next project. Very cute. Boatworks - I'm going to take a look at your site right now - thanks! Edit: Andy - nice video! Thanks that was great. You had a couple of ideas in there I hadn't thought of, like putting the cross grain piece at the front edge for the bevel! I was just going to smooth down the lengthways pieces, but your way might be better. Probably protects the integrity of the front edge a bit more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatworks Today Posted December 12, 2011 Report Share Posted December 12, 2011 You had a couple of ideas in there I hadn't thought of, like putting the cross grain piece at the front edge for the bevel! I was just going to smooth down the lengthways pieces, but your way might be better. Probably protects the integrity of the front edge a bit more? I think it works pretty well. There can be some issues with attaching things across grain, but that is one reason I highly suggest using vertical grain (AKA quarter sawn) lumber. It tends to move the least and is the most stable. Kind of a nice and inexpensive way to get this is to buy thicker stock that is flat sawn (the end grains are running mostly horizontal across the width of the plank) and edge rip the strips to get the planks for the paddle. When you edge rip a flat sawn board the strips are now vertical grain :-) I typically use titebond III glue and so far, so good. Haven't had any issues with over 20 boards made. Also, by attaching the front tapered edge this way (across grain) I think it helps to stabilize the width of the paddle and keep it flat (prevents curling).. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2011 Yeah, unfortunately I don't have quartersawn, and don't really have the ability to rip that deep. (Blaming the tools and all that!) I've got some real hard, dense hardwood (Jarrah and Spotted Gum if that means anything to anyone) - so I hope joining across grain won't be an issue. Are you talking about expansion issues? Honestly, I haven't even really decided that I will have the cross grain edging yet. Have you had much in the way of curling problems? I assume if I dry the glue with the plenty of air circulation on both sides of the board that will mitigate some of those issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatworks Today Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Yea, the main issue is with expansion and contraction of the wood. If you have a table saw you're able to do all of the cutting that I was talking about (or even a circular saw with a fence, hand saw with a steady hand and a bench plane to smooth things out). Lots of different ways to skin that cat Whether the wood will curl or not depends alot on the grain direction in the wood. Qrt sawn is the most stable and LEAST prone to that kind of issue (which is the main reason I recommend it). Having the cross grain piece on the front of the pizza paddle helps to keep everything nice and flat, but ultimately the wood is going to move however it wants and unfortunately there isn't much you can do about that. Really the only thing is to select the right cuts of wood and minimize it as much as possible Doing it the way I outlined in the video I have never had any problems with curling. They are still as flat as the day I made them (thankfully!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 OK, so you asked - so here are the photos of the final product! This my first project in the "fine" woodworking department - and I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. My joints are really tight, and my sanding is great - the finish is like glass! There's a couple of spots near the handle where I've got a tiny little jigsaw nick, but nothing that the recipient of this will notice. Unfortunately there was some splintering on one of the boards on the underside that I had to fill (did that by mixing Titebond III with fine sawdust from that piece). I did the tapering of the whole length by attaching strips to the sides that, when sitting it on the router table, had the front edge on the table and the back edge raised up by about 4mm. I then used a wide flat router bit set very, very low (to start with) and just passed the whole board over it. Maybe doing it upside down would have been better. I could have set up a jig to have the router skating on top of those rails, then I could have seen what areas I had covered. But you know, it was fine. I've gotta make another on this week and I'm going to do it the same way. I just have to make sure to go back and forth in lots of little strokes. The more major taper at the front edge I just did with the sander, starting at 40! Ended up taking my sanding all the way up to 800! (The last couple of steps by hand). I finished it with a warmed mix of mineral oil and pure beeswax. Thanks everyone for your help! I've got the bug! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatworks Today Posted December 16, 2011 Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 very nice Time to break it in? Pizza Party! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick2cd Posted December 16, 2011 Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 beautiful! i think it came out great!!!!! i think i'll have to make one of these myself. what are your approximate dimensions and wood species? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 Thanks guys - it's a Xmas present, so I can't break it in ! But the wife has already said "that's waaay better than the one we bought, can you make another one?" Dimensions: From tip to handle is 55cm, width is 32cm. If you want, I'll give you more detailed measurements. The species are Jarrah (the darker one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_marginata) and Spotted Gum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corymbia_maculata) - if you haven't guessed, I live in Australia. They are both damn hard woods! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 i wonder if you could prop one end up and put it though the planer. cut out any chance of it not being acurate between each strip of wood. or any problems on the jointer.......would that work or would it be more likly to break? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick2cd Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 i wonder if you could prop one end up and put it though the planer. cut out any chance of it not being acurate between each strip of wood. or any problems on the jointer.......would that work or would it be more likly to break? This would scare me. I would say do it by hand as absolute precision isn't necessary for the leading edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 i wonder if you could prop one end up and put it though the planer. cut out any chance of it not being acurate between each strip of wood. or any problems on the jointer.......would that work or would it be more likly to break? Well, I've never used a power planer, so I couldn't comment there. But I can tell you I ran the whole thing (all strips joined and glued) through my router jig - so there was no issues with them not matching between strips. In fact it was quite a blessing, as my edge ripping was...well problematic to say the least! My setup just wasn't up to it depth-wise, or accuracy wise. So some of my boards' faces ended up with their own irregularities, which were then all removed by running it across the router table as a final piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 i'm just worried about putting wide boards though the jointer. need to study up on it. good thing is all my wood is in small pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodNoob Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Well I can highly recommend my method with either a table mounted router (as I did) or with an overhead router (for which you'd have to make rails to sit across the tapered jig - am I making sense? I can upload a sketch if you want) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim0625 Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 I was by a restaurant store a few weeks ago and almost bought one of these. Nah...I'll make one prettier, you've done it! Really nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.