I’m making a hard maple cutting board as part of a larger project. I want it to be functional as well as asthetically pleasing to the eye. I started off with 5/4 hard maple as the core and I want to boarder it with Jatoba. I’ve attached a sketch I made for the project.
I know I have to allow for expansion and that’s where I’m struggling. The core (the maple in the center) is glued up. The Jatoba edging and handles are not. I want the handles to be perpendicular to the grain in the core but I’m concerned that expansion will loosen the handles if I glued them.
I’ve been thinking of mortising the ends and putting in dowels or screws for expansion, such as you would with a table top, but I keep thinking the board will end up with small gaps where food will get caught.
Any ideas? I am afraid to commit to one method and it’s beginning to collect dust!
Thank you,
Julie
Replies
You can't run the "handle"
You can't run the "handle" pieces cross grain to the maple field. Hard maple has a fairly large range of movement due to moisture content changes.
How about making the handle pieces so their grain runs the same direction as the maple field. Jatoba is a strong wood and you should have little change of failure running it this way.
Both woods have about the same coefficients of expansion so they should behave pretty well together.
Be sure that the grain orientation is the same for both woods.
Howie,
I like your solution to this problem. Cutting a 3/8-1/2" long tongue and groove joint between the maple board ends and jatoba handles will give plenty of glue surface for a strong end-to-end joint here. Doing this first, then jointing and gluing on the edge pieces will hide the t&g, making an elegant finished job, with no sliding breadboard joints to protrude or come shy of the edge seasonally.
Ray
bread board end
with the proper joinery , you can put that end on there. you would have to eliminate those handle holes though in order to do so. those handle there are just decorative any way. I would b
make a recess at the end so that you can position your fingers under something to hold so that you can lift it off of a flat surface.
if your board is elevated from the surface underneath by feet, someone may use those handle holes, but doubt it as they would then just pick it up by the edges.
ron
Sliding dovetail
I would suggest the ends only attach to the outside trim and on one side attach it for strength with something like a bridal joint and at the other with a sliding dovetail. One side of the handle is fixed. The other is captured by the dove tail but allowed to slide. See pdf.
Peter
Shown as a JPEG
This is my suggestion shown in a jpeg with a bridal joint on one end of the handle and a sliding dovetail on the other. This might be easier for people to view as pdf files don't seem to pop up as easily.
Peter
Ray, you could also use biscuits. Just be sure you place them where they will not interfere with the cutouts for the handles. But your suggestion should work fine too.
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