# First cheese board



## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

I’m just starting to make cutting boards. I made my first one in February (http://www.routerforums.com/tools-woodworking/58121-experience-my-first-cutting-board.html ). I just completed the second one. My wife had asked me to make a cheese board that was oval and had a place to put crackers. I drew a few ovals but none of them looked right. Then I remembered the golden ratio and used 1:1.6 for the minor and major axis and that really did have a nice look. I ended up with an oval 16” long by 10”wide. Using ½” MDF I created a template for the board with a cutout for the cracker trough. 

We decided to use Purple Heart with a few strips of hard maple to break up the solid appearance. This is an edge grain board and I wanted a finished thickness of 1” so I cut the strips 1 1/8”. I laid out the boards, got my wife’s approval of the pattern :happy: then glued it up. (Note: I both numbered the boards and drew arrow with chalk to make sure I could quickly determine that they stayed in the right sequence and orientation.) After scraping off the excess glue I ran the board through my thickness planner and got a lot of tear out. I used two different pieces of PH for the board and most of the tear out came from one of the pieces. I selected the side with the least tear out for the top and, after a lot of sanding, I got most of it out but not all of it. The one remaining chip is on the left side of the board. What looks like a dent on the right side is actually the grain pattern. 

I used the template to draw the oval on the board and cut it out on the band saw. I then attached the template to the board and used a pattern trim bit to route the edge. 

After the board was cut and routed to size I realized that the cutout was too close to the edge because I decided to round over the edge using a ½” round over bit. To adjust for that, I attached the template further from the edge and used a new 1 ¼” diameter bowl and tray bit to route out the trough. I wanted the depth to be ½”. Since Purple Heart is so dense I decided to take 3 passes with the plunge router. I made my first cut and there was saw dust everywhere. I also cut into the template. The problem was that the bearing on the bit wasn't in contact with the template when the bit first contacted the wood. I then realized that I needed a thicker template as well as a larger one to balance the router. So I cut another ½” MDF template, square this time, and screwed it to the oval template. I was now able to route the trough. Still had sawdust flying all over the place. It wasn't until I had completed the final pass that it occurred to me that I should have hogged out most of the trough with a Fostner bit and used the bowl and try bit to clean it out and shape the edges. If anyone can suggest a dust collection solution when using a Bosch 1617 EVS with the plunge base I would be eternally grateful. 

To finish the board I made a soft spoon butter by melting white beeswax pellets into mineral oil at a ratio of 1 part wax to 5 parts oil. I covered the board with the mixture and let it sit for 6 hours. Then wiped it off, let it sit overnight and repeated the process. After buffing with a soft cloth it left a nice low sheen on the board.

I learned a lot of lessons with this project. Now the trick will be to remember not to repeat the same mistakes the next time.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

that is really fine waork...


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Great concept, Barry.


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## denniswoody (Dec 11, 2011)

Wow that's a beauty. You encountered some problems and overcame them very nicely.


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

Nice work!


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Beauty!


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Lovely job.


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

Thanks to everyone for your posts. My cable connection has been down since Sunday due to a power outage. The Verizon guy just left. He had to replace the interface box that got fried. He said half the neighborhood was out. I'm trying to catch up on everything now. It's amazing how dependent we've become on the internet.


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

Your project looks really nice.


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## fishcad (Apr 15, 2012)

Nice, but I'm wondering what is the purpose of the trough?


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## RMIGHTY1 (Nov 5, 2014)

Beautiful craftsmanship Barry. Your planning, choice of wood, photography, consulting with SHMBO, and the execution are terrific!!!


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

fishcad said:


> Nice, but I'm wondering what is the purpose of the trough?


Donn - The purpose of the trough is to hold crackers. My wife didn't want to use a separate dish for the crackers or put them on a flat board where they could move around, or fall off, while carrying the board. Cheese pretty much stays where you put it.

I originally approached it as a new woodworking skill to learn but, I admit, it does make for a nice presentation.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Great!!!
now I need a snack...


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## bruce thom (Apr 2, 2008)

Nicely done.
Check out Steve Marin's cheese board template, it is similar but different enough to try
"Wood working for mere mortals" .
I have no affiliation but like his stuff.


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## routergieck (Feb 11, 2013)

Great job Barry. If you check the pictures I posted yestrday on the Puzzle Chair Trio you will see dust collection on both routers. The Dewalt has a dust collection base attachment that I purchased and it connects to the shop vacuum and works great. I use the shop vac as it has a lot more draw than my dust collector and I find it is much more effective for the hand held machine. The other picture shows a collection hose connected to the Craftsman router. There is no collection attachment that I know of for this router so if I have a larger job I tape a shop vac adapter to the router base with duct tape and electrical tape as shown in this picture. It is not as effective as the base collection plate but it does get most of the material coming from the router. You have to tape the other open side of the base also and the disadvantage is that you cannot see through to the bit at all but I find that is not too much of a drawback if you are using a template and go mostly by the feel of pressure against the template anyway. It certainly keeps the bulk of the dust under control. The other hand held tool I find difficult to control dust collection is the belt sander. While they have come up with good collection systems for the random orbitals that draw dust directly from the sanded surface they have not been as effective with the belt machines. I see some people have fabricated skirts around the back of the sander which they say works fairly well but I haven't tried to construct one for mine yet.
Dennis


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

That's a really, really nice looking board. I'm always impressed when people pony up for truly beautiful exotic woods. I tend to make things like that from leftovers, and guess what, they tend to look like they were made from leftovers. Great craftsmanship, and artistic too.


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

Bruce – I do subscribe to WWMM but, I admit, I didn’t remember Steve’s cheese board. I watched the video and I did almost exactly what he did. The main difference was what I used to route out the trough. If I used his approach I wouldn’t have had to make a second template for depth. 

I did notice one thing in his video and that’s the way he used his cauls. Mine are almost identical but rather than clamping them face side down, like he did, I clamp them edge down. If you look carefully at his video you can see a very slight bend in the middle of the caul. By clamping using the edge, with the face vertical, you increase the beam strength of the caul and it’s less likely to bend. Another approach is to machine a slight bow into the middle of the board to account for the bend but I haven’t done that. Besides, if you use the right clamping sequence you don’t need that much pressure on the caul. Thanks for your post.

Dennis – Due to a cable failure earlier this week I lost 2 days of internet access and hadn’t gotten to your post from yesterday. I just looked at it and I really like what you did. I’m a big fan of templates. I must admit, that I hadn’t heard of a breaker bit before. I’ll read up on it and see if it would be a help in future projects. For dust collection I may have to kludge something together like you did for your Craftsman. I’ve looked up what’s available for the Bosch 1617 and don’t see how anything offered will work well with a plunge base. I have a similar problem with my chop saw as you do with your belt sander (I have to get one of those one of these days). No matter what I do, there’s sawdust all over the place. 

Andy – I like working with exotic woods but they’re expensive and I don’t buy them very often. I’ve accumulated some over the years. My wife and I are downsizing and we’re considering a move to Florida (from Pennsylvania). I really don’t want to have to pay to have the lumber picked up, stored for a several months then shipped to Florida. Be cheaper to buy new once we find a new home. So, I’m trying to use up the exotics. The rest of the stuff I’ll leave for the now owners of my current house.


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## todd628 (Mar 8, 2015)

Nice job Barry. I like the area morticed out for crackers or whatever.

Have a blessed weekend and fun making some dust, Todd


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