End grain cutting board
This piece is made from hard maple and walnut. The actual
finished piece is about 13"x18". Instead of taking pictures of the actual project
as I was working, I drew up a likeness of each step in SketchUp.


Step 1
Starting with 1 piece each of 1.5", 2" and 3" hard maple and wanlut 1.5" thick, I
glued up 6 pieces as shown in the picture below. Note that each piece, of each
width, must be exactly the same width or the checkerboard pattern won't line up.
Also note that if you were to rip this down the middle, the two halves would be mirror
images of each other. The wood had some flaws in it so I used some extra wood and made it
30" long. I could then discard the pieces that weren't up to standard after crosscutting
the sections in the next step. Even after doing that I still had extra pieces left over.
However, you would be hard pressed to replicate the exact size therefore you only
have one chance. If you're short enough pieces to make the board the size you want
you're out of luck.


Step 2
The piece was then cut into strips 1.5" wide. A crosscut sled with a stop block was
used to ensure all of the sections were the same width. After discarding the pieces
with knots I still had several left over. They were used to make the feet by cutting
an end off of two of them.


Step 3
After crosscutting all of the pieces, rotate each piece 90° and then flip every
other one end-to-end to get the checkboard pattern. Before I started the second glue
up, I very meticulously taped the entire top and bottom surface. End grain soaks up
glue like a sponge and I had no idea how far it would penetrate. I think in the end it
was well worth the time spent as it likely saved a lot of time sanding given the difficulty
of sanding end grain.


Step 4
After rotating and flipping every other piece, we're ready for the second glue-up.
The alignment of the second glue-up is critical. If the edges aren't parallel the
checkboard won't line up. If the thickness isn't contained you'll spend days sanding.
End grain is VERY difficult to sand. I ended up with a reasonably flat surface
and still spent 2-3 hours flattening it with a belt sander.


Summary
The end result turned out far better than expected, nice enough that I decided to not cut on it.
It was a fairly easy weekend project. After gluing the feet on and chamfering the edges, I
finished it with food grade mineral oil available in many stores. The hardest part of the project
was sanding it flat. Paying careful attention to the thickness during the second glue-up will save
hours of sanding time.