I’ve been a full-time woodworker for almost 8 years, so I’m pretty experienced in most areas.  Over time, projects become easier because in many cases, I have done that same type of project for other customers.  It’s kind of like when I started selling custom closets.  The very first one took twice as long to install as they do today, because I have a better and more efficient process.   I use to take a long time to resolve an unexpected challenge during installation, but there are very few unexpected surprises today because I have seen most of these problems before and know immediately how to correct it.

The same holds true for cutting boards.  I have made hundreds of boards over the past couple of years in all different sizes and patterns.  However, the current one I am working on has presented new challenges.

This is a commission piece that is 25” x 32” x 1.5”.  It is a monster of a board and the largest one I have made to date.  Because of the size, I had to make the strips up in sections.  In fact, I have had to do just about everything in sections.  I probably stared at it for about 30 minutes today, trying to figure out the best process to apply the glue.  I knew it would be a longer process than I was use to with my normal smaller boards, but I needed to make sure the glue didn’t start drying too quick on the front end before I got to the tail end.  I can’t use my regular clamps and cawls, so I had to break out the long clamps and piece together cawls to keep the strips from slipping when applying pressure.

Tomorrow will be the defining moment when I run this monster through my drum sander.  I have a Jet 16/32 sander so I will have to use the open end function and make double passes.  The big challenge is holding the board steady during this operation.

This is the board drying in the clamps today.

Large Glue Up