Butcher Block Kitchen Island

[scooters]

I just finished an end-grain butcher block center island for the house.
It certainly was one of the more challenging projects that i've done,mostly due to size of top (gluing/clamping capacity) and precision needed to get everything perfectly square. Finished project is 36w x 25d.

I started out with a couple of 8/4 slabs of walnut and cherry.
-Kept wood in house for a week to allow humidity/moisture adjustment.
-Planed them down to identical thickness (Shopsmith)
-Cut them to 3 foot lengths (Sears Miter Saw)
-Ripped them into 1, 1.5 & 2 inch strips (Shopsmith)
-Assembled them into 6 or 7 "slabs". Mixed the strips up for variety in species and width. Ensured that the width of each was exactly 8" when done.
-Also kept separate 1" strips for variety.
-Glued slabs up (Tightbond III).
-Planed the slabs to exact same thickness.
-Ripped (shaved) the final slabs slightly to ensure that they were all the same exact width.
-Cut slabs into 3" blocks (Miter Saw). I really worked to get my saw at a perfect 90 degrees for the cut. This worked better than expected.
-I made a clamping/gluing/squaring jig out of a piece of MDF. Simply a square-cornered section, bigger than the final top with 3" strips glued on 2 sides to keep the project square.
- Turned blocks on side (end grain). Assembled the blocks in rows of 3, plus a 1" block. Mixed them all up well. Random slab construction and multiple slabs and 1" filler block made for a very random look when done. Used care to stage a bit more walnut to the edge to match kitchen look (vs. Cherry).
-Laid wax paper in jig to avoid blocks sticking to jig.
-Assembled, glued and clamped first 1/3 of project.(jig and parallel clamps)
-Assembled, glued and clamped the other 2 thirds.
-Glued and clamped the 3 slabs together.
-Belt sanded all flat and then finished with random orbit sander. Started at 80 and worked down to 120

Total Blocks (approx) 315.

-Built the frame:
-4 pre-turned Alder legs (Osborne Wood Products)
-2 sliding baskets (John Boos) {{Poor Quality for price!}}
-Used extra walnut for basket runners and frame structure
-Used 8/4 cherry for sides.
-Lots of pocket screws and Tightbond III throughout
-Used cherry for bottom slats


-Finished frame with General Finishes Stain/Milk Paint/Glaze (antique look)
-Finished top with 1/2 General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish and 1/2 Mineral Spirits. I really mopped it on and let it soak in. Added Boos Mystery Oil and Board Cream when project was done.

-Added slats
-Added top (top floats a bit via oversized holes in the frame to allow for expansion and shrinkage.

-Added Towel Rack and hooks from old Island.


-Put New Island in kitchen
-Put Old Island on Craigslist

Whatdayathink?

[scooters]

Standby.. Sill sorting out how to add pictures.

[scooters]

OK... Need tutorial on adding pictures please. Am trying to upload as attachment. They don't seem to be working.

[Beave2012]

They have to be under a certain size. Most phones and cameras take too high resolution of a picture, this resulting in no upload and an often missed error message on the forum page. I use an app on Android called photo resizer. Either way drop them down to less than 1024 pixels on the biggest pixel number

[JPG]

This forum has a size limit for attaching pictures.

The maximum width is 2050 pixels.

The maximum height is 1180 pixels.

The picture must not exceed either limit.

For resizing(and other stuff) I recommend IRFANVIEW a free downloadable program(ap to you youngsters).

Any attachment cannot exceed 2 MB.

[scooters]

One more try.......
Had to resize and rotate all of them!
Thanks for the help!!

[everettdavis]

That is a very nice project and well documented.

I am sure it will be put to good use!

Everett

[charlese]

Excellent work, scooters!

Did you turn the legs?

[swampgator]

That is one mighty fine job! Thanks for sharing and posting all the history.

Steve, the old swampgator

[JPG]

That is truly impressive!

How did you attach the 'blocks' to the base?