Shopsmith Forums

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?

Standby.. Sill sorting out how to add pictures.

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

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

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.

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

That is a very nice project and well documented.

I am sure it will be put to good use!

Everett

Excellent work, scooters!

Did you turn the legs?

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

Steve, the old swampgator

That is truly impressive!

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