Les Ateliers Bonzai

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Cutting boards commission

I've been lucky enough to get a second commission of cutting boards from a returning customer.  Here they are still in rough state

Some cutting boards that are waiting to be rejointed, thickness planned and dimensioned. Still need to be glued.

They are from hard maple and an insert of black walnut.  Nothing too fancy but times 100, it becomes a pretty interesting order.  Yeah Yeah some might say, 100 is not too much but for my perspective, 100 is pretty tall order when completing from evenings.  I am not a production shop, although the second time around, it is starting to be pretty interesting on optimizing some steps. 

Some process taughts

I don't own a table saw, although, right now, I wish I would for the repetitive rip cuts for when dimensioning some of the parts of the cutting boards.  Specially to bring to width the components.

Few years ago, I decided to got the plunge saw and a nice band saw.  The bandsaw blade that I got in there right now is not the smoothest.  I don't expect perfect cuts but the blade is for resaw and not for finish cuts.

This became fun the first time around was how could I efficiently get the edges true.  Well the key here was a sharp blade to minimise the drift and a good setup jointer to make sure the edges were good. A good jack plane helped here too.

  

Optimisation 

So the second time around, it is better and ultimately, will take less time to produce the same amount of cutting boards.  The choice of the lumber and the thickness helps here to reduce the time processing the lumber and getting the pieces glued, thicknessed and sanded/rounded over.

I'm still not production shop but I was able to shave off a few hours for the same amount of product delivered to the end user. Please see my cutting board page here for more details