This year I made Mary Lou a bread board for Christmas. It comes from a 1996 issue of Wood magazine and involves laminating many thin layers of cherry and maple into a board sized for French bread loaves or baguettes.
Each project I do is an opportunity to learn a new skill or to practice using a piece of equipment. For this board I needed to cut very thin pieces of cherry and maple - from 5/4 stock I cut 1-1/16th inch maple, 8-1/8th inch maple, 4-5/8th inch maple, 4-1/16 inch cherry, 4-1/8th inch cherry, and 4-1/4 inch cherry. I used a combination of a zero clearance insert with a Micro-Jig splitter and a home-made jig to set the width of cut on the cut-off side of the blade. After gluing, the ends are rounded and handles are created by removing some of the underside of the prominent end curves.
One lesson I have learned from woodworking is always to assume you will make a mistake and need to redo or start a step over. I have begun to cut more wood than necessary for a project. In this project I actually cut two of each size to make sure I had good glue surfaces and even widths the entire length. As luck would have it I ended up with two breadboards. I gave them both to my wife and she in turn offered one to my son, Eric.
One lesson I have learned from woodworking is always to assume you will make a mistake and need to redo or start a step over. I have begun to cut more wood than necessary for a project. In this project I actually cut two of each size to make sure I had good glue surfaces and even widths the entire length. As luck would have it I ended up with two breadboards. I gave them both to my wife and she in turn offered one to my son, Eric.
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