Breadboard Ends Oak Cutting Board

[Strokes77]

I had never made a project with breadboard ends before, so I decided to make this cutting board out of an extra red oak board I had laying around.

After planing and cutting the parts, it was time to cut the groove for the breadboard.  I used my Veritas small plough for this, worked awesome.  I cut it 5/16" wide, because that was the width of my Ray Iles mortising chisel. 


After the grooves were cut, I marked and chopped the mortises, 2" wide.  Then I marked and cut the shoulders of the tenons.  After that I split the cheeks of the tenon, shy of the line.  I cleaned them up with the Veritas router plane until they fit clean.  Then I marked and cut widths.  At this point the two panels of the cutting board were still separate.  So I had to measure carefully to ensure there was no gap in the middle of the panel. 



After I had it all dry fit, I drilled a 1/4" hole in the breadboard, marked the tenon, and cut the hole in the tenon 1/16" tighter to drawbore them together.  After a dab of glue and driving the oak dowel through, I planed it all flush and put a little oil on it.  I'm happy with the result, and I learned alot about breadboard ends.  I'll have more confidence to try this on a table top next.




Thanks for looking.

[tim_leo]

(can't see the photos)

[Strokes77]

Well that's frustrating.  They work fine in preview post...

[Rob Young]

Pic, dis-entangled...

[C. in Indy]

The project looks great!    Also, the countertop and stove are an exact match to my house's, so if you're bored, please make another board for me!

[Lynford in Reno]

The purpose of breadboard ends is two fold.  One, it keeps the center board from cupping.  Second, while keeping the center from cupping, it also allows the center to shrink or expand due to changes in humidity.  Your cutting board does the first very well but does not allow the center section to move at all.  You may be able to get away with this since the cutting board is not too big but on a table, you would be in trouble from low to high humidity.  It is not unusual to see 1/4" movement on table breadboards.  We live in the desert and I have fixed many tables from the coast that have blown up due to our 8% summer humidity and ill-fit breadboard ends.

Let us know how the oak grain structure worked out for a cutting board. I normally make them of close grained wood like maple and walnut and finished with food-safe oils.

[Derek Cohen]

Lynford is correct - they look nice (very nicely done) but the through tenons defeat the design of a breadboard end, which is to enable expansion to take place without the joint coming apart. 

It is important to point this out for anyone new to this joint, since it is incorrectly done here, and likely to self-destruct. Perhaps if the through tenons were located closer together and in the centre, this would allow the outer thirds to move.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Window Guy]

Thanks Rob for the pictures. That cutting board turned out great.



Steve

[hbmcc]

I like the design esthetics, and functionality. Even the through tenons avoid potential for trapped water in the mortise cavity. So often one can obsess over what something looks like until the utility is compromised. Need to concur with Lynford regarding the choice of oak. Birch and maple, or other dense closed grain, will reduce trapped food problems; and splinters.

[Strokes77]

Thanks for the words.  It was an interesting project that I got to learn alot with, and all it cost me was a scrap board.