Today is a test of who actually reads my post and who doesn't. Why is that? Because this post isn't about finishing a project, it's about the mistakes we learn from along the way. Today's post isn't about an active project I'm working on. It's about a project I started, but failed at! I haven't taken any pictures of why my project failed.... YET!
Everyone knows I'm working on cutting boards a lot lately. And I'm doing it with the hope of selling them and bring in some extra money. I feel like I have a pretty decent skill, and the tools to put it into practice, so monetizing on that isn't a bad thing. In line with that, I was working on a larger cutting board similar to one I've already put together (and posted about). Here's a shot of it in the early stages.
By the way, that shot also has a pretty sweet shot of my toes. No big deal...Anyways, I decided on this particular project to utilize my biscuit joiner. I thought it would make a stronger joint and a better connection across the board. Everything came together well, I had no issues with putting it all together, but just when I thought everything was nearing completion.... DISASTOR!
Nearing the end of this project I decided to put a thin trim on the edge of this board, I'm into the trim right now, I think it looks really nice to have one solid border all the way around the final piece. It gives my cutting boards a really nice sense of....closure? I dunno, I just think they look cool!
Now we get to the meat and potatoes. After I put the trim on and having given the glue ample time to set, I decided to run my cutting board through my brand new planer! Some of you reading this post may be thinking "NOOOOOO Nick, DON'T DO IT"! And to that I say... "where you you when I was making this decision?". All joking aside, I ran my cutting board through, and the first thing that happened was it ripped the back edge trim right off the cutting board. This didn't panic me to much, I can repair that. But why did it rip the edge off?
It ripped the edge off because of the way the planer works. It has a clockwise spinning blade with an edge on it, that edge is what does the work on solid surface. Planing things out. Well in my effort to level off the board, I tried to take a little to much off, and that spinnning edge caught the lip of the trim and flung it right off! Like I said earlier, I wasn't to worried about it, it wasn't expected, but I knew I could fix it. However, I still needed to level out the board so I ran it through one more time.... This is where things get interesting...
Remember earlier when I mentioned that I used my biscuit joiner? Yeah well that was a HUGE mistake.... Anyone who uses a biscuit joiner knows that it leaves gaps in the wood. This is a result of cutting a larger oblong shape into the wood, with which you would ultimately place a biscuit. The result of that is you end up with weak points in the wood. In a cutting board that is already less than 1 inch, this weak points become rather substantial. When I ran my cutting board through the planer one more time, those weak points were uncovered. A large section of the weak wood was chipped off (caught by the edge of the planer along a slightly taller surface). You can actually see the biscuit that I used in that section of wood!
I don't wanna drag things on. I know most people probably don't want to read super lengthy articles... Buuuuut. I learned a lot from this project. And the lesson is simple...don't use biscuit joiners all willy nilly! And if you do... think about how those will affect your project! Here's where I learn how many people actually read through my articles...If you read this article, all you have to do is post a one word comment on what you think of this post! I.E. "boring, informational, fun" etc. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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