Maple Cutting Board: Custom Island CNC Woodworking
When it comes to make a custom Maple cutting board, CNCROi.com can do so in any shape, size or wood species so today we’ll look at a Maple cutting board made in the shape of an island using our CNC router and other woodworking tools then personalized using our CNC laser.
For this custom Maple cutting board, we used a laminated solid Maple wood board, we’ve found that at the thickness required, it’s the strongest and most resistant to every chopping than a solid wood Maple slab that’s planed and cut to size.
If you are wondering what a solid slab of Maple looks like, here’s a video of a few solid Maple cottage signs we made, notice how the grain is found throughout the board, you can’t make out the individual pieces of maple because it’s from a solid slab, not a laminated Maple board.
If you wanted the above Maple cottage sign to be a custom Maple cutting board, it isn’t a problem but they do cost a lot more due to the amount of work required by CNCROi.com to produce the finished work over a laminated Maple board which is generally produced using off-cuts at the mill.
The first step towards producing a custom Maple cutting board in the shape of an island is to put it on our CNC router in order to cut the trowel around the board so that any juices from the cutting process don’t end-up on the countertop, this is done all the way around using a specialized angled bit.
If you are wondering what the engraving details look like on a piece of Maple, the above video will show you, before any sanding what’s possible resolution wise using our amazing Austrian wide-format industrial laser.
The focus of this bit isn’t to cut all the way through the board but just provide a small channel around the outer perimeter of the overall custom Maple cutting board so it’s about 1/8″ or 3 mm deep overall.
After the juice channel is made, it’s time to switch to a cutting bit that will produce the overall shape of the custom Maple cutting board, in this case, the shape of an island, the finish quality isn’t very important at this time, that’s produced during the sanding process at CNCROi.com.
This much bigger bit cuts right through the Maple like it a knife through butter, the diameter is a lot wider than the earlier juice channel bit but as we are cutting it out, it also does so a lot faster than using a smaller bit would.
When it comes to Maple, CNCROi.com can also produce custom stamps using this material, it’s very strong and works great for specific stamping applications where a more rustic look is required over the very polished results you get from just using rubber.
During production of this custom Maple cutting board, the board did move slightly, you can see the results in the image below, you have a bit of a roughing along the bottom left edge of the island cutting board but it looks far worse than it really is, sanding will even it all out no problem, the ledge you see there is less than a mm or 1/32″ so it’s really nothing.
I didn’t tell the CNC router to cut all the way through the board, just leave about 1/8″ or 3 mm in order to keep it stiff and in place due to the odd shape the board is being made in, our awesome bandsaw will cut the rest and that small ledge will disappear completely during the sanding process anyways.
I really love using our bandsaw, it’s just such a fun tool to use, when ever I get the chance, I use it and it’s a great compliment to the other tooling we have at CNCROi.com.
Maple is a wonderful hardwood as it have a really good weight to it and the grain really pops after being worked into the shape and spec our customers give to us.
Suffice it to say, there is also a lot of sanding required for a project like this custom Maple cutting board, but I also enjoy that process as well, it’s when you are finally polishing the gunk off the diamond to produce a finished masterpiece and the results of all the previous steps finally reveal themselves.
As nothing on this custom Maple cutting board in the shape of an island is straight, sanding it took a little longer than usual but it did a great job hugging all the curves and removing all the excess material all around the board to produce a nice polished finish.
The results look great, everything came out amazing on this island shaped cutting board, that’s one thing I really like about wood, it’s really hard to screw anything up on it as it’s just such a flexible material to work with across a variety of applications for our customers.
The next step at CNCROi.com for this custom Maple cutting board was to laser engrave the personalized message on the back, so this board was made using a mix of high technology equipment and more traditional woodworking tools.
After cutting, sanding and personalizing this custom Maple cutting board, it was time to put some mineral oil on all the surfaces to give it a really nice shine and protect the surface for generations to come.
If you are looking for a custom Maple cutting board, contact CNCROi.com right now!