How to Make a Tardis End Grain Cutting Board

Hi everyone, my name is Ashley. I'm author of the blog Handmade with Ashley and I am excited to share the details on my latest project: a Tardis end grain cutting board. This is my first end grain cutting board, and despite a few flaws, I’m happy with how it turned out.

The following items are some of the tools and supplies that I gathered to create the Tardis end grain cutting board.

Tools (affiliate)

• Table saw
• Bandsaw
• Jointer
• Planer
• Orbital sander
• Clamps

Supplies

• Walnut
• Maple
• Cherry
• Wood Glue
• Mineral oil or Butcher block oil

Straigten the boards with a jointer and planer. Plane all the boards down to the same thickness. (I planed my boards down to 3/4″ thick.)

On the table saw, rip the boards to the same thickness as the board. (In my case this was 3/4″ wide strips.)

Cut the strips of wood into 2″ long pieces.

I did this on my bandsaw. I went with 2″ tall pixels to account for future material loss. (Final thickness of the Tardis cutting board was a little more than 1″.)

I used this the template Tardis end grain cutting board. (I wanted four different colors, but I only had walnut, maple and cherry on hand.)

Use a straight edge to help with alignment, and glue up the pixels. I recommend gluing a few sections at a time and then gluing the cutting board as a whole.

Ensure the board surface is level and the dried glue is cleaned up. On a long grain cutting board such as the one I made here, I would run the cutting board through the planer on both sides. Unfortunately, using a planer with an end grain cutting board is dangerous and not recommend.

There are a few things you can do to clean up the surface of the board:

• Build a router flattening sled
• Sand aggressively
• Use a drum sander

I built a quick router flattening sled from scraps, and I used my trim router to level the surface. I lost a lot of material at this step.

Sand the entire surface of the cutting board. Cycle through 80, 100, 150, 220 grits of sand paper. Grab a damp cloth and wipe the board to raise the grain. Finish sanding with 220 grit sand paper again.

Seal the cutting board with your favorite food safe finish (I used mineral oil) and enjoy!

If you enjoyed this Instructable and want to see more of my projects, check out my website here. I'm also on:

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