Cocktail-Optimized Cutting Board

Instructions

This is a quick project that I did using offcuts I already had from another project (hence the somewhat odd dimensions in the attached SVG). I used maple and walnut to make an alternating pattern glue-up, but you can use whatever woods you want, and you can make the pattern as elaborate or simple as you want. You'll want the board to be at least 3/4" thick. I suggest endgrain for cutting boards to go easier on your knife, but edge grain is okay too if you prefer that. Once you have your glue up, the steps are pretty simple: Use a thickness sander to get your glue-up flat and to the desired thickness. Cut the board out to the outside cut dimensions. There are two ways you can do this: Option 1 (If you don’t have Shaper Plate): Apply ShaperTape to the board and cut out the shape using a ¼” or 8mm bit. If you keep Origin pointed at the middle, you’ll have enough tape visibility to do this. Option 2 (If you have Shaper Plate): Do the X/Y dimensional cuts with a chopsaw, tracksaw, or table saw. Then use the corner rounding files from ShaperHub with Shaper Plate to make three 1” radius corners and one 2.25” radius corner. Apply ShaperTape to the top surface of the board (if not already done in previous step) and do the pocketing for the donut and the border, being sure to leave a 1/8” offset for the internal ball nose round over. Cut to a depth of 1/8”. I suggest using the 16mm clearing bit for the donut pocket to get the flattest bottom to minimize sanding effort. For the border channel, use a ¼” flat bottom bit. Remove the offset on Origin and do an inside cut for the border and the donut with a ball-nose bit to get a roundover. Use the engraving bit to cut the maker’s mark (feel free to swap mine for your own design). I suggest cutting to at least 0.04” deep if you want enough surface area to shove epoxy putty in. Mount the cutting board on the clamping face of Shaper workstation and use the ¼” bit to cut out handle areas sized to your liking (make a grid on Origin and use on-tool design to add the rectangles). Cut with an 1/8” offset and then go back in with the ball nose bit to do the interior rounding. Repeat this on the other side of the cutting board. Get some epoxy putty in the color of your choosing, mix it, and shove it into the marker’s mark engraving. After it hardens, use a hand plane to remove the excess. Sand everything down to at least 150 grit Use a trim router with a small roundover bit to round all the edges Finish standing to 220 grit or higher Soak board in food grade mineral oil overnight Let dry and apply more as needed Soften surface with steel wool #0000 Clean surface and then apply butcher block oil/wax Have a drink – you’ve earned it!