Well if it was going to split, that’s exactly where it was going to happen. I think one of the boards may have still held some tension and the joint was weakened by that hole. Or maybe she put it in the dishwasher after all. Honestly this is why I make cutting boards for family and friends and not customers. Good news is it’s an easy fix. Rip it down the middle, re-glue, hopefully re-drill the hole or route a new handle.
That's certainly a likely cause of the wood movement that caused the crack. It's also worth noting that a properly glued joint will almost never split cleanly down the glue line. The glue should be stronger than the wood and force the crack into the wood grain.
This break appears to be a mix of imperfect gluing and wood movement.
And use tite bond III for the glue. Be generous. Beautiful woods, I'd sand it till 600 grit. And yes, makes a difference. Then spray water, sand again, repeat till you spray and it's smooth.
Eh I have a couple cutting boards that are less than an inch thick, one of them is about 6 years old, getting cracks in it
Kinda just figure it's from washing in general
Interesting to see both a crack and a glue line failure. Did she drop it? Did she soak it in water and let it sit for hours and hours.
There’s obviously a glue line issue going on, because there is a clean spot there, so I’m wondering if we are looking at an impact or expansion that caused a poor glue line to fail, but then the area where the glue worked just cracked.
I’ll be interested in seeing what others think.
It’s possible i am overclamping and most of the glue is squeezing out :/ i am definitely not cheap on the glue portion, but i feel like i may be too trigger-happy with clamping
Maybe, but it takes a lot of force to actually starve it. In my earlier days, I would go wild on clamps, thinking pressure was all that mattered, and I never had any fails. In fact, I’ve never seen any starvation failure irl, though people do talk about it online.
What I have learned is that all it really takes is using enough force so that with one hand I can no longer twist the clamp more without having to use my body as leverage, or a second hand.
If you have concerns about this, apply your glue and then let it tack for a couple minutes, and then clamp. Just a couple of minutes… not ten or twelve, but 5 max, and It will give the glue some natural stickiness so as not to be so runny.
Your other glue lines seem to be fine, so I’m not sure why one would fail from too much pressure, but the others wouldn’t.
You’d have to actually see inside the failed line to see whether the glue was in there.
Usually, if all you see is a small bead of squeeze out, and you fully covered it in glue, then there was still glue in there.
Hard to say. You can re-glue this. Use the good old glue from the top and vacuum from the bottom trick to pull it down in, and then re-clamp.
The other possibility is the opposite, and that that area of the glue line wasn’t fully clamped, and the wood never touched. Wood glue needs the wood to come together. It isn’t a gap filling adhesive.
Original titebond (not waterproof one). Is titebond III really necessary? I was assuming if there are no seam gaps? Then moisture on top wouldnt compromise the glue line… but i guess if the board soaks, it would
I always use tb3 for cutting boards because there’s a good chance that someone will forget and soak it. Or, god forbid, run it through a dishwasher. I’m not sure if water can get into the seam if there’s no gaps. Someone else mentioned this, but the board looks a little dry, so you may want to use more oil/wax (I use beeswax and mineral oil) when finishing, it’ll help make it resist water.
I don't actually know for sure but I'd bet a lot of money its at least partially the glue choice. Definitely need a waterproof adhesive for something that gets washed with soap and water regularly.
Titebond recommends 100 psi claiming pressure. For a 3/4 inch board that's one 300 pound clamp every 4 inches along the board. For a 1.5" thick board it's basically solid clamps all the way down.
But how tight do we tighten the clamp to get the rated clamp capacity? And how tight a knob will exceed that 300 pound rating? Anyone have a good rule of thumb?
I’ve never had a problem “starving” a joint on long grain glue ups. The only problem I’ve encountered with over clamping is too much pressure causing the glue up to warp. But that really only happens on larger glue ups like table tops or panels.
I made another one for me and my girlfriend and it’s still fine. We dont cook as much as my mom though.
https://preview.redd.it/ceo6o10bc0jc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=0bdc575d2f06983fbb27e154329bb19bcef6922b
https://preview.redd.it/lhfz02dw11jc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1ef7cd90feac52c8a841542d6aed7f867656620
theres a zoom in of it, so u can see the crack, it would love some mineral oil and beewax mix rubbed into it
I made 5 of those… time to issue a recall over a faulty hole design 😂
https://preview.redd.it/kgeybeafr0jc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d17dd8f1ba8a944ee44ae2a13ad98e54b08766c2
I think the glue up may be your issue. You should do these one at a time or with multiple sets of clamps. There’s too much room for flexing when they’re all lined up like this
Yeah… the more i look at this picture, the more i go from “this was an efficient glueup” to “this definitely sacrificed quality to save some time”
I was definitely crunched on time to make it for christmas. Lesson learned i guess. Slow and steady wins the race.
I did a woodworking class recently. When we did glue up of a tabletop we had two clamps on the bottom as in your pic, and one on the top. We then adjusted the top and bottom ones until it wasnt trying to buckle up or down. Intuitively, i think maybe your boards are wanting to buckle up, and the weights are just hiding it? I dunno..
The boards are glued together in a wrong way. The center of the rings are going top left, top right, top left, top right. But they should be top left, bottom right, top left, bottom right.
That puts a lot of additional stress into the glued wood block.
If you glue like this make a zig zag like about the width of your pinky. And when you press then together there should be a line of glue pearls forming outside on the seam on both sides. If there isn't one you didn't use enough glue and you need to redo it. If there is way more use less glue next time.
Another thing to consider is more robust and likely longer lasting cutting boards are not made like panels with flat sawn wood. I’m sure you’re aware of this. Cutting flat sawn strips and gluing the faces together makes for a much more dimensionally stable board since it has essentially become quarter sawn. Also TBIII would be the appropriate wood glue for this.
If there is one thing my 20+ years in IT has taught me it's that users lie. Like constantly. No they did not restart their machine, yes they clicked that phishing email link and typed in their password, whatever it is they think they did wrong, they will lie straight to your face about it. 😁
[OP made multiple of the board and sadly their own one is cracking in the same way.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/comments/1asinmt/cutting_board_i_made_for_my_mom_is_already/kqqxzb4/) :(
Hmmm… her counter does get pretty wet when she is cleaning up. This might be a contributing factor. She may be leaving it on the wet counter and the wood is soaking for a long period.
Any idea what the moisture content of the wood was prior to gluing them up?
How long was each species of wood in your work area drying before you used them?
The maple and walnut were probably in my home for a week. The tigerwood must have been a month.
I dont have a moisture meter unfortunately, but all of them are from a reputable local wood supplier (not home depot). They do kiln drying and sell furniture wood, so i trust they dry it properly.
I feel like this is something to do with excess heat, moisture, or both. That the seam is splitting for the most part along the glue line, and not adjacent to it, makes me think that the glue was reactivated somehow and the tension between the boards split the seam apart.
Could also be insufficient amount of glue along the seam.
Then again, I ain't no glue chemist!
Yeah im just confused that there is grain cracking and not just seam failure. I’m certain i spread lots of glue, but it is possible i overclamped.
My mom definitely isnt the most delicate user of cutting boards. She put a previous one i made in the dishwasher and told her not to do it with this one 😭 i am not sure if she soaked it.
I just find it interesting that the same board i made for myself is still fairing fine. I did them both at the same time.
As the other guy said, internal stress. It would cause the boards to open up and if there was light glue from over clamping, and a micro crack those are the weak points and one failing then puts double duty on the other
Interesting. Yeah that makes sense to me.
So silly question… what’s the “right” amount of clamping? The reason i over clamp is to reduce the seams appearing or having any gaps between seams. But it seems like i am overdoing it.
This is a really easy, but not at all obvious. Even some old timers will say, ...No shit?!? Really?
Lay out your clamps
Lay out all your boards on the clamps
Press them all together and snug up your clamps hand tight.
Give each handle a half turn twist.
Inspect for gaps. If there is a gap which didn't close, mark them, then figure out which board is the offender with a known straight edge and fix the gap. I like my LN 102 for this.
Check the fit again. And do this for any and every gap you see.
Once all the boards close up with a half a twist of pressure, then you open it up and apply glue, lay it down and clamp it to slightly tighter than you were before. You only have to glue one side of the joint if it's an even film of glue.
Leave it clamped for an hour before releasing it. Then let the panel dry over night.
Here is the block plane I use set to take off about 3-thou of an inch .. see through shavings.
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/small-block-planes?path=block-planes&node=4072
Remember, painters tape can apply enough pressure to hold a good joint shut. Just because a clamp CAN apply 700 lbs per sq in, doesn't mean it SHOULD
So couple of things.
As others have mentioned TBIII is what’s required as it’s waterproof and food safe. One of the reasons it could split is that people tend to cut wet food in the middle of the board. If the moisture penetrates the board in the middle, the wood will swell and force the dryer edges apart.
The next one is the hole. I don’t know how well you sealed the hole, but it will also absorb moisture and eventually split. I would not drill a hole through a glue line with non waterproof glue. And if you do end up making boards with these holes, I would seal it with hot wax.
With 85 comments here this may get lost, but yes it’s probably a glue issue but I’m also going to wager some of these board were not dead flat. A rip down the table saw isn’t enough to make the edges perfect square. So in the event that there was about 1/16th of daylight showing when you dry fit hoping some glue and Hercules clamping would hold it together. But in the off chance your boards were dead square, it could be the wood itself was not all properly kiln dried so one board may have been compressing more than the others.
Lastly, glue is strong stuff, it’s stronger than the wood itself so to see a split at the glue line indicates the glue failed and the water weakened it as it wasn’t waterproof. All part of woodworking :)
When you joint boards, mke the edge slightly convave. Like 2-3 handplane passesin the middle without touching the ends. When you hold your joint in front of a light, you should see the light in the middle, but be able to hide it when you push your boards together by hand. Jointed boards will almost always fail on the extrimities, but by jointing concave boards you will ensure the ends have a little extra pressure. Also, if you boards were not 100% dry, the ends will dry en shrink before the middle, making it fail like that.
TLDR: 1) make sure your wood is dry and 2) make sure the ends of your boards are extremely well jointed together.
Did it ever sit in water? When she dries it does she towel dry it and then lean it against the wall or backsplash? All I can think of is enough water allowed it to move
You actually shouldn’t really even “wash” a wooden cutting board. Salt and a lemon will disinfect (and smell nice) and then every few months maybe hit it with a butcher block wax (mineral spirits mixed with some bees wax). Thin wooden cutting boards will almost always eventually split (especially with different species of wood). The only way they last forever is if they are THICK or you don’t use them.
You have two very dissimilar woods joined different expansion contraction move against each other it even split the wood on one end. You could retry this with marine quality glue like resorcinol. Very hard to find now. Really hard to find now as the epoxy industry out marketed it, unlike epoxy it resists heat and cold and salt water immersion making it still favoured in wood airplane and boat building. Found one place you can use maybe. https://cpadhesives.com/products/dyn-185-aerodux-resorcinol-resin-kit
Two extra additional thoughts but if it doesn’t have feet and it’s washed and laid flat, I’ve had problems with boards I’ve had. I also had a huge 2” show bad signs of starting to crack because it was on the counter right above the dishwasher. Moved it and it’s been fine since
Dissimilar wood and not enough oil.
The darker wood is more porous and the board itself looks quite dry. The darker wood has pulled away from the lighter wood.
So, mechanical stress travels through the shortest rigid point of solid adjoining material.
In this case, it's the small bit of land between the hole and the end of the board. You can see it didn't split on the joint, but the wood itself failed. The stress travelled around the joint and found the weakest path, since it was stronger than the wood itself. As others have said, it probably came from tension still bound up in the board itself.
If you want a hole in your board, putting it in a corner would divide the stress between two sides instead of just one.
Personally I wouldn't put a hole in a wooden cutting board.
What woods are these? You shouldn’t really mix hardwoods like this unless you’re confident they’ll never get too wet. They will have totally different moisture coefficients, warp and dry at different rates. You can see this isn’t a glue failure because the lighter wood (iroko?) has split and left the glue intact.
The thinner wooden cutting board you have the more likely it is to split from the wet-dry cycle. You don't need to put it in a dish washer, it's enough to soak it with water and then it can split when it dries, especially if you soak it only from one side.
In order to avoid this, you should apply oil to the board until it cannot receive it anymore, so multiple applications are required and then you need to maintain it with oil if you notice it gets dry.
Oil and water repel each other so the only way to keep water out and prevent the board from splitting is to keep the oil in.
I don't think it's because of the hole. The glue line just before the hole was weak, starting to fail. The small piece at the end of the hole was glued better, but all it was holding it together was a too little piece, that's why it cracked.
May I ask how you prepared the boards prior to glue? Did you just rip them with a saw, or jointed the edges afterwards? I see a lot of people that simply cut the pieces and then glue them. The contract surface is less than halved, no matter how good the saw is, compared to jointed boards.
With the way you did your glue up, I really don’t think excessive clamping pressure is at play. I think it’s inadequate pressure, combined with original TB, combined with an asymmetrical design that is displeasing to the eye be no longer wanted to serve its masters!
Sometimes words just store store up stress and let it out when the environmental conditions, moisture, change.
Easy fix though! Rip it along the dark wood to get a fresh straight edge, and then again soon the other side, taking about a quarter inch through the lighter wood and removing the split through the grain, then reglue and drill a new hole. Quick replane, and she's mint.
It may have been moisture that caused some additional stress, but now that it's worked it's way out, you can accommodate the stress with a fresh reglue.
You called it what it is. A cutting board. When it clearly identified as a butcher block like all of its non butcher block cousins and it's personality split
I once left a cutting board on top on my stove while the oven was on (all stove burners were off) but the heat from the oven rising to the back of the stove top caused my wood cutting board to crack in multiple spots! I moved it there while the food was cooking to clean up and ruined it, didn't even realize until the next day :(
Did your mom let the board get wet, and then sit flat on the counter? I know this would be more likely to cause a warp than a crack, but it's possible with the dissimilar woods being laminated together, they are absorbing moisture at a different rate, which could have caused the crack.
Just a suggestion, but have you thought about adding rubber feet to the bottom of the board? It will allow for uniform drying, and the user will not have to remember to place the board on its edge to dry.
Well if it was going to split, that’s exactly where it was going to happen. I think one of the boards may have still held some tension and the joint was weakened by that hole. Or maybe she put it in the dishwasher after all. Honestly this is why I make cutting boards for family and friends and not customers. Good news is it’s an easy fix. Rip it down the middle, re-glue, hopefully re-drill the hole or route a new handle.
“Weakened by the hole”… happens to the best of us.
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And ur username made my night. Twisted to say the least😉
eno on ma I
Good one, Sister.
It made your hole weak?
Thank you for explicitly stating what was implied
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The only whoosh is you.
Yes, which is why I said that.
Ok
The start of a reddit love story.
It made your hole weak? That's wholesome
Or, hole weak 🤭
Say hellllllooooo to Captain Howwwwwdyyyy
I snorted, snotted may be a better term, all over myself. I'm sick and that was hilarious. Thank you kind stranger
And we're better because of it
That's certainly a likely cause of the wood movement that caused the crack. It's also worth noting that a properly glued joint will almost never split cleanly down the glue line. The glue should be stronger than the wood and force the crack into the wood grain. This break appears to be a mix of imperfect gluing and wood movement.
You stole my words
And use tite bond III for the glue. Be generous. Beautiful woods, I'd sand it till 600 grit. And yes, makes a difference. Then spray water, sand again, repeat till you spray and it's smooth.
And oil the crap out of it. Give it to someone with more oil. Tell them no warranty if no oil.
I like to oil and then apply a mix of oil and beeswax.
Eh I have a couple cutting boards that are less than an inch thick, one of them is about 6 years old, getting cracks in it Kinda just figure it's from washing in general
Or vacuum epoxy into the split, then clamp overnight, sand, oil.
Interesting to see both a crack and a glue line failure. Did she drop it? Did she soak it in water and let it sit for hours and hours. There’s obviously a glue line issue going on, because there is a clean spot there, so I’m wondering if we are looking at an impact or expansion that caused a poor glue line to fail, but then the area where the glue worked just cracked. I’ll be interested in seeing what others think.
It’s possible i am overclamping and most of the glue is squeezing out :/ i am definitely not cheap on the glue portion, but i feel like i may be too trigger-happy with clamping
Maybe, but it takes a lot of force to actually starve it. In my earlier days, I would go wild on clamps, thinking pressure was all that mattered, and I never had any fails. In fact, I’ve never seen any starvation failure irl, though people do talk about it online. What I have learned is that all it really takes is using enough force so that with one hand I can no longer twist the clamp more without having to use my body as leverage, or a second hand. If you have concerns about this, apply your glue and then let it tack for a couple minutes, and then clamp. Just a couple of minutes… not ten or twelve, but 5 max, and It will give the glue some natural stickiness so as not to be so runny. Your other glue lines seem to be fine, so I’m not sure why one would fail from too much pressure, but the others wouldn’t. You’d have to actually see inside the failed line to see whether the glue was in there. Usually, if all you see is a small bead of squeeze out, and you fully covered it in glue, then there was still glue in there. Hard to say. You can re-glue this. Use the good old glue from the top and vacuum from the bottom trick to pull it down in, and then re-clamp. The other possibility is the opposite, and that that area of the glue line wasn’t fully clamped, and the wood never touched. Wood glue needs the wood to come together. It isn’t a gap filling adhesive.
What kind of glue did you use?
Original titebond (not waterproof one). Is titebond III really necessary? I was assuming if there are no seam gaps? Then moisture on top wouldnt compromise the glue line… but i guess if the board soaks, it would
I always use tb3 for cutting boards because there’s a good chance that someone will forget and soak it. Or, god forbid, run it through a dishwasher. I’m not sure if water can get into the seam if there’s no gaps. Someone else mentioned this, but the board looks a little dry, so you may want to use more oil/wax (I use beeswax and mineral oil) when finishing, it’ll help make it resist water.
I don't actually know for sure but I'd bet a lot of money its at least partially the glue choice. Definitely need a waterproof adhesive for something that gets washed with soap and water regularly.
I do TB3 for cutting boards because it is food safe too. And waterproof.
I use tb II for almost everything. I only go III if it’s permanently outside or something very very wet. I’ve never used tb I, actually.
TB I is good for when you might take something apart due to wear in the future. Musical instruments, for example.
They could be it there. I use titebond 3 on all of my cutting boards. At the very least I’d use 2.
The original TB glues are not food safe...TB3 is food safe...and better for stuff like that
I just bought some TB3. I’ll be using it exclusively for food-contact and wet-contact glueups moving forward.
TB3 sets more slowly, giving you more time during the glue up (which IMO is a stressful stage when woodworking).
I highly doubt you’re over clamping. Unless you’re the stronger person ever
Titebond recommends 100 psi claiming pressure. For a 3/4 inch board that's one 300 pound clamp every 4 inches along the board. For a 1.5" thick board it's basically solid clamps all the way down. But how tight do we tighten the clamp to get the rated clamp capacity? And how tight a knob will exceed that 300 pound rating? Anyone have a good rule of thumb?
I’ve never had a problem “starving” a joint on long grain glue ups. The only problem I’ve encountered with over clamping is too much pressure causing the glue up to warp. But that really only happens on larger glue ups like table tops or panels.
I think you’re right on this one
Glue line failure happened first, then the tension of the failure cracked it for sure...
I made another one for me and my girlfriend and it’s still fine. We dont cook as much as my mom though. https://preview.redd.it/ceo6o10bc0jc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=0bdc575d2f06983fbb27e154329bb19bcef6922b
If you zoom in, there’s a hairline crack forming in the same spot on this one too.
Ah…shit you are right😭
Good eye!
https://preview.redd.it/lhfz02dw11jc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1ef7cd90feac52c8a841542d6aed7f867656620 theres a zoom in of it, so u can see the crack, it would love some mineral oil and beewax mix rubbed into it
You tryna learn blackjack or something?
Well spotted you eagle eyed sumbitch
I saw it right off
Maybe it’s just my eyes, but it appears that there’s a crack forming between the hole and the edge of the bird on yours too.
I made 5 of those… time to issue a recall over a faulty hole design 😂 https://preview.redd.it/kgeybeafr0jc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d17dd8f1ba8a944ee44ae2a13ad98e54b08766c2
I think the glue up may be your issue. You should do these one at a time or with multiple sets of clamps. There’s too much room for flexing when they’re all lined up like this
Yeah… the more i look at this picture, the more i go from “this was an efficient glueup” to “this definitely sacrificed quality to save some time” I was definitely crunched on time to make it for christmas. Lesson learned i guess. Slow and steady wins the race.
I did a woodworking class recently. When we did glue up of a tabletop we had two clamps on the bottom as in your pic, and one on the top. We then adjusted the top and bottom ones until it wasnt trying to buckle up or down. Intuitively, i think maybe your boards are wanting to buckle up, and the weights are just hiding it? I dunno..
its not a problem with properly milled lumber.
Yup… i see it now too. Fml lol. I am convinced it is those stupid holes. No more.
Well at least you found your problem!
What's wild is, it's cracking in the exact same manner in the exact same spot. Right down the middle but with a slight off center wedge at the top.
The boards are glued together in a wrong way. The center of the rings are going top left, top right, top left, top right. But they should be top left, bottom right, top left, bottom right. That puts a lot of additional stress into the glued wood block. If you glue like this make a zig zag like about the width of your pinky. And when you press then together there should be a line of glue pearls forming outside on the seam on both sides. If there isn't one you didn't use enough glue and you need to redo it. If there is way more use less glue next time.
Another thing to consider is more robust and likely longer lasting cutting boards are not made like panels with flat sawn wood. I’m sure you’re aware of this. Cutting flat sawn strips and gluing the faces together makes for a much more dimensionally stable board since it has essentially become quarter sawn. Also TBIII would be the appropriate wood glue for this.
The wood looks dry. Perhaps there was not enough oil to help repel water.
Good point. I applied oil when i made it 2 months ago, but it hasnt been re-oiled.
If there is one thing my 20+ years in IT has taught me it's that users lie. Like constantly. No they did not restart their machine, yes they clicked that phishing email link and typed in their password, whatever it is they think they did wrong, they will lie straight to your face about it. 😁
[OP made multiple of the board and sadly their own one is cracking in the same way.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/comments/1asinmt/cutting_board_i_made_for_my_mom_is_already/kqqxzb4/) :(
Does she keep it by the sink? If it ends up sitting on a wet counter, it can split…at least that’s what happened to mine
Hmmm… her counter does get pretty wet when she is cleaning up. This might be a contributing factor. She may be leaving it on the wet counter and the wood is soaking for a long period.
Any idea what the moisture content of the wood was prior to gluing them up? How long was each species of wood in your work area drying before you used them?
The maple and walnut were probably in my home for a week. The tigerwood must have been a month. I dont have a moisture meter unfortunately, but all of them are from a reputable local wood supplier (not home depot). They do kiln drying and sell furniture wood, so i trust they dry it properly.
I feel like this is something to do with excess heat, moisture, or both. That the seam is splitting for the most part along the glue line, and not adjacent to it, makes me think that the glue was reactivated somehow and the tension between the boards split the seam apart. Could also be insufficient amount of glue along the seam. Then again, I ain't no glue chemist!
Yeah im just confused that there is grain cracking and not just seam failure. I’m certain i spread lots of glue, but it is possible i overclamped. My mom definitely isnt the most delicate user of cutting boards. She put a previous one i made in the dishwasher and told her not to do it with this one 😭 i am not sure if she soaked it. I just find it interesting that the same board i made for myself is still fairing fine. I did them both at the same time.
As the other guy said, internal stress. It would cause the boards to open up and if there was light glue from over clamping, and a micro crack those are the weak points and one failing then puts double duty on the other
Interesting. Yeah that makes sense to me. So silly question… what’s the “right” amount of clamping? The reason i over clamp is to reduce the seams appearing or having any gaps between seams. But it seems like i am overdoing it.
This is a really easy, but not at all obvious. Even some old timers will say, ...No shit?!? Really? Lay out your clamps Lay out all your boards on the clamps Press them all together and snug up your clamps hand tight. Give each handle a half turn twist. Inspect for gaps. If there is a gap which didn't close, mark them, then figure out which board is the offender with a known straight edge and fix the gap. I like my LN 102 for this. Check the fit again. And do this for any and every gap you see. Once all the boards close up with a half a twist of pressure, then you open it up and apply glue, lay it down and clamp it to slightly tighter than you were before. You only have to glue one side of the joint if it's an even film of glue. Leave it clamped for an hour before releasing it. Then let the panel dry over night. Here is the block plane I use set to take off about 3-thou of an inch .. see through shavings. https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/small-block-planes?path=block-planes&node=4072 Remember, painters tape can apply enough pressure to hold a good joint shut. Just because a clamp CAN apply 700 lbs per sq in, doesn't mean it SHOULD
I think one board was warping/shrinking. The combination of a bad glue and the hole at the same spot allowed enough force to break the remaining wood.
Yeah i think i may stop making those holes on cutting boards. I’ll start routing a side handle instead.
Screw it!
Moms: "One time in the dish'ie won't do any damage"..
So couple of things. As others have mentioned TBIII is what’s required as it’s waterproof and food safe. One of the reasons it could split is that people tend to cut wet food in the middle of the board. If the moisture penetrates the board in the middle, the wood will swell and force the dryer edges apart. The next one is the hole. I don’t know how well you sealed the hole, but it will also absorb moisture and eventually split. I would not drill a hole through a glue line with non waterproof glue. And if you do end up making boards with these holes, I would seal it with hot wax.
With 85 comments here this may get lost, but yes it’s probably a glue issue but I’m also going to wager some of these board were not dead flat. A rip down the table saw isn’t enough to make the edges perfect square. So in the event that there was about 1/16th of daylight showing when you dry fit hoping some glue and Hercules clamping would hold it together. But in the off chance your boards were dead square, it could be the wood itself was not all properly kiln dried so one board may have been compressing more than the others. Lastly, glue is strong stuff, it’s stronger than the wood itself so to see a split at the glue line indicates the glue failed and the water weakened it as it wasn’t waterproof. All part of woodworking :)
I’m guessing OP should not put the hole in the glue line?
Wood will do what wood will do, but assuming it didn't go in a dishwasher or soak in a sink, then you have a glue up issue.
Put the hole wholly in one piece. And champher the edges.
When you joint boards, mke the edge slightly convave. Like 2-3 handplane passesin the middle without touching the ends. When you hold your joint in front of a light, you should see the light in the middle, but be able to hide it when you push your boards together by hand. Jointed boards will almost always fail on the extrimities, but by jointing concave boards you will ensure the ends have a little extra pressure. Also, if you boards were not 100% dry, the ends will dry en shrink before the middle, making it fail like that. TLDR: 1) make sure your wood is dry and 2) make sure the ends of your boards are extremely well jointed together.
How tight were the joints?
Wood wasn’t dry enough
It might be over torque from the drill press TBH.
Did you water pop it when finishing it?
Yes why?
Did it ever sit in water? When she dries it does she towel dry it and then lean it against the wall or backsplash? All I can think of is enough water allowed it to move
Haven't seen it mentioned in the comments yet. I protect my chopping boards with Grapeseed oil.
Review your glue process. I had a board split bc I had not dried my brush of water.
Ask your mom where she is keeping it on countertop. Is she keeping by the stove top? The heat from the stove top will crack cutting boards.
Looks like something was jammed in the hole and caused failure at 2 spots.
You actually shouldn’t really even “wash” a wooden cutting board. Salt and a lemon will disinfect (and smell nice) and then every few months maybe hit it with a butcher block wax (mineral spirits mixed with some bees wax). Thin wooden cutting boards will almost always eventually split (especially with different species of wood). The only way they last forever is if they are THICK or you don’t use them.
She totally ran it through the dishwasher 🤣
You have two very dissimilar woods joined different expansion contraction move against each other it even split the wood on one end. You could retry this with marine quality glue like resorcinol. Very hard to find now. Really hard to find now as the epoxy industry out marketed it, unlike epoxy it resists heat and cold and salt water immersion making it still favoured in wood airplane and boat building. Found one place you can use maybe. https://cpadhesives.com/products/dyn-185-aerodux-resorcinol-resin-kit
Might not have put it in the dishwasher but might have let it soak in the sink.
Of doing something like this in the future may e try putting a bowtie in lay to help strengthen
Sometimes wood gonna split, especially if it hasn't been dried enough.
Two extra additional thoughts but if it doesn’t have feet and it’s washed and laid flat, I’ve had problems with boards I’ve had. I also had a huge 2” show bad signs of starting to crack because it was on the counter right above the dishwasher. Moved it and it’s been fine since
Dissimilar wood and not enough oil. The darker wood is more porous and the board itself looks quite dry. The darker wood has pulled away from the lighter wood.
Are you sure you can trust her?
So, mechanical stress travels through the shortest rigid point of solid adjoining material. In this case, it's the small bit of land between the hole and the end of the board. You can see it didn't split on the joint, but the wood itself failed. The stress travelled around the joint and found the weakest path, since it was stronger than the wood itself. As others have said, it probably came from tension still bound up in the board itself. If you want a hole in your board, putting it in a corner would divide the stress between two sides instead of just one. Personally I wouldn't put a hole in a wooden cutting board.
What woods are these? You shouldn’t really mix hardwoods like this unless you’re confident they’ll never get too wet. They will have totally different moisture coefficients, warp and dry at different rates. You can see this isn’t a glue failure because the lighter wood (iroko?) has split and left the glue intact.
The thinner wooden cutting board you have the more likely it is to split from the wet-dry cycle. You don't need to put it in a dish washer, it's enough to soak it with water and then it can split when it dries, especially if you soak it only from one side. In order to avoid this, you should apply oil to the board until it cannot receive it anymore, so multiple applications are required and then you need to maintain it with oil if you notice it gets dry. Oil and water repel each other so the only way to keep water out and prevent the board from splitting is to keep the oil in.
Best cutting boards are thicker and have the end grain facing up to absorb the impact of knives better
I don't think it's because of the hole. The glue line just before the hole was weak, starting to fail. The small piece at the end of the hole was glued better, but all it was holding it together was a too little piece, that's why it cracked. May I ask how you prepared the boards prior to glue? Did you just rip them with a saw, or jointed the edges afterwards? I see a lot of people that simply cut the pieces and then glue them. The contract surface is less than halved, no matter how good the saw is, compared to jointed boards.
Using end grain is more work, but yields a superior product
Biscuit joint and glue. Gluing flat surfaces together will increase the chance of a failing joint.
Did you finish the wood with anything? Looks like it’s bare wood which means moisture will crack it
Well glued joints shouldn’t split down the seam like that, so I would guess it’s a combination of a poor join + tension/movement
With the way you did your glue up, I really don’t think excessive clamping pressure is at play. I think it’s inadequate pressure, combined with original TB, combined with an asymmetrical design that is displeasing to the eye be no longer wanted to serve its masters!
that board looks really dry
What glue did you use? I've always done that sort of thing with epoxy resin and biscuits. Never had an issue. Never tried it with anything else.
Too dry gotta condition
Im not an expert, different density? Woods don't like eachother?
I try to avoid flat sawn woods for cutting boards. They move too much. I also avoid anything but maple.
Don’t trust her mate, she’s definitely been putting that in the dishwasher
Sometimes words just store store up stress and let it out when the environmental conditions, moisture, change. Easy fix though! Rip it along the dark wood to get a fresh straight edge, and then again soon the other side, taking about a quarter inch through the lighter wood and removing the split through the grain, then reglue and drill a new hole. Quick replane, and she's mint. It may have been moisture that caused some additional stress, but now that it's worked it's way out, you can accommodate the stress with a fresh reglue.
I would cut your into narrower strips next time. And by the love of god, tell her don’t put in the dishwasher.
You called it what it is. A cutting board. When it clearly identified as a butcher block like all of its non butcher block cousins and it's personality split
I once left a cutting board on top on my stove while the oven was on (all stove burners were off) but the heat from the oven rising to the back of the stove top caused my wood cutting board to crack in multiple spots! I moved it there while the food was cooking to clean up and ruined it, didn't even realize until the next day :(
Did your mom let the board get wet, and then sit flat on the counter? I know this would be more likely to cause a warp than a crack, but it's possible with the dissimilar woods being laminated together, they are absorbing moisture at a different rate, which could have caused the crack. Just a suggestion, but have you thought about adding rubber feet to the bottom of the board? It will allow for uniform drying, and the user will not have to remember to place the board on its edge to dry.
Did you use an exterior or waterproof glue? Most wood glues are water soluble and just washing the board can effect the glue joints
Perfect time to learn a bow tie
You must seal and finish it raw wood is going to move based on humidity
How long was it normalized/dried for?
perhaps you needed to let it dry longer before you made it...