Debra surprised me at Christmas with a one-year membership to TechShop, and a gift certificate for five classes. I’ve been wanting to get involved with TechShop for a couple of years, but there were always other priorities.

Since I got into wood carving, I’ve been slowly making my into wood working as well, with the oval table being the most recent of my experiments. I’ve long wanted to make cutting boards and similar things, but haven’t really had the tools necessary to do a good job. TechShop, though, has a full wood shop with table saw, large band saw, router table, jointer, planer, thickness sander, etc. I just had to take a couple of classes on Safety and Basic Use (SBU).

Today I took a couple chunks of mesquite–cutoffs from a tree I had to take down last spring–to the shop and rough cut them into lumber. The logs were about eight inches thick, which is two inches larger than what will fit in my band saw. The first thing I did was cut four slabs off one end. I’m planning to turn these into little cheese boards, hopefully keeping the bark edge.

Three of those are 3/4 inch thick. The other is 1/2 inch thick. The dark splotches are actually from moisture. I was surprised at how wet that log was, even after spending the last eight or nine months in my garage. I know that it takes time for wood to dry, but this wood was wet on the inside. Way more moisture than I had expected after that time.

After cutting those slabs, the remaining log is about 14 inches long. The other log, shown here before cutting, was right at 18 inches.

I didn’t take any progress pictures showing how I set up to cut boards from the logs. Briefly:

For cutting the cheese boards, I screwed a scrap piece of 2×6 lumber to the log so that there was a flat and stable base for it to rest on. I took a thin slice to square up the end, and then set the band saw fence to 3/4 inch and cut the three cheese boards. I had planned to cut four that thick, but I goofed when I screwed the 2×6 onto the log; I didn’t leave enough log hanging out. So I had to settle for 1/2 inch on the last one. I could have just sawed through the 2×6 or taken the time to adjust the base. I decided to see if 1/2 inch will be thick enough.

For cutting the boards, I set the scrap 2×6 firmly on the table beside the log, and carefully screwed them together. Doing that provides a steady base so that the log can’t roll to the side when I’m pushing it through the saw. I made one cut of about 3/4 inch to get a good flat side on the log. I then took it over to the jointer and made that perfectly flat.

The picture linked below is one I took a few years back, showing how the board attached to the log works.

Then back to the band saw with the flat base on the table, I took 3/4 inch off one of the sides, took the log back to the jointer, and squared that side up so that I had two perfectly flat sides that were at an angle of exactly 90 degrees with each other.

Back to the band saw, I set the fence one inch away from the blade and with one flat side on the table and the other flat side on the fence, I cut the boards.

I’ve cut lumber on my band saw at home without using a jointer to square up the sides. It works okay, but the boards don’t come out near as close to square as they did today.

So now I have a bunch of rough cut mesquite boards, all one inch thick and with varying widths and lengths. I’ve stacked them in my garage, separated by some scrap wood so that air can circulate, and will let them dry for six or eight months. I figure next fall I’ll be able to make some cutting boards. Although I might get impatient and cut up some of the other wood I have here that’s already dry. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have enough dry mesquite to make a cutting board. I have plenty of other types, though.

The cheese boards won’t take nearly as long to dry. I’ve put them aside, as well, but I expect them to be dry enough for working in less than two months. Possibly even sooner than that. Wood loses its moisture very quickly through the ends, so those 3/4 inch pieces should dry fast. I’ve also considered experimenting with using the oven as a kiln to speed the drying process. I might sacrifice one of the slabs and one of the boards to an experiment . . .

I made a few thinner cuts, as experiments. One of the pieces is a little less than 1/16 inch thick. I’m sure that with a little practice I could reliably cut 1/16 inch veneer, and quite possibly 1/32 inch. That opens up some interesting possibilities.

All told, I had a great time playing in the wood shop today. Now I just have to be patient until the wood dries so I can use it.