I watched several videos about how you can't plane end grain cutting boards, how you can, etc. so a few days ago I tried it on my bench planer. Just ran it through like you did. Super careful, taking off very little at a time, sharp blades, me standing to the side of the planer. Everything was going well, and then in a flash the planer shot the cutting board out, across the shop, and hammered a stack of lumber. A physician (friend) was watching me the whole time and said that if it had hit my torso it had enough force to rupture my spleen and I would have bled to death, even with her standing there while it happened. Don't plane end wood. Just don't. Thank you.
Sorry you are wrong, I had an end grain board violently shoot out of my thicknesser like a bullet this week and if I had been standing in the way I would have had broken ribs and serious internal bleeding, I was taking much lighter passes too. I thought it would be ok because of videos like this and nearly paid a hefty price, if your reading this please don’t do it! It’s not worth it!
My endgrain board shot out and across the room in multiple pieces on a super light cut. The difference might be straight knives vs. small cutters. It could also have something to do with how sharp the planer blades are. I’ll stick to using my CNC.
Robin, I've actually been hurt doing this, so I can tell you from experience that it can dangerous. However, being the the knucklehead that I am I didn't let being hurt stop me. I think your experience was made safer by (maybe) sharp knives and light passes. The thing I do now is wrap the entire board in culls that are edge grain oriented, like you did at the end of the board. I cut them off when I'm done with the planer. I haven't had an accident since I started doing that.
I agree. Straight blades are totally different. Be careful. Eg carbide are hitting the board only 2/10ths at any one time. Straight are hitting 100% each time thus more chance of grabbing kicking back or splitting IMO.
Must agree here. The straight knives are trying to scallop across the whole cutting surface where the much smaller carbide cutters are slicing much smaller areas and they are cutting in different parts of the surface.
I have used straight blades to do this on 5 end grain boards without any problems. Used the calls on the ends with shallow passes. I agree that a helical head would probably be a better idea, as they do cut at a bit of an angle.
I did a horrible glue up job one time with an end grain board. I have pieces that were up to 1/8" above the next piece. And, like an idiot, I tried running it through my Delta 13" lunchbox planer. The highest piece was the 3rd row of the board. So, to get the planer rollers to actually grab the board and pull, I had to lower the thing down pretty far. Once it grabbed, and the blades hit that 3rd row, the cutting board completely exploded. It was about a 10"x14" board and it exploded into about 6 or 7 different pieces. One piece flew over 20 feet and put a hole in my garage wall. I was lucky I was standing off to the side and none of it hit me. But it scared the ever living shit out of me. Also, the planer never worked very well after that. The blades and blade holders were bent and the whole thing always violently shook even after replacing all of that.
I had started woodworking maybe a couple months prior and was a dumbass with my very first end-grain cutting board (this was 8 years or so ago). Tried running a 2 inch board through the planer about 2 hours after glued. It was 11:30pm and I was in a hurry to finish it, so I start getting aggressive and confidently taking more off. Went about half a turn then BAM! Pieces of the board went everywhere including an impact 2 inches from my right testicle on my thigh which left a good deep tissue bruise for a couple months. It was nearly a very painful and expensive partial vasectomy. 0/10 would not recommend.
Having experiencing projectile cutting board myself in a Ryobi 1300apk I can tell you ITS F**KING SCARY Please do not advocate this to viewers!! I have sore fingers to this day and was still extremely lucky.
Thanks for the comment mate, really interested to hear the circumstances around what happened; how deep was the cut? How long had the glue cured? Was it a very hard wood?
@@RobinLewisMakes very light cut like 1/8 turn, Redgum so yes hard, flat blades which probably contributed the most but they were freshly sharpened Had been glued with titebond 3 and dried a full week I think the vibration of harsh cuts across the grain increased the vibration until the piece hit the blades hard and it flew out 2m across my shed. Lucky had multiple sheets of plywood standing up otherwise it would have gone through my Mrs windscreen. My hand was ready to catch the board coming out and still have joint pain to this day (this was about 3 years ago)
We have had that debate in our woodwork club and decided that we would not plane end grain. We will use a router sled to get it down to the require thickness and flatness. Then we use a drum sander.
I think it’s also worth considering all the risks; you wouldnt want to take the chance on a prized possession. But the comments have been so mixed, there isn’t a single answer to all scenarios
I’ve done a similar method many times. Instead of glueing the sacrificial board I make a sled with tight cauls on all 4 sides. Helps avoid snipe too and side tear out on any wonky grain on the side edges.
Just watched this after doing an end grain board through my thicknesser the other day eith freshly sharpened straight knives lets just say we now dont have a board and im down a pair of boxers. That was taking less than mm each pass. Great video 👍🏴
I tried this. My end grain board tried to exit through the top of my Triton thickness planer. I lost a board and a thickness planer in less than 5 seconds. No helical head or blades like this one, just straight knives. Not trying it again.
YES! That would look amazing too. It's been eye opening reading the comments, there's a good mix of people having success and other not. When I posted the video I assumed I would get a lot "well yes of course it's going to work" comments but not so
with a sacrificial piece at the end, its *alright* BUT if theres any significant high sponts it will really fuck your shit up. It has to be fairly flat to beging with honestly.
Besides taking a long time, sanding finished end grain work appreciable depth will ruin a belt. I surface hundreds of end grain laminations at a time on a worn-out wide belt sander using vey coarse grit. Locally, a fellow woodworker attempted to plane an end grain lamination on his boss's planer. I wasn't on hand and didn't question him very closely but he wore a plaster cast on his arm for several months. I'm sure your approach is best and, as one of your viewers suggests, carbide knives would make sense in a production situation, far more economical than sanding and a lot quicker, too.
Unfortunately this isn't the first comment with a horror story, it's very sobering. Thanks for sharing though, it's been incredibly interesting hearing everyone's thoughts and experiences
these plainer blades are (in my opinion) better than the long ones, these take bit by bit and besides that they form a spiral. the long blades are completely perpendicular to the board and chop out all its lenght at the same time. im a very beginner woodworker and learnt it the hard way by exploding an end grain piece of wood on my dewalt planer and the little piece was sent flying through the room and breaking my dust colletcor lol even taking a very small amount at a time. luckily i wasnt behind, knowing it could happen thanks for the info
In the examples I've seen of planers destroying end grain boards, the boards looked pretty rough/unsanded, meaning that the grain fibers are very grabbable for the chopping blades. In this video the board is already smoothed to a fine finish so I'm not surprised it went ok.
I’ve done a bunch of end grain boards similar to this. I added a Wixey gauge to allow precise height adjustment of the cutter head (on a DeWalt 734). It works fine, but I was taking about 300 microns per pass. I have no idea what the sensible upper limit for a pass is, though.
Nice test. How well does oak work for end grain cutting boards? I heard it's too porous? If anyone lives near central Tennessee (or doesn't mind a trip), I have rough cut, live-edge hardwood lumber for sale. I don't ship at this time. I have hard maple, spalted maple, red oak, hickory, elm, cherry, and Eastern Red Cedar, among others. Various thicknesses, mostly 5/4. Most of it has been air dried under roof for a few years.
I'm about to make an end grain board and plan to use my planer too. Like you, I'm concerned about snipe. As well as the sacrificial block on the back end, I will add sacrificial rails along the long edges, and have them extend 150mm past both ends. That way, these rails will cop the snipe. I assume that'll work...
@@RobinLewisMakes I'm about to make an end grain board and plan to use my planer too. Like the other dude, I'm concerned about snipe. As well as the sacrificial block on the back end, I will add sacrificial rails along the long edges, and have them extend 150mm past both ends. That way, these rails will cop the snipe. I assume that'll work... thoughts?
I just spent lots of time and wood on a end grain board and my planer kicked it back at me and took 2 huge gouges out of the board =( Now idk wtf to do
I watched Tom McLaughlin demo an end grain cherry board and he used a LA Jack plane to smooth it out. I tried the same and it worked much better than I expected. I thought tear out might be a problem, but end grain is so dense I only got micro scratches that were easy to sand out. Admittedly hand planing is a workout but I need the activity (and I don’t have to worry about any exploding boards). Just remember to not go of the edge of the board so you don’t splinter the ends.
I've made about 10 of these end grain boards. I have a DeWalt 13 inch planer that has 3 straight blades, but it also has 2 feed speeds. I put it through on the slow speed and took light passes and had no trouble at all. Like you, I was a bit nervous at first and stood back a bit, but it went perfectly fine.
I have done this as well...many times actually...and with a straight bladed planer. Barely even got any tear-out and none past where I was going to trim it to anyway. The key is light passes and taking a bit of time. Great job and video...sort of a Woodworkers' Mythbusters...lol.
Hi Robin. I have a slightly unrelated question. I've seen a lot of people making engrain cutting boards but I dont understand the benefits behind it. Wouldn't it just potentially soak up anything you're cutting on it?
that's true, but the reason I've always read is to keep knives sharper for longer; when you're using the board your knife slides between the wood grain
thick like that i wouldn't worry to much, but for less thick boards, i do the same as you did on the back,but also glue supports on the sides, as long as it fits in the planer ! doesn't have to be super large though. BUT, don't do the same mistake I made ! I let the supports glues on for a weekend. When i came back on Monday, the board had split in 3 spots ! long grain vs end grain ! remove the supports asa you are finished with them !
Thanks for the video and the philosophical comments. I've made a few end grain chopping boards, and I always finish them in the thickness planar without any problems. I just make sure my planar blades (segmented like yours) are reasonably sharp, and chamfer the back edge along with the expectation of needing to trim off any blow out.
I've run about 10 end grain cutting boards through my Dewalt planer, using the same method you used, i.e. glueing a sacrificial board on the end but I did it on both ends just to be safe and all turned out just fine. Again, taking very small amounts off each pass. Cheers!
I think a lot of the “fear” came from older planner days w the Single and double straight blade cutter heads- I also have had no issues w running these through planner
@@dburga1 OK, so Cutech is the same as the Hafco unit? I was almost going to get one of those machines but ended up getting a Sherwood Helical planer. They have a 4 sided blade. I will have to give this end grain board a try with mine, however after reading the comments I will follow your lead with very light shaving only!🍻
I've put many through the planer without issue, but have had one or two kickback and/or explode. I don't stand behind my planer anyway, so it was more scary loud than anything.
![Tee Grizzley - Blow for Blow (feat. J. Cole) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wNLN5xsx5dc/mqdefault.jpg)
The rule is:
If you want to do something, someone will think of a reason why you shouldn't.
Logic rarely plays a part, it's just human nature.
I watched several videos about how you can't plane end grain cutting boards, how you can, etc. so a few days ago I tried it on my bench planer. Just ran it through like you did. Super careful, taking off very little at a time, sharp blades, me standing to the side of the planer. Everything was going well, and then in a flash the planer shot the cutting board out, across the shop, and hammered a stack of lumber. A physician (friend) was watching me the whole time and said that if it had hit my torso it had enough force to rupture my spleen and I would have bled to death, even with her standing there while it happened. Don't plane end wood. Just don't. Thank you.
Sorry you are wrong, I had an end grain board violently shoot out of my thicknesser like a bullet this week and if I had been standing in the way I would have had broken ribs and serious internal bleeding, I was taking much lighter passes too.
I thought it would be ok because of videos like this and nearly paid a hefty price, if your reading this please don’t do it! It’s not worth it!
My endgrain board shot out and across the room in multiple pieces on a super light cut. The difference might be straight knives vs. small cutters. It could also have something to do with how sharp the planer blades are. I’ll stick to using my CNC.
Robin, I've actually been hurt doing this, so I can tell you from experience that it can dangerous. However, being the the knucklehead that I am I didn't let being hurt stop me. I think your experience was made safer by (maybe) sharp knives and light passes. The thing I do now is wrap the entire board in culls that are edge grain oriented, like you did at the end of the board. I cut them off when I'm done with the planer. I haven't had an accident since I started doing that.
That's the second time I've heard of that trick today, seems like a winner
One key thought missed is you were using carbide blades vs. straight cutter knives. I think that would make a world of difference.
I agree. Straight blades are totally different. Be careful. Eg carbide are hitting the board only 2/10ths at any one time. Straight are hitting 100% each time thus more chance of grabbing kicking back or splitting IMO.
Must agree here. The straight knives are trying to scallop across the whole cutting surface where the much smaller carbide cutters are slicing much smaller areas and they are cutting in different parts of the surface.
I have used straight blades to do this on 5 end grain boards without any problems. Used the calls on the ends with shallow passes. I agree that a helical head would probably be a better idea, as they do cut at a bit of an angle.
The tension was real, brown trouser stuff...
Chamfer on both ends with a sander, it works
I did a horrible glue up job one time with an end grain board. I have pieces that were up to 1/8" above the next piece. And, like an idiot, I tried running it through my Delta 13" lunchbox planer. The highest piece was the 3rd row of the board. So, to get the planer rollers to actually grab the board and pull, I had to lower the thing down pretty far. Once it grabbed, and the blades hit that 3rd row, the cutting board completely exploded. It was about a 10"x14" board and it exploded into about 6 or 7 different pieces. One piece flew over 20 feet and put a hole in my garage wall. I was lucky I was standing off to the side and none of it hit me. But it scared the ever living shit out of me. Also, the planer never worked very well after that. The blades and blade holders were bent and the whole thing always violently shook even after replacing all of that.
Woah, that sounds intense. Thanks for sharing
I had started woodworking maybe a couple months prior and was a dumbass with my very first end-grain cutting board (this was 8 years or so ago). Tried running a 2 inch board through the planer about 2 hours after glued. It was 11:30pm and I was in a hurry to finish it, so I start getting aggressive and confidently taking more off. Went about half a turn then BAM! Pieces of the board went everywhere including an impact 2 inches from my right testicle on my thigh which left a good deep tissue bruise for a couple months. It was nearly a very painful and expensive partial vasectomy. 0/10 would not recommend.
Oof, I felt that! Thanks for sharing, good to keep that in mind
Having experiencing projectile cutting board myself in a Ryobi 1300apk I can tell you ITS F**KING SCARY
Please do not advocate this to viewers!!
I have sore fingers to this day and was still extremely lucky.
Thanks for the comment mate, really interested to hear the circumstances around what happened; how deep was the cut? How long had the glue cured? Was it a very hard wood?
@@RobinLewisMakes very light cut like 1/8 turn, Redgum so yes hard, flat blades which probably contributed the most but they were freshly sharpened
Had been glued with titebond 3 and dried a full week
I think the vibration of harsh cuts across the grain increased the vibration until the piece hit the blades hard and it flew out 2m across my shed. Lucky had multiple sheets of plywood standing up otherwise it would have gone through my Mrs windscreen. My hand was ready to catch the board coming out and still have joint pain to this day (this was about 3 years ago)
We have had that debate in our woodwork club and decided that we would not plane end grain. We will use a router sled to get it down to the require thickness and flatness. Then we use a drum sander.
I think it’s also worth considering all the risks; you wouldnt want to take the chance on a prized possession. But the comments have been so mixed, there isn’t a single answer to all scenarios
I’ve done a similar method many times. Instead of glueing the sacrificial board I make a sled with tight cauls on all 4 sides. Helps avoid snipe too and side tear out on any wonky grain on the side edges.
Just watched this after doing an end grain board through my thicknesser the other day eith freshly sharpened straight knives lets just say we now dont have a board and im down a pair of boxers. That was taking less than mm each pass. Great video 👍🏴
It seems like that’s a key difference; the segmented/spiral heads have better luck with it. How there wasn’t any damage on the machine!
I tried this. My end grain board tried to exit through the top of my Triton thickness planer. I lost a board and a thickness planer in less than 5 seconds. No helical head or blades like this one, just straight knives. Not trying it again.
another option to deal with that new hole is to rout it out and glue in an end grain plug.
I admit I'm a bit surprised at how well that went for you.
YES! That would look amazing too. It's been eye opening reading the comments, there's a good mix of people having success and other not. When I posted the video I assumed I would get a lot "well yes of course it's going to work" comments but not so
with a sacrificial piece at the end, its *alright* BUT if theres any significant high sponts it will really fuck your shit up. It has to be fairly flat to beging with honestly.
I ran an elm log section thru a planer and it worked fine on the end grain. I vaguely remember a bit of tearout on the back but it cleaned up quickly.
Thanks for the tip, the "sacrificial" timber was an excellent advice 👍🏻
Besides taking a long time, sanding finished end grain work appreciable depth will ruin a belt. I surface hundreds of end grain laminations at a time on a worn-out wide belt sander using vey coarse grit. Locally, a fellow woodworker attempted to plane an end grain lamination on his boss's planer. I wasn't on hand and didn't question him very closely but he wore a plaster cast on his arm for several months. I'm sure your approach is best and, as one of your viewers suggests, carbide knives would make sense in a production situation, far more economical than sanding and a lot quicker, too.
Unfortunately this isn't the first comment with a horror story, it's very sobering. Thanks for sharing though, it's been incredibly interesting hearing everyone's thoughts and experiences
Done right is ok done wrong dangerous
First off...That board is insanely beautiful! I was hoping the planer would work, but I wonder what it does to the planer blades? Any thoughts?
Thanks. It's probably a bit harder on the knives but with a small enough pass it'll minimise the damage
Officer he’s over here
these plainer blades are (in my opinion) better than the long ones, these take bit by bit and besides that they form a spiral. the long blades are completely perpendicular to the board and chop out all its lenght at the same time. im a very beginner woodworker and learnt it the hard way by exploding an end grain piece of wood on my dewalt planer and the little piece was sent flying through the room and breaking my dust colletcor lol even taking a very small amount at a time. luckily i wasnt behind, knowing it could happen thanks for the info
Wow, that must’ve been scary! I agree, multiple smaller knives seem to handle end grain a lot better
Yay! It worked :)
You Aussie based?
In the examples I've seen of planers destroying end grain boards, the boards looked pretty rough/unsanded, meaning that the grain fibers are very grabbable for the chopping blades. In this video the board is already smoothed to a fine finish so I'm not surprised it went ok.
I’ve done a bunch of end grain boards similar to this. I added a Wixey gauge to allow precise height adjustment of the cutter head (on a DeWalt 734). It works fine, but I was taking about 300 microns per pass. I have no idea what the sensible upper limit for a pass is, though.
Nice test. How well does oak work for end grain cutting boards? I heard it's too porous?
If anyone lives near central Tennessee (or doesn't mind a trip), I have rough cut, live-edge hardwood lumber for sale. I don't ship at this time. I have hard maple, spalted maple, red oak, hickory, elm, cherry, and Eastern Red Cedar, among others. Various thicknesses, mostly 5/4. Most of it has been air dried under roof for a few years.
I am usually more worried about snipe and my planer is snipe city. That planer did a great job on your board, came out nice
Thanks
I'm about to make an end grain board and plan to use my planer too. Like you, I'm concerned about snipe. As well as the sacrificial block on the back end, I will add sacrificial rails along the long edges, and have them extend 150mm past both ends. That way, these rails will cop the snipe. I assume that'll work...
@@RobinLewisMakes I'm about to make an end grain board and plan to use my planer too. Like the other dude, I'm concerned about snipe. As well as the sacrificial block on the back end, I will add sacrificial rails along the long edges, and have them extend 150mm past both ends. That way, these rails will cop the snipe. I assume that'll work... thoughts?
I just spent lots of time and wood on a end grain board and my planer kicked it back at me and took 2 huge gouges out of the board =( Now idk wtf to do
I watched Tom McLaughlin demo an end grain cherry board and he used a LA Jack plane to smooth it out. I tried the same and it worked much better than I expected. I thought tear out might be a problem, but end grain is so dense I only got micro scratches that were easy to sand out. Admittedly hand planing is a workout but I need the activity (and I don’t have to worry about any exploding boards). Just remember to not go of the edge of the board so you don’t splinter the ends.
I've made about 10 of these end grain boards. I have a DeWalt 13 inch planer that has 3 straight blades, but it also has 2 feed speeds. I put it through on the slow speed and took light passes and had no trouble at all. Like you, I was a bit nervous at first and stood back a bit, but it went perfectly fine.
I had the sacrificial end board catch the planer and shoot across the shop at about 100 mph.
I have the same thickness planer, they are awesome best on the market for bench top planers. Well I'm going to try this and see how it comes out
I have done this as well...many times actually...and with a straight bladed planer. Barely even got any tear-out and none past where I was going to trim it to anyway. The key is light passes and taking a bit of time. Great job and video...sort of a Woodworkers' Mythbusters...lol.
Thanks man
Hi Robin.
I have a slightly unrelated question. I've seen a lot of people making engrain cutting boards but I dont understand the benefits behind it. Wouldn't it just potentially soak up anything you're cutting on it?
that's true, but the reason I've always read is to keep knives sharper for longer; when you're using the board your knife slides between the wood grain
thick like that i wouldn't worry to much, but for less thick boards, i do the same as you did on the back,but also glue supports on the sides, as long as it fits in the planer ! doesn't have to be super large though. BUT, don't do the same mistake I made ! I let the supports glues on for a weekend. When i came back on Monday, the board had split in 3 spots ! long grain vs end grain ! remove the supports asa you are finished with them !
The sides supports is an interesting idea, haven't heard of that one before
Thanks for the video and the philosophical comments. I've made a few end grain chopping boards, and I always finish them in the thickness planar without any problems. I just make sure my planar blades (segmented like yours) are reasonably sharp, and chamfer the back edge along with the expectation of needing to trim off any blow out.
Thanks for the comment! Seems like the 3 knife design is often the cause of the issues
I've run about 10 end grain cutting boards through my Dewalt planer, using the same method you used, i.e. glueing a sacrificial board on the end but I did it on both ends just to be safe and all turned out just fine. Again, taking very small amounts off each pass. Cheers!
Thanks for comment mate, that's good info
Glad it worked out and your still have your beautiful board!
Thanks man, pretty happy with the outcome
I think a lot of the “fear” came from older planner days w the Single and double straight blade cutter heads- I also have had no issues w running these through planner
True, a lot of the benchtop planers are 2-blade, my Ridgid is 3-blade and I would feel pretty good about doing it with a fresh set of knives
I’ve had the same issue. Glueing on the end pieces is the key it worked fine.
Good video mate. What sort of timber did you make it out of? I saw what looked like a bit of silky oak maybe?
Correct, northern silky oak. Thanks
@@RobinLewisMakes Ah cool, I make spatulas out of it. Wonderful timber.
Robin Lewis: the woodworking mythbuster!
I do this all the time and have the same type planner you do. The only drawback is how fast it dulls the blades.
Ah! that's a good point
Can you rotate the blades 4 times or just 2?
On my machine the knives have 2 cutting edges but I can’t comment on other machines
@@emceeboogieboots1608 My Cutech has just 2 sides.
@@dburga1 OK, so Cutech is the same as the Hafco unit?
I was almost going to get one of those machines but ended up getting a Sherwood Helical planer. They have a 4 sided blade. I will have to give this end grain board a try with mine, however after reading the comments I will follow your lead with very light shaving only!🍻
I've put many through the planer without issue, but have had one or two kickback and/or explode. I don't stand behind my planer anyway, so it was more scary loud than anything.
I know that you could not do it in this example, but feeding the piece at angle will also mitigate. enjoyed your video
Tried it...bad things happened I'm scarred for life. Mentally. Need a drum sander.