I wanted to get a new kitchen block for prepping food.I had a few offcuts of pine at work so gave a go at making one instead.I didn't have any clamps to hand so had to do with an agricultural wedge on the glueups,this made lining up the second glueup really difficult as everytime you knocked the wedge to squeeze the workpiece,it knocked everything out of line.Also my electric sander appears to have walked off site on its own so I had to sand everything by hand.Not the best results but not bad either considering the lack of proper clamps etc.
Timber ripped to 44 x 44mm and glued,tidied up with a hand planer after glueup
Tiber laid out ready for second glueup,everytime I knocked the wedge,everything went out of line
Router sled to get everything in to one plane/level
Routered the top and bottom of the board
After hours of sanding,I added two slots so the board is easy to lift out of the way,I slighty rounded over the bottom lip to stop the endgrain from splitting away,I also rounded over the top wit a slightly more pronounced curve.
I wet the board to raise the endgrain on the surface both top and bottom and sanded again for approx an hour with 120 grit.
All thats left to do is give it a couple of coats of oil.
Ive got some nice oak at home,I think I'll have another go with that and use clamps as it easier to keep everything where you want it and also,I would think easier to get the pressure where you need it for glue up...happy enough with the first attempt though...