Since I’d gotten a table saw, I figured I’d make a cutting board. So I went down to House of Hardware to pick up some pieces of wood from the scrap area. I found some walnut and some maple, and I had the plans in my head already as to how to combine those.

And I will be making that as a cutting board. That will be its own series. That’s not this standalone post.

But I also came upon some pieces of oak butcher block scrap. I didn’t ask, but I guessed that there were counters that were made, and there was more counter than necessary. They cut the piece in half for me, which saved me some work.

So I purchased the maple, walnut, and oak. The oak would be my first project. This project.

The ends were uneven, and I considered using my plane for this type of work.

And then I remembered.

My new coffee table workbench has the mounts for my tabletop belt sander!

And I’d get to test how effective my vacuum is with this machine.

The sander did wonders–and fast! Consistent sanding for a flat edge.

Now, I don’t have a router, and I wanted to round the edges. I could use the belt sander for that, too!

I continued.

I liked being able to compare it to the other piece.

After that, I used my DeWalt random orbital sander to go from 80+ to 220+ grit sandpaper. No pictures of that, though.

I rounded off the edges and tinkered until the corners met to point diagonally to the sharper corners. A router would have made this easier and consistent first time, but it was so much fun to watch the belt sander chew through the wood and the vacuum take away the dust.

And then I was ready to treat it with butcher block oil.

After many coats and drying sessions, it was finally complete.

My next cutting board will be from scratch entirely, but this was a good way to start.