Can You Make A Cutting Board Without A Table Saw?
Cutting boards are great for creating a safe surface to cut food on. They also provide a nice way to keep your countertops clean and tidy. But what if you don’t have access to a table saw?
Table saws are mostly used for cross-cutting or ripping the wood in a particular size. Definitely, table saws are handy tools to derive precise cuts. But can you make a cutting board without a table saw?
Can You Make A Cutting Board Without A Table Saw?
Yes, you can make a cutting board without a table saw. A table saw is a bit expensive, so many beginners are confused about whether they can make a cutting board without a table saw or not.
Fortunately, there are lots of alternative ways to make a cutting board without a table saw. But if you want perfection & precise cutting table saw is a better choice. Also, a table saw is a bit faster than the DIY method. If we compare the low-cost process to make cutting boards without table saws, the output is outstanding.
But yes, it requires more time & patience to make a cutting board without a table saw. Let’s talk about an excellent alternative approach to make a cutting board without a saw. In this DIY project, we are coming with an easy cutting board-making process with minimal tools.
The tools list is here:
- Chisel
- Sanding Paper
- Wood Glue
How to make a cutting board without a table saw?
Step 1: Material Selection
You can use different types of wood to make cutting boards. For example,
- Walnut
- Maple
- Cherry
- Ash
- White oak
- History
These are awesome choices for cutting boards.
You should avoid pine, fir, or cider type of wood because it is too soft. They are unable to handle the pressure of knives, so all your effort will be garbage if you make a cutting board with such soft materials.
Also, this type of wood has a high risk of mixing resins with your food. The most important fact is to choose a dense & durable type of wood that can meet your working needs.
Step 2: Rip Woods
At this step, everyone gets stuck & finds it challenging to manage woods without a table saw. But you can easily cut woods by using the below handy tools
- Sharp knife
- Drill
- Sharp axe.
- Machete
- Chisels & more.
Among these tools, the best & easy tool is to cut wood chisels. So, we will talk about chisels for making an easy cutting board. Here we will use chisels instead of a saw.
Now it’s time to rip each wood piece to make the widths the same. You can easily rip the wooden board using chisels. It is essential to have a smooth edge on both sides in every wooden piece. So trim both sides of your wooden piece by using the chisel.
But now the question is how to cut wood using a chisel?
Chisel is one of the favorite & handy tools for every carpenter & woodworker. We guess it will be hard to find any Carpenter who doesn’t have a set of chisels. It is versatile & can meet thousands of needs. Before using chisels, you should wear safety goggles, hand gloves to avoid injury. It is normal to get flying slithers of wood or dust, so protection is a must.
Fix the material
Before starting trimming, it is essential to place the wood perfectly on your cutting station. Use a clamp to avoid sliding during hitting the chisel with the mallet.
Right angle
A perfect angle is a must to derive the best output. Set your chisel at a 20degree angle with the flat side on the wooden boards. Keep the tilt edges upward.
Cutting
Now make a good grip with the chisel to start cutting the wood. Gently move the blade by lifting the cutting edge upwards. As a result, the slithers of wood will be removed.
Finally, you will get a smooth wooden piece by repeating the above process. Till you can derive your expected width, you can repeat the same technique.
Also, you can use the same tool to cut the length of your wood board if required. Size all the wooden pieces accurately to make your desired length board.
Step 4: Sanding Your Board
After trimming & cutting down to the expected size, you need to make it more smooth & free from bumps. Yet, you remove wood slithers by using a chisel, but some bumps are remaining.
Basically, the sanding amount depends on the smoothness of your wood. If it contains bumps or uneven surfaces, then you need more sanding.
Step 5: Add Glue to assemble
Then we place the wooden pieces onto parallel clamps to assemble them. We pick DAP weld wood Glue to apply on the edges of every wooden piece. Also, I use a glue spreader to evenly distribute Glue on the edges of every single wood piece.
A glue spreader is essential to apply Glue efficiently. After spreading Glue, we now assemble the boards & keep them for rest until they are completely dry.
Step 6: Finishing
After the boards dry, we take them out from the clamps. Then we notice due to Glue spreading; the outside becomes rough. So, sanding is essential to transform it into smooth & bring a perfect finish.
Here we use 220 grit sandpaper to make the side flat. Also, we use 80 grit sandpaper to make it smoother. Besides sanding, we keep the boards down with water to remove the grain. It helps to avoid roughness from your cutting board.
After the boards dry, We apply to sand again. This time we use 220grit sanding paper to give the final finishing on the board. Lastly, we apply cutting board oil to make it smooth & attractive.
Final Thought
You will be shocked to see the output of this easy project. Yes, you can make an attractive cutting board without a table saw. Besides, it is possible to make it with only three handy tools. We hope that you can make a cutting board without a table saw.
This method is especially for beginners who don’t want to invest in expensive tools. You can make a smoother finish cutting board without a table saw. To save your money, follow our tricks.
