OT: Any woodworkers here?

[Alex Eisenhut]

I wanted to sand down the surface of my wooden cutting board. I usually oil it up but over the years various stains and spills accumulated.

The thing is the sanding paper gets clogged up immediately by something like wax, which is I guess butcher block oil + food particles.

I've been using a 1/4 block sander and a smaller finishing sander, clearly the wrong tools.

I hesitate to use the belt sander with 60 grit...

What can I use to get the stains off?

[BravoV]

Google for "Oxalic acid" and "wood working" or "wood cleaning".

[RJSV]

Why not just apply some EXTRA patience, go about the business of a little bit of (block) sander, toss the dirty section of fine grit paper, apply the oil, as both will continuously pull dirt up / out.
  And more patient action w paper towels, soaking up a lot, maybe still visible stained. Keep throwing away those little sections of sandpaper and soaking up dirty oil / replace.
  Many carpenter types also know about THE HEMP...
It can often be purchased at a he,alth food store. Expensive, a bit, and needing continuous refrigeration to avoid going bad, (rancid).
It's a thin oil, great for absorbing that funk, and immediately discard that couple tablespoons.

   Also, I don't know, some folks clean w baking soda.
Good luck !

[mag_therm]

Could be run through a planer like they use on the woodworkers TV shows.
But it might be too wide for the average hobby planer.

If it is otherwise a write off, it could be run on a table saw with a wide dado set-up.
Leave the edges uncut for support, and run a succession of passes over the dado blades set for  1 millimetre or so.
Then use the belt sander to take down the uncut edges and smooth out the ridges from the dado blades.

[Gyro]

First, persuade yourself that the stains add up to patena and domestic history. Then use a cabinet scraper to carefully remove any embedded sanding grit residue hiding in the end grain of the wood, oil it thoroughly, and go and do something more enjoyable instead. 

[Ground_Loop]

I use a hand plane. I see your board is glued up end grain, so planing will be a challenge. OTOH a scraper would work well.

The photo attached is a pizza knife I just made a couple days ago sitting on a cutting board I use almost daily that I made nearly 18 years ago.

[Cerebus]

Yup, cabinet scraper is the way to go. You'd be surprised how much material you can remove with a scraper once you get the cutting angle right and a bit of practice under your belt. It'll certainly take material off faster than abrasives and with practice leaves a great finish. With end grain to work with any other cutting method is going to be a right PITA.  It's important to learn how to keep one sharp with a file and something hard to form an edge over, a carbide rod is idea, a file tang will do the job if it's nice and smooth.

It'll take a while to do, but personally I find working with a cabinet scraper quite therapeutic. It's certainly a more pleasant prospect than fighting with a belt sander and several grits to get the thing cut back, levelled off and smooth.

[Johnny10]

I would take it to a local cabinet shop and pay them to do it.
I had a commercial stair shop for many years and people would come in and have me do all sorts of jobs for them they couldn't do at their home shop.
The shop personnel are going to know the best method and have the best equipment for this work.

Cabinet scrapers are the next best, however it is a lot of work.
Cabinet scrapers are best for leveling those small imperfections on flat visible surfaces or removing dried glue before applying your finish.

Years of adding mineral oil to your board has deeply penetrated the end grain.

[tautech]

As the block is entirely end grain any staining will have penetrated quite deeply and only mechanical removal of maybe a mm or 2 will get to clean clear timber.
Without access to machinery to remove such an amount of timber I would suggest you just refresh the surface with say a belt sander and 40 grit belt and then to 80 or 100 grit belts to finish. You won't get all the marks out however with a cleaner uncontaminated surface any food grade oils used to preserve/seal the surface will penetrate into the wood better.
Timber is a fine cutting surface and more hygienic than synthetic materials especially large cutting boards when they can only be wiped down.
We need remember short whole logs in butchers shops were once a common sight and had been for some 100's of years.

[Syntax Error]

For stubborn animal greased wood, I would try and 'cut' the surface with a mix of damp baking soda and wire wool. The wire wool and soda should reach into the end grain.

[coppercone2]

hmm, 36 or 40 grit on a belt sander (the one tool that can handle nasty stuff like this). I did a wood piece like that using 60 grit 'mesh' sand paper connected to a orbital connected to a strong vacuum, but I went through a fair bit. If I went with a belt sander it would have gone quick.

The mesh abrasives (diablo mesh or abranet) last ALOT longer then solid papers with holes. But you do have to take em off the velcro and blow it out and wash them, but it cuts down materials cost. The way they work

1) for 15$ you get between 10-20 pieces of abrasive mesh and a special velcro pad with holes in it that has looser velcro then your sander.You align the velcro backer it comes with with the holes in your orbital sander, then you center them mesh on top of that, and frequently take off the mesh and blow it out with compressor and eventually wash it with soap and a nylon brush until it wears out then repeat.

The belt sander is the one tool that can handle mill-scale also on steel. Orbitals get clogged very quickly. Belt sander can surprisingly last a long time with the crappiest materials.

I would recommend a belt sander with the coarsest mesh you can get (typically 36 grit in the hardware store), then move onto an orbital with the mesh abrasives.

If you use a remover (not sure if you WANT to because it is a food surface), it might cut down on your abrasive use. Some people might suggest sending it out to get planed on a big planer for $50-100 or so.

The orbital sander SHOULD be less aggressive then usual if you use the mesh abrasives, but last longer because of less clogging.

I did a table top that was not respected and used a big butchers block for a long time. It was a very bad job. It is also made like your block out of glued wood bits. You will not find this job pleasant. I typically use the mesh abrasives (I stock piled them between 50 to 1000 grit for more money then most people want to spend on abrasives). I think its worth it, so long you clean em, and know when to use a fresh piece for a certain job instead of trying to get every penny out of it (so it increases your storage requirement because you need to segregate them after wear becomes unacceptable for certain jobs).

I get so sick of aligning the normal ones with holes that I just pay to not deal with that.

https://www.diablotools.com/products/DND050060H10I

The 10x life is a bit of a stretch, but I notice it the most on finer grits, with normal sand paper disks at 800 grit.. the life time is really really low.. the mesh really helps there IMO. Life time will depend on how hard the material you are using is, I.e. corian plastic will wear it out quickly (its filled with abrasives itself).


I will say though, it was well worth the effort because it ends up being a center piece in any kitchen thats used regularly, you are looking at the cutting board more then anything else in the kitchen (unless you stir alot of pasta or stirfry). At least, if you want all your fingers.. plus its just gross to think of stuff being rancid inside of the deep scratches that never seem to wash out.


this video specifically highlights out its good at dealing with 'clogging' material surfaces.


*be sure to use a nylon brush and good soap and warm water to clean em out when they are clogged up bad, it does help, you can clean very dirty gummed up things with a brush more so then running water. For this job you need to consider it more then the usual because it is really foul.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Well it's not poisonous or anything, just unsightly. I guess it can wait a few more months...

[Mr. Scram]

Look up cutting board maintenance. You're not the first to ask this question and it'd be a shame to mess up a nice cutting board.

[coppercone2]

it won't be that bad with a 50 mesh net abrasives, I was complaining because I did a table that was used as a cutting board, food scraps, etc that is approx 5x2.5 feet or so (mostly damage from vegetables). I think its the yams that mess these up because they are hard to cut.

It really does clog ALOT less. maybe not 10 times less but its up there.

also, people that make epoxy tables found that you can get things planed for a fee (according to youtube videos). That would be the easiest and most precise way to refinish it. Epoxy table makers send them out to get planed because they are a utter PITA when you do alot. It seems to be a job that small manufacturing places will accept as a side job.

[Mr. Scram]

it won't be that bad with a 50 mesh net abrasives, I was complaining because I did a table that was used as a cutting board, food scraps, etc that is approx 5x2.5 feet or so (mostly damage from vegetables). I think its the yams that mess these up because they are hard to cut.

It really does clog ALOT less. maybe not 10 times less but its up there.

also, people that make epoxy tables found that you can get things planed for a fee (according to youtube videos). That would be the easiest and most precise way to refinish it. Epoxy table makers send them out to get planed because they are a utter PITA when you do alot. It seems to be a job that small manufacturing places will accept as a side job.

Planing is quite drastic. There's a good chance that's not remotely required. Wood can often be maintained without cutting down to a fresh start.

[Ian.M]

You can get large diameter Dado & Planer router bits - it may be worth building a router sled and setting up to give the whole board a controlled depth skim cut.

[tautech]

Well it's not poisonous or anything, just unsightly. I guess it can wait a few more months...

It occurred to me another way to cut the surface back although it need be done carefully if you need retain a near flat surface.
Coarse sanding pads on an angle grinder. 24 grit will rip the surface back quite happily and with care you can still retain a reasonably flat surface. Once all blemishes are removed go to a 40 or 60 grit then a finer grit or a belt sander for finishing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-125mm-Rubber-Sanding-Backing-Pad-Polishing-Angle-Grinder-M14-Drill-Thread/124304443282?hash=item1cf11f4792:g:RrgAAOSwTdpfPP1I

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-24-Grit-Silverline-Fibre-Discs-125mm-Diameter-x-22-2mm-277864/233695745177?epid=677501724&hash=item36695a1499:g:L7cAAOSw6xxewmN~

You can remove a serious amount of material with something like these ^^

Velcro discs could be a solution however spinning them at grinder speeds rather than at rotary orbital speeds doesn't much do it for me:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32860228435.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5ebe759fvNfg2d&algo_pvid=754f3466-7076-4149-ac6e-05fd03b43fd7&algo_expid=754f3466-7076-4149-ac6e-05fd03b43fd7-50&btsid=0b0a555d16069423344431120e051f&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Alternatively flap wheels could be used however they clog faster than plain sanding discs:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000238711477.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5b541160exdtXz&algo_pvid=65df5e76-ebc3-47b0-9e6d-44d58828076e&algo_expid=65df5e76-ebc3-47b0-9e6d-44d58828076e-4&btsid=0b0a557216069421406097339e891c&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

[madires]

If you need to remove a mm or more I'd suggest to use a hand plane.

[Gyro]

If you need to remove a mm or more I'd suggest to use a hand plane.

Hand planing a mass of end grains is going to be a real pain though.

[Cerebus]

Hand planing a mass of end grains is going to be a real pain though.

On the other hand, it makes for a great upper body and core workout, and will probably increase your grip strength at least 50%. 

[langwadt]

a scraper , in pinch you can try with a big knife as a scraper

[tautech]

If you need to remove a mm or more I'd suggest to use a hand plane.

Hand planing a mass of end grains is going to be a real pain though.

Add to this the high possibility of bone fragments embedded in the timber and it'll end in tears with so much time spent sharpening the plane iron.

Cabinet scrapers will not like bits of bone either.

[coppercone2]

yea no this would require an auto planer you would probobly kill yourself because you need to resharpen it so often, which is why I suggest mailing it out. That blade is not going to live long doing that cut. Those table places can properly fixture it and have the tools to hog through that bull shit. Otherwise sand. Planing is nice to get a wood strait on the edge for gluing or on a nice board on the long axis.

I don't know about flap wheels and wood working, I would imagine you need a good amount of skill to make that flat. Even a hand belt sander is kinda hard IMO, orbital is the only easy one I found.

[tautech]

yea no this would require an auto planer you would probobly kill yourself because you need to resharpen it so often, which is why I suggest mailing it out. That blade is not going to live long doing that cut. Those table places can properly fixture it and have the tools to hog through that bull shit. Otherwise sand. Planing is nice to get a wood strait on the edge for gluing or on a nice board on the long axis.

I don't know about flap wheels and wood working, I would imagine you need a good amount of skill to make that flat. Even a hand belt sander is kinda hard IMO, orbital is the only easy one I found.

But just how flat need a cutting board be ? 

[coppercone2]

i mean its just kinda the standard deal you get with a table, they do countertops and kitchen tables and game tables all to the same spec that happens when you invest in a high speed planer

not like you can degrade the planer they have, but they built it with tables in mind. you can't really do worse automatically with the automatic equipment that exists in the world right now.

I suppose you could try a electric planer, not sure what would happen. I never used the hand held one. I have some long old manual planes (~2 foot?) but they are basically antiques and I would never put them on pure end grain field.