How I made my Intersected cutting board

Here is how I made my Intersected cutting board posted here.

There seems to be a lot of interest in this board so here is a blog on how I made it.

First of all here’s what I planned on making. It’s the top one.

After I got both the circles intersected I liked how it looked with the rounded corners so I just added in the “wedge shapes”at the top and bottom and called it done.

I think that it makes it very distinctive also.

As one person guessed I had to make 3 bulls-eyes not two. The third one has the colors reversed with the dark ring on the outside. This was just to get 3 ring segments and the rest was scrap.

The first thing I did was to glue up a bunch of 3/4” stock to give me a total thickness of 1 1/2”.

Then I cut them up on the table saw at 22.5 deg for the 8 segment ring blanks and 45 deg for the 4 segment blanks. The 4 segment pieces are for the 3 smallest rings.

I used these jigs:

Here you can see me working on the largest rings

You can see in the front is the maple ring all setup for the router table. I turn the inside first using the previous rings as a gauge. To give myself a pivot point I nailed a piece of hardboard to the ring. I nailed close to the point so that it would be turned off when the diameter was turned. (after removing the nails) You can see to the left some of the used pivots for the smaller rings.

Here are the jigs I used to create the rings:

Here I turned the inside:

And here’s the outside. Note the arrows to remind me which way to feed it.

Now with the bulls-eyes complete comes the part of intersecting them. For that I need another jig:

This one the cuts the arc from the bulls-eye and for cutting the smaller piece that fill fit into it. This jig was placed on top of the jig used to cut the outer part of the rings.

Here you can see that I removed a section for the dark ring. The big piece on the left is waste. The 2 pieces to the right have already been turned on the outside.

Here you can see the light ring with the dark segment before gluing.

Here they are glued up and in the jig ready to cut the arc to size. The bar across the top was to keep the bullseye from spinning as I cut it.

Cut glue cut glue…

Here you can see the jigs I used. To the left are the waste parts. In the middle you can see the jig after I was done with it. Not much left of it. The round jig was the cut the two wedges for the top and bottom. There are two pivot points and again a clamp to hold the part down.

For all the pivot points I used 1/4” dowels.

Now you must be wondering about the smallest circle in the middle. The bulls-eye? Well, after I was done with everything else, I plugged the pivot hole and drilled a 1” hole through the middle and plugged it with a piece of maple to complete it.

A couple of times through the drum sander and then the RO sander and I’m done. Mineral oil for the finish and it’s ready for the knife!

I’ll try to answer any questions if you have any.

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX