[SPalm]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

 

[Porosky]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Nice. Yes. Smart and Nice. Thanks for figuring this out. With friends like you there is no need for me to think at all. Favorite.

 

[PurpLev]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

very very cool. this seems so much easier than my trial to plane those triangles down… UGH.

 

[LoneTreeCreations]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Super nice, I wish I had the patients to do something like that. Also the tools.

 

[blackcherry]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

I'm in on this one Steve, very cool design the diagonal pic is off the chart…BC

 

[FatherHooligan]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Now you've gone and done it, now I want to make a cutting board! A really great piece of work, thanks for the great explanation.

 

[sras]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Fantastic design! Thanks for sharing your process with us!

 

[cwdance1]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Very cool design, wish I had the patients for doing that kind of work.

 

[SPalm]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Thanks guys. It's a pretty cool one. These boards just fascinate me.

BC: The diagonal view looks like a different board. That blows up my mind.

Porosky: I doubt you will stop thinking. You got skills.

LTC, Mark and CWD: You can do it. It is not That hard. The trouble is that people keep requesting them.

 

[BarbS]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Great tutorial, Steve. The creativity sure flows around here! Very nice board. Thank you so much for sharing the method.

 

[fernandoindia]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Hi Steve,

Cool design. And impressively done. I can´t even see the triangles !!

Thank you for the blog

 

[SPalm]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Thanks Barb.

Fernando, isn't that cool? I can barely find the triangles too. I am glad I drew it out before starting. It was really easy to get one of them in backward, so I had to triple check when glueing.

 

[Blake]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Rad.

You do some cool stuff Steve.

 

[Ken90712]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Awesome, you are one of our Masters on here no doubt! Amazing doesn't describe what your pulling off or thinking up! It says alot that not only do you share this with all of us, you go through such detail to help anyone who wants to make one.

Very unselfish of you THANK-YOU for sharing!

 

[helluvawreck]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Wow! That's beautiful. I never paid much attention to this sort of thing before coming to LJ but this really looks like something that wood be fun to get into.

 

[Dennisgrosen]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

there is times where I want to have powertools , oboy
to make this with handtools is nearly impossiple or at least very time comsuming
I realy like the last picture

Dennis

 

[stefang]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Brilliant Steve! Also a fantastic tutorial.

 

[lumberdustjohn]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Another beautiful board.
Thanks for sharing the toot with us.
This is a wonderful design.

 

[LeeJ]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Hi Steve,

Beautiful project, and great write up!

Lee

 

[SPalm]

Steps Cutting Board Version 2 (Two Step)

This is a second generation Steps cutting board made out of walnut, maple, and cherry. The first Steps board I made used a basic square with edge of maple and cherry to make it a block and a notch to do the stepping. I wanted to try to make a stepping board using the hex Tumbling Block design, and this is what I came up with.

In order to make the hex do the stepping, I needed to notch all three sides, as can be seen in the Sketchup drawing. The cool thing here is that it steps in two directions. I spent a bit of energy trying to create the hex block drawn in the middle, but ended up with a 'built up' block on the right.

.
After staring at the drawing of several of these blocks placed together, it seemed easiest to use triangles as the first subassembly. This never would have occurred to me if I had not drawn this all out. These triangles are made of three identically shaped Trapezoids (pyramids with the tops chopped off). The dimension of these is such that the top = the sides = 2 times the bottom. This ratio makes an easy check in the beginning to prove that the parts are cut right before proceeding. There are only two triangle combinations used.

.
I thickness sanded the three woods and another sacrificial piece of poplar to around 3/4 of an inch and then ripped one side at 60 degrees. I then made a 60 degree ripping sled with clamps to help hold these boards. It worked great and was easy to make. I kept creeping up to the correct width using the poplar to test. Once the width was set, the rest of the ripping was simple and safe. Clamp the board to the sled and slide the whole thing through the blade.

.
I then glued up triangle sticks of the three woods, remembering to make an equal total length of the two versions. In hind sight, I should have made shorter sticks. It would have been much easier to align the edges, as any error here is carried forward.

.
I lightly sanded these sticks before crosscutting them into little blocks. Reminds me of Stratego.

.
Then the big glue up. What could possibly go wrong? Well…… There are only 60 degree angles used (i.e. really pointy), and those little triangles really like to slide (i.e. shoot) around. I ended up gluing them into 8 vertical columns, and then lightly sanded the sides before gluing the columns to each other. I wish to have a second chance at this and come up with a better or more relaxed version. But there are always tradeoffs on choosing the size of a subassembly, or in choosing not to use them at all.

Here is a pic after the first sanding with the drum sander. I also cut the tips off of the outside triangles. It just has a coat of mineral spirits on it.

.
And here is a view from the diagonal. I love this view. It looks like a weave pattern.

.
I will post this to the Project section when I am done with the cleanup.
Steve

Thanks everyone. But I am no master. I am just having a lot of fun.

LJs Rocks,
Steve