How to Make | Resin Cutting Board

Today's video lesson is about how to make a cutting board using reclaimed wood and epoxy resin. Before we get started, just as a side note, I've listed all the tools and products used in this video. Just click the link in the description box and it'll take you to the list. Going through my lumber stack, I decided to use some reclaimed white oak, approximately 100 years old. It's been kiln dried down to the proper percentage. My first cut is approximately 30 inches long. The overall length of the cutting board will be close to 24 inches, but I'm doing a little bit extra just for a fudge factor. I created a planer sled for this video as I'm going to use it for this cutting board. This cutting board is approximately 10 inches wide, which is too large for my jointer, so I'm going to have to square this board up with my planer. I'm basically going to shim this board to where there's no bounce, just to give it a nice flat surface before we run it through the planer. Alright, getting to the fun parts, let's turn the dust collector on. I love this remote, by the way. And let's get over to the planer and let's get to planing. I'm going to continue passing the board and the planer sled through the planer until I have this top surface completely flat. Once it's flat, I'm going to remove it, flip it over, and then run it through the planer to get the parallel side flat. Okay, now that I got the board all squared up and flat, it's time to choose the template I want to use for this cutting board. I have several templates. These are two of my most popular ones, and I think I'm going to choose the charcuterie one. It's the one with the irregular shape. It's been a top seller, it's fun to make, and overall it just has a cool look. So let's go. I'm using my carpenter's crayon to outline the template onto the board. It provides the perfect eighth inch all the way around, and that's what I will run it through on the bandsaw. We're not trying to get perfection cutting this out on the bandsaw, as we're just trying to get onto this line. It'll make it about an eighth inch larger than what the surface of the cutting board will actually be. Now that the cutting board is roughly cut out, I'm going to use double-sided tape to stick the template down onto the cutting board. I will also have my templates available for download in the description box as well. Templates are really awesome, as it will allow you to duplicate this board over and over for repeatable cuts. They'll all be the exact same shape each time. I'm going to use a one inch flush cutting trim bit for my router. It's got that ball bearing on it, so basically the bearing is going to roll along the template that I made, and it's going to trim off the fat on the cutting board, so that way it will match the template exactly. Okay, so the board has been perfectly cut to the template size now. It's the exact same replica. I'm going to take my card scraper and just scrape off the double-sided tape. It can leave a little sticky or tacky residue, so I just like to remove this before moving on. Just a little tip, when drilling a hole in wood, you want to use a drill block underneath, so this way it doesn't splay the wood or make it crack out. It'll just be a perfect hole through and through. I'm about to put a nice edge on the cutting board, and I'm using my one inch roundover bit. It adds a nice subtle touch. The charcuterie board is all shaved out, and now it's time to sand it. I'm using Mirka sanding products, the Abernet paper, and I'm starting with 80 grit and going all the way to 320. After using the 220 grit, I'm going to use a technique called water popping. You can use rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits, but water is just fine. What it does is it raises the grain one more time on the oak, and allowing for me to sand it smooth with 320. Time to mix the resin. I'm using Tabletop Epoxy by TotalBoat. Highly recommend it. Awesome product. Mixing the epoxy resin, we're going to use equal parts. We're going to do three ounces of resin and three ounces of hardener. We're going to stir it nice and slow. We're not trying to create bubbles. Take our time and just get a good mix. Next, I'm going to pour the resin into four cups, and then I'm going to mix the black diamond pigment powders. I'm using Black Diamond Bora Bora, Black Diamond Pure Pearl White, and then I'm using Eye Candy Okinawa Blue. We're going to mix all these up, again, taking our time, not trying to create any bubbles. We're going to begin with pouring the Okinawan Blue on there. We use colors that mimic the ocean where we live here in Destin, Florida, and we're really going for a nice, marbleized, 3D-layered effect. We're not really trying to create a lot of sea foam like you see on a lot of boards out there. We're really trying to mimic our ocean that we have, and we've gotten it pretty dialed in. Now we're going to take our mixing stick, and we're going to use it as a way just to drizzle the second layer, the second color in there. We're not going to mix it or move it around quite yet. The next step is the clear resin that's just going to be along the edge, where we'll add just a touch of sea foam. Now we're going to add just a little bit of white over the clear area that we just put. Again, we're not going to mix it or move it around. We just want to create a little bit of a sea foam look. We don't want to do a dramatic bubble effect. We're using a heat gun to get out all the bubbles in the resin and also to blend a little bit of the wave look. It's necessary to stay about 8 inches off, or you could risk burning the resin. Now that it's all been mixed and the heat has been applied, it will continue to have a marbleized look. We let this sit for about 24 hours. You can already see the depth in the cutting board now. Now that the board has sat for 24 hours, it's time to move on to the next step, which is the cutting board oil and wax. We use a product by Walrus Oil. We highly recommend them. We love using this product, and we really like the luster and the protection that it gives our boards. Next step is to apply the Walrus Oil all over the board. We're going to get it on the sides and the face and flip the board over and get the backside, and we're going to do this for 2 to 3 coats. After the oil has had a chance to penetrate for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes, we wipe off the excess with a paper towel. Not digging deep, just getting the excess off before we apply the wax. The wax also is food safe and just gives a really nice luster and feel to the board. Final step is the buffing of the board. I'm using my rotary hand polisher by Mirka. It's got about a 2 1⁄4 inch diameter. It really gets the job done. As always, guys, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope you get a chance to make some epoxy resin cutting boards. They're super fun to make, and I'll see you next time. Peace.