Cheese Slicer

These cheese slicers are made from Padauk, Purple Heart, and Maple. The brick layer pattern is a visually intriguing design that I wanted to try, but I was not sure what was the best way to build this pattern while ensuring that the "bricks" lined up with each other which held me back from trying it.

After coming up with a plan, I decided to use 1/4" Maple I milled down as the "grout" and Padauk and Purple Heart as the "bricks" for the nice color contrast they provided. I started by gluing a 1/4" strip of Maple to the Padauk and the Purple Heart blanks. Once the glue had cured, I milled them smooth and cut the bricks using a stop block on a miter saw. However, I realized that even with a stop block, the "bricks" still had slight variations in thickness that would cause issues during the glue up. The Padauk bricks had more inconsistencies in thickness, so I recut them on the table saw. I should have done the same for the Purple Heart bricks as well, since there are some flaws in the final board due to the brick size inconsistencies. For the glue up, I built a jig to help with alignment and clamping.

The cheese slicer hardware is from Rockler and required drilling a 1/4" hole in the side and cutting a slot. The final thickness of the board was smaller than what was recommended, so to ensure the hole was centered when drilling, I created a clamping jig for the drill press.

I finished the boards with Tried and True and added adhesive backed rubber feet to the bottom.