[Pozos]

Hello,
My first post but have enjoyed reading many others.
I am making a walnut edge grain carving platter for my daughter. The sides are straight and the ends have a gentle curve. I want the juice groove to go around the board about 3/4" in from the edge and I plan a couple of gently curving internal grooves leading to a juice well at one end of the board.I don't want to ruin expensive wood or waste my prep and glue up time with a wandering juice groove. How should I rout the groove-- especially going around the corners. I have a hand held router with edge guide and a router table.
I would greatly appreciate some experienced thought.
Thanks,
Pozos

 

[Semipro]

Here is one way of doing it there nemerous ways of doing it

 

[Pounamu]

Here is one way of doing it there nemerous ways of doing it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3MsViJkEU&feature=share

A good, easy to follow video, but I don't think it addresses the main part of the question: " I plan a couple of gently curving internal grooves leading to a juice well at one end of the board". I'm not sure about how to handle this one either, other than freehanding, but I'm sure there must be a way.

 

[Semipro]

Ok another way use your cutting board to make a template 3/4” smaller, do this by setting your cutting board on a piece of 1/2” plywood or MDY scrape trace out the with a compass reduce by 3/4” cut it out center it on you board with double face tace and use a ball nose bit with a bearing
The picture is the bit you looking for ( this a cheap bit just used it for verification )

 

[Bob Adams]

If I understand correctly, this is what I would do. Using 1/2 inch mdf I would make 2 templates. The first for the groove on the outside of the cutting board. Size it to fit where you want your groove, and using double sided tape stick it to the board and route the groove. I use a core box bit like this https://www.toolstoday.com/p-4970.a...re-box-router-bits-w-upper-ball-bearing-guide for my juice grooves. I prefer to route around the outside of the template, but that is just me, a template like the video show would also work. Make the second template with slots where you want the tapered grooves. Then shim the edge where the groove starts. The thickness of the shim would dictate the depth of the groove, I would test this on scrap until I was happy with the slope.

 

[DesertRatTom]

Semipro's suggestions are pretty good, using a template gives you some nice control. You do have to make sure you're going the right direction so the bit is always pushing out as it rotates, otherwise it will likely jump out of its line at some point, most likely as you've just about finished the job. The other options would be to make a second pattern just the width of the cutter smaller all round so you're tracking in what is effectively a groove. You'll have to use double sided tape to hold it in place and place it carefully using the bit as a spacer, but I probably would stick with the outside template and just be careful to route moving counter clockwise, and I'd almost certainly do it with a small, trim router, in one pass.

 

[DesertRatTom]

BTW, make the template out of half inch stock because a juice groove is usually fairly shallow. I think the problem with a template will be the lack of width for attaching it to the board. One way to resolve that is to surround the board with same thickness material, clamped to a table to hold the workpiece in place. Then tape the template to the surrounding boards. Here's a crude drawing of what I'm suggesting, but with 4 boards planed to the thickness of the cutting board. You have to keep the clamps clear of the router, of course. I'd cut the groove first, then separately with a shallow curved bit, plunge cut the juice well, just don't cut through the board.

 

[JFPNCM]

I have yet to add a juice groove to one of my CBs but I would definitely go with the ball nose bit. The groove as shown would seem to be hard to clean and leave edges that might split later.

What about using a simple edge guide on the router rather than the framing approach?

Jon

 

[rrrun]

Hello,
I am making a walnut edge grain carving platter for my daughter. The sides are straight and the ends have a gentle curve. I want the juice groove to go around the board about 3/4" in from the edge and I plan a couple of gently curving internal grooves leading to a juice well at one end of the board.I don't want to ruin expensive wood or waste my prep and glue up time with a wandering juice groove.

A contrarian view.

I have routed juice grooves by hand and never got better than a 10% failure rate. The guide would slip, or the router would slip. Double stick tape would give way. You name it, I've done it ... and even on a good day, you'll get burn marks in the groove unless you are *very* careful. Working with Walnut that is less of a problem, in my experience, but still an ongoing concern.

I stopped doing them - especially those with curved ends like you desire to follow the ends of your board. They were *very* hard to get perfect.

I hired a guy to cut them with his CNC, and the finished quality went up a great deal. I then took the plunge and bought my own CNC ... and can now do juice grooves in just about any configuration. Easily.

I'm not recommending you buy a CNC (unless you haven't bought a new tool this month!). I am cautioning you, though, that doing the grooves you envision, and doing them by hand, is not for the faint of heart. Since this is your first attempt ... I do recommend you make 3 boards. Make the first one out of plywood for practice (and more as needed). Then, make 2 out of the walnut & gift the best one to your daughter.

 

[Pozos]

What a great bunch of helpful suggestions-- and cautions! Thank you all. I'll noodle this for a bit and then take the plunge.
Pozos