How to Glue Up Maple and Wine Barrel Cutting Board Blanks

Arrange the Bessey parallel clamps on the clamp holders and position your boards.  Ideally your maple parts are from the same board to make grain matching easier.  Cutting boards will look best if the grain patterns of adjoining boards are similar.  Also make sure the single piece on the left is relatively clear so there is a good spot for the engraving.

Dry fit the pieces together to make sure that they will clamp up well before adding any glue.  Wipe the top of the stave to make sure there isn't dust on top prior to glue up.  

Add glue to the inner edge of the far right board.  There only needs to be enough glue to achieve a small amount of squeeze out on this joint.

Add a thin layer of glue to both sides of the stave.  Minimizing excess glue on this joint is important, especially on the top portion of the stave because we will need to wipe out any squeeze out.  When we add epoxy, this will more than make up for any weakness in the joint.  Put this part in with the purple side up.  You do not need to add any glue to the left and middle board.

Make sure the edges are as even as possible and start clamping from the middle clamp, then tighten clamps a little at a time until they're tight.  There should be no gaps between any boards.  Make sure your outer clamps especially are tight enough to avoid this issue.

If you're struggling to keep joints flat, you can use the Irwin clamps to clamp the boards down to the bar of the Bessey clamps which will function as a caul.  

Once everything is tight if you look at the the bottom everything should be almost totally flat, you should be able to run a finger on the bottom side and feel flat both on the ends and in the middle.   There should be no daylight showing between the bar of the clamp and the bottom of the boards.

Wipe glue that squeezed out of the joints with the wine stave out using a moist paper towel.