Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
I had a random piece of figured maple that was 3 – 4 inches wide. I cut it into three pieces and jointed them on the Shopsmith jointer, the outside boards were jointed on only one edge, the center board board on both sides. Then I ran them through the porter cable planer. After verifying the edges were straight and they were the same thickness and flat, I glued them up using Tight Bond III since they will be subject to water. I constructed cauls out of garage door tracks and used them to make sure the boards were flat. Simultaneously, I used three bar clamps to tighten the boards. The result was a plank that had about a 32 of an inch variance. To eliminate that I used the Shopsmith disk sander with 150 grit in the drill press position and carefully sanded the board. It was hard to control, so I cut them in half as my intention was to make to boards. When I got the glue and joint variances out, I used my random orbital sander starting at 60 grit and moving up to 320. I raised the grain with alcohol and sanded to 400 grit. I used General Finish Water Based Greystone stain on the live edges to make the grain stand out, and sanded them smooth. I then blended a mixture of bees wax and mineral oil at about a 30% wax and 70% oil mixture, and buffed it out with a clean cloth. After that I took my orbital sander and put a Master Pro 6” Wet Dry Sanding Disk 3,000 grit, it has a foam back to stick to the sander and buffed it some more. Then I put the feet on it, I got them at Wood Craft and the handles I got a Hobby Lobby, I made sure that the handles could be fastened with screws from the top. I will probably sell them at a craft show. I've never sold anything before, I'm thinking about $60.00 each..