Our youngest daughter Lisa Dianne Gonzales some time back asked if I would build her a dough rolling platform aka pastry board for the kitchen table and/or counter top and she sent me a pix of one that she had seen via the internet.

I believe her primary goal for such a pastry board is to keep flour from getting all over her table.  As a side note; every time I get near flour, I seem to broadcast it everywhere even when trying to be careful with its usage.......grin if you must!

I will no doubt use the above design and/or modification which is very functional, keeping your flour contained!  One of my favorite sayings, "Not to try and reinvent the wheel" will apply.

COMPLETED DOUGH ROLLING PLATFORM

Above is the finished dough rolling platform on 04-10-2020.  I need to sand the glue line at the front of the platform where I glued and nailed the ledger board in place, of which this pastry board looks like a pull out drawer with one of the sides missing.......grin if you must!

Xander McKnight Gonzales rolling out some tortillas and Miss Lily made the smaller dough balls next to the tortilla mix container!

Lisa said the dough board worked great.

PERSONAL SAFETY AND LIABILITY ISSUES

My goal will be to keep Safety paramount because hand and power tools can do serious bodily harm and death if not used properly, therefore these pages are solely for entertainment purposes only from a personal liability standpoint.  Please read the Legal Stuff page for additional information concerning liability issues before going any further.  Safety glasses and hearing protection is a must although I do forgo the hearing protection many times; my bad!

DESIGN IDEAS

I decided to use phenolic faced 3/4 inch thick plywood sold by Woodcrafters that would be an ideal material for not allowing the dough to stick to the platform surface and ordered a piece 24 x 48 x 3/4 inches and with shipping and sales tax was a little over 100 bucks being high dollar for sure on the material cost.  

I will ascertain what size rolling pin Lisa is using and will gauge the size of the dough rolling platform to match her rolling pin allowing plenty of room from front to back and side to side.

Most of the dough rolling boards aka platforms, have a ledger board at the bottom front edge to keep the board in place since you are normally rolling the dough away from you.  In the meantime, I will be thinking about how I want to join the sides and back to the base and will probably use a half rabbit joint and route the platform top base enough to remove the inside layer of phenolic material for better glue adhesion since I have used that type of material before, but only 1/2 inch in thickness.  The phenolic faced plywood is normally of top quality and will glue and screw the components together.  I might even use biscuits in the joinery too!  The phenolic faced plywood I have used in the past was strong enough where you could drill and tap it for a bolt, of which I have done!

Lisa's rolling pin is eighteen (18) inches in length and I believe a working surface of 20 inches deep x 24 inches wide would be adequate and side walls and back of 4 inches in height with a half round to the front sides.

RECEIVED THE PHENOLIC FACED PLYWOOD

I received the phenolic faced plywood from Woodcraft on 04-09-2020 and started the project on 04-10-2020 when I finished my bride's 2' x 4' parallel bars.

GETTING STARTED

I cut a 20" length x 24" wide piece from the 2' x 4' phenolic faced plywood and then ripped three (3) 4 inch wide boards the length of the plywood being 24 inches.

After cutting the base, sides and back, I replaced the rip blade with a stacked dado cutter assembly for 3/4 inch wide slot and installed the walnut fence to the regular fence since I would not be using the entire width of the dado cutter blades and this protects the regular fence from the dado blades.

The fence and table saw blade height adjustment was set to remove the thin phenolic laminate layer from the base of the platform to allow glue adhesion for the back and sides. 

After the base was completed, the height and width of the dado saw blades was adjusted for a half rabbit joint for the sides and back.

The back and sides length were cut using the compound miter saw.

With the half rabbit joint, there is plenty of wood to wood contact using Titebond Ultimate III wood glue and used the 18 gauge brad nailer and 1 inch brads to secure the back and sides to the base.  I was planning on using countersunk dry wall and/or brass screws, but the glue and brads will be strong enough.

I cut a 24" length x 1 inch wide from the phenolic faced plywood board and using the Dremel router and a cutter to remove enough of the phenolic from each piece for proper wood to wood contact using the glue.  This strip will be the ledger board.

Glue was applied to both surfaces and then power nailed in place.

This project did not take too much time to complete and our daughter should get years of service from the dough rolling platform aka pastry board.

This project is SN 84.    

Web page created by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 04-05-2020 and updated on 04-10-2020 and 04-15-2020.