hi all,
i am a carpenter who is usually found lurking over at breaktime, but check in over here once in awhile (twice a day lol).
i was just recently lucky enough to get my hands on several tiger stripe maple boards…absolutely beautiful. they are 4/4 x 9″x 5′. i still need to plane them down, but am concerned with the grain breaking out due to the curls. any advice other than a sharp plane, take a little at a time, and new blades?
Replies
Is it surfaced? Or are you taking from rough to finished?
-Ryan C.
it is surfaced, but there was some tear away from whenever they were last planed, i just want to take them down about 1/16".
Arne,
do you have access to a thickness sander? Do you have a random orbit sander? I know this is heresy on Knots, but IMHO, sanding does a good job on curly maple. I also use a Delta thickness planer and I dampen the boards before putting them through, and I take very light cuts, and I put the boards through at as much of an angle as possible.Before using your good, expensive curly maple boards, go to your local Home Depot. Most of them sell maple. Look through the boards and pick out one with some curl. Cut off the curly part and only buy it. This is a very cheap method of buying curly maple. Take this piece home and try dampening it with a sponge and putting it through the thickness planer at an angle and taking small cuts. After a while, you'll have the hang of it. It really pays to have sharp cutters in your planer.Have fun.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
The Home Depots around here (Boston area) don't carry maple any more. The Lowes stores do, however. Whenever I go into a Lowes I check the maple rack. There is always at least one curly maple board. Sometimes it is only an 8' 1x2, but I have often found 1x6's and once even a 10' 1x8. I have discovered as many as five curly boards on one visit. At about $6 per board-foot, it's a lot better than paying $20 at Rockler.
Joe,
Maybe the Home Depots no longer carry maple because of people like you and me. :-)
Have fun,
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
I've found a couple of curly maple boards at HD. I figure they stopped carrying it because their wood volume comes from contractors and DIYers doing contractor type jobs where poplar and oak are much more likely to be the choices. I'm just guessing that maple didn't move quick enough.
Samson,
Who knows why HD stopped carrying maple in many stores. It may have been for the reason you said. Of course, HD fired their CEO and paid him off with $210M. Maybe, because of that, they can't afford to buy any more maple. :-)Enjoy,
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
i have plenty of curly maple, it's just nowhere near as curly as these boards. i'm going to go with the sponge method i think.
thanks for the input everyone.
Arne,
Go with the sponge, but don't soak it. I wring the sponge out and just dampen the surface of the board before I put it through. If you can, put it through the planer at as much of an angle as you can.Have fun.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
arnemckinley,
If you check the archieves I did my bathroom in that wood. I've still got about 1000 bd.ft. of it out in the driveway. so the technicque is very familar to me.. really sharp planner blades and light passes. Not a bit of tearout so far..
When using the surface planer ( and I guess the jointer, which I don't have) to true up figured maple, I hone a slight back bevel on the cutters, with a diamond hone. I do this by eye but I figure the bevel is about 5-10 degrees. This makes more of a scraping cut and significantly reduces tearout. I also wet the boards a few minutes before sending them through the planer. The wetting helps relax the fibers and results in a very clean cut. You can only get one or two passes before you have to re-wet the surface. I'll clean out the chips from the machine, and run a dry board through for a pass or two, to burn off any excess moisture, so the machine doesn't rust.
For the final surface, I use a smooth plane with a high angle frog and here too I sometimes wet the surface, only I have to be careful not to leave black stains on the maple, from the reaction of the water and iron. With a good technique, there will be little or no need for sanding.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
thanks for all the advice everyone. great ideas. i've never wet down wood before, but it makes complete sense. i'll post some pics of the project when it's complete.
my experience is the same as mel's. i dampen the surface with a sponge just before planing and it works like a charm. very light passes produces zero tearout.
Find someone with a thickness sander. Pay them whatever it takes to bring your boards down to the thickness you want.
Even with very sharp blades, the tiger grain may still get snagged in any planer. If it only get torn out just a little, it will still ruin your day. Don't chance it.
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