Dry Boxelder

[Jake Debski]

I've been following recent threads concerning spalted, punky, etc., etc.woods and how to deal with them. Very timely for me at least. I was given a fairly large slab of dried (no Anchor Seal) boxelder. Not much color was evident but plenty of figure and checking. Started out turning with a 10X10 in.X 3-1/2 blank rounded on the bandsaw. Right from the get-go huge tear-out at end grain problems. Lots of trips to the grinder, small light cuts, nothing worked. My best techniques are certainly not in the expert or upper intermediate range yet but this stuff had me nuts. I read John L.'s advice about 50/50 lacquer. I tried it, soaked the tear-out ares and was able to get 2 or 3 decent cuts before resoaking. I resoaked because I didn't trust rough cutting until nearly to the finish cut. I hope to make the finish cuts tomorrow or Saturday when time allows. Anyhow the point of this is, however you choose to approach the less than co-operative wood (CAglue, whiteglue soak,)whatever, if you are unsure go slow your odds increase dramaticly. If the piece survives to fruition I'll try to post a pic. 😱 🙄 😀

Oh yeah BTW, once inside lots of color some spalt and even a little section of burl.

 

[john lucas]

Jake I was just given a bunch of really dry box elder. It really gets torn grain easily even with a razor sharp skew. I have found 2 things that work. Wetting the wood with a spray bottle and wetting the wood with sanding sealer. The lacquer mixed 50/50 with lacquer thinner works but you have to really soak it to get it to penetrate very far.
I rough cut the pieces and then spray them before making the final cuts. Sometimes it works extremely well and sometimes it's so/so. The sanding sealer works well if your cuts are light.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

same experience

i have the same experience with quilted maple or quilted myrtle, i'm trying the sanding sealer now, portions do great but one quadrant gives me the devil 😱 😱

 

[Richard Baker]

High speed and sharp scraper may help a little. I still need some time with a 60 grit gouge to clean it up completely.

 

[George Van Beynen]

Jake, I use Johnson’s paste wax with good results. When Ray Key demoed for our group he used mineral oil on the end grain to solve this problem.

 

[Jake Debski]

Thanks Guys.

I used a couple of the tecniques decribed above with varying degrees of success. The final cuts were without tear-out and made sanding quite simple and quick. I was even able to create a 3/4" drain in the bottom which will allow any condensation to drain away harmlessly 😀 😱 The problem now is how to best use this design opportunity. 😱

 

[MichaelMouse]

Tears and Tears

In this case the tears are on my cheeks, because I got an invitation to the church of the woodlot this morning and arrived late. Talking to my eldest from Bamberg, discussing which surface planer he should buy. Anyway, I began crying as I saw two crooked chunks of this fall either side of the wedge. Salvaged four smaller pieces, but the bulk was already in small ragged splits in the back of the truck.

Brought some home with my big birch and hemlock, and decided to turn on my lunch break. Sure wish I'd been there ten minutes earlier after examining the results.

Anyway, the reason it's in this thread is to show the tearout. The first two shots are fresh from the gouge, awaiting the mortise hold. It's the 1/2 continental pattern gouge in this case, applied fine and with a nearly vertical final paring release. Really slow off the edges, since the bevel got more and more unstable as I ran out of wood. Nice thing about sweeping around the pivot point on the rest is that you can carry a good severing angle around and out.

Bottom was not sanded, so you can see in the profile where the soft torn grain has begun to stand proud of the overall surface. I'm hoping to just burnish and buff to retain the finger-friendly texture that curly figure leaves behind. Inside will be sanded when dry.

So what's the point? Wetting and softening can give you the illusion of a smooth surface when what's happened is that the fibers have been compressed, only to rise, randomize and scatter light as the surface retracts.

Money play is the sharp gouge and the peeling stroke. If this were firm dry wood, it'd be 220 territory. Make the final slow, and almost no peel, just poke and pare.

 

[dkulze]

Aw Mike. I'm tearing up for ya too. Awfully purty to have been split to pieces.

Dietrich

 

[MichaelMouse]

Commemoration

Since it was broken when I got it, I oriented the other end of the slab to leave the split surface. Once dry, I'll brush and burnish the splinters and maybe rebark the one end.

I'm using the George Van technique of compressed air water ejection in an attempt to eliminate mildew. So far so good, but it's only been a day, and the surface is still cool to the touch, though unspotted. No major water in this morning's shot of air.

I'm going to get a couple of the other pieces roughed later today, after I crawl under the sink and recheck for leaks. Why is it an educated and intelligent woman can't figure out that jamming stuff under the sink loosens the joints? "I hate to tell you this..." has to be one of the more ominous phrases out there.