As the title says, a first try at big leaf, western maple (or as we used to call it "firewood'). Back in the day little did we know about how valuable figured western maple would become.
Very soft, light and punky type wood needing sharp tools. The pictures show test cuts on highly figured air dried pieces using the CNC with carbide cutters. My intention is to make some elliptical shaped bowls with concave fluted exteriors.
The first cut ended up with what looked like a ball of fuzz. The wood doesn't seem to chip out, more like it just pushes fuzz rather than severing it cleanly. Discouraging results until i thought about sanding sealer. Closest thing I have on hand is a spray can of semi gloss Deft. A couple heavy coats using the heat gun to dry between coats.
The first picture shows after a cutter pass with about .01" depth of cut on the heavily
Deft saturated fuzz surface. Light surface fuzz is still there. Second picture shows the same situation after another heavy coating and and a skim pass with no additional depth setting on the cutter. The wood seems to swell a bit with each coating so the final skim of the second piece gave an acceptable surface that should buff out nicely. (I'll have to do some researching on buffing.)
My guess is, once you've used a lacquer based sanding sealer you're limited in being able to use any penetration oil type finishes. I don't know that for sure though.
Anybody hand turn BL maple? I bet it's not fun, huh?
.
Very soft, light and punky type wood needing sharp tools. The pictures show test cuts on highly figured air dried pieces using the CNC with carbide cutters. My intention is to make some elliptical shaped bowls with concave fluted exteriors.
The first cut ended up with what looked like a ball of fuzz. The wood doesn't seem to chip out, more like it just pushes fuzz rather than severing it cleanly. Discouraging results until i thought about sanding sealer. Closest thing I have on hand is a spray can of semi gloss Deft. A couple heavy coats using the heat gun to dry between coats.
The first picture shows after a cutter pass with about .01" depth of cut on the heavily
Deft saturated fuzz surface. Light surface fuzz is still there. Second picture shows the same situation after another heavy coating and and a skim pass with no additional depth setting on the cutter. The wood seems to swell a bit with each coating so the final skim of the second piece gave an acceptable surface that should buff out nicely. (I'll have to do some researching on buffing.)
My guess is, once you've used a lacquer based sanding sealer you're limited in being able to use any penetration oil type finishes. I don't know that for sure though.
Anybody hand turn BL maple? I bet it's not fun, huh?
.