Power Washer for Burls

[bowlman]

I do a lot of work using burls, especially Big Leaf Maple. I am thinking of purchasing power washer (or asking Santa for one). How much pressure do I need to peel off the outer layers of bark and expose all those wonderful pointed spikes?

 

[dkulze]

I've tried the little pressure washers you can get a home depot and they don't work at all. I rented one from the local hardware store that was the full, 4000psi and it worked pretty good. It doesn't actually peel the bark, it disintegrates it. Be prepared, though. It's like standing in a hurricane. You need to wear full face protection and waterproof gear and do it outside. Turns the bark into powder and spreads it over your whole body. Got some in my eyes even with a full face shield. Also, it will tear the meat straight off you if it hits flesh so don't wear sandels. Planning on having a burl stripping party at my house for the turning club when the weather warms up in spring. Barbeque, Beer, and lots of guys with gritty water dripping from their beards. Sounds like fun to me.

Dietrich

 

[Steve Worcester]

Also, it will tear the meat straight off you if it hits flesh so don't wear sandels.
Dietrich

It is interesting how we look at the power washer as only water. Had a friend shot his boot right into his foot with one then had to have the particles surgically removed.
They are an awesome force to respect as much as any tool.

 

[dkulze]

All I can say is, ow.

I was using this one primarilly for power washing the concrete walls and floor of my garage before putting a new shop in. My friend helping me thought it would be nice to power wash into the paint of the wall "Dietrich's New Shop." Well, it not only washed the paint away, it dug into the concrete about 1/8 of an inch.

It's also helpful to know that they use high pressure water knives industrially to cut steel, concrete, etc.

All that being said, a power washer is one of those tools that qualifies as "way coooooool!"

Dietrich

 

[Andrew]

Bowlman,

I've had some good luck using just those car wash sprayers on some burls and woods. Others, it seems like could have stood up to sandblasting! I've used a friends' semi-industrial powerwasher on a few pieces of wood and it's done alright. I especially liked the adjustment on his. It adjusts from around 1000psi up to 3000psi. I normally start at the lowest setting and go up from there.

Just beware ... whatever will rip the bark off will also destroy the spikes and any other interesting parts you might want to keep if you're not careful.

It's the same idea for removing most suppliers' wax coated blanks. A heat gun (or household equivalent) will do a good job of it, but it's all too easy to singe or burn the good stuff too. That's either good or bad depending on what effect you're after. I recommend to my customers (retail and wholesale) that they don't use a directed heatsource such as those for just such reasons on "dressed burls".

 

[dkulze]

Andrew, I've had the oposite experience. The bark comes off (although quite reluctantly) and the spikes and iteresting stuff remain. That's the beauty of the power washer.

Dietrich

 

[Andrew]

You must be more careful with your wood than I am, dietrich.



At full pressure (around 3000 psi on that one), I was tearing those spikes up and ripping larger holes in the existing holes, fissures, etc. on some maple, oak and cherry burls 2 weeks ago. It actually gave a few of them a more interesting effect but some of them were junk after I got to looking at them closer. I'm more careful now. I'll use the pressure washer first and if anything sticks too hard, I get out the picks if need be.

 

[dkulze]

Dang!

I was using a 4000lb rated and the finest focus tip on some ash and not touching the wood even slightly. Either your washer is WAAAYY more powerful than rated or mine was much less. Was enough to eat up the concrete I was cleaning so I'm assuming it wasn't my washer. Were your burls spalted? Punky? Not sure what's up here as the high power washers are supposed to be the way to go for cleaning off burls and not touching the wood.

Deeply confused,
Dietrich

 

[C Edward Moore]

Safety/power washers

I'll leave it to others to discuss the general dangers of power washers, but will point out that they can retain pressure long after they have been turned off. A friend apparently went to wash his hands after he thought that the pressure had dropped to a safe level. He was WRONG. He almost lost the hand due to the infection caused by the bacteria that were forced into his flesh.

So, it might be a good idea to discharge the pressure when you are done using a power washer to prevent someone else from accidentally or unwittingly causing injury with a still charged weapon.

 

[Andrew]

Dietrich,

I checked with my friend today and the one he has (that we used) is a Briggs & Stratton 10hp 3400 psi pressure washer. We had it cranked way up when it did its damage. The wood was solid and strong. It wasn't Ash or Hard Maple though. Still, it was red and black oak and cherry. The soft maple burlcaps are easy to destroy so that doesn't really count. But, yeah, the pressure was ripping up the bark and taking some divots out of the wood underneath and tearing up some of those spikes as well. We're not talking total destruction on every one of htem but enough that I couldn't sell the ones where I was using full pressure with the spikes anymore.

I picked up some loads of black locust today and I'll give those a try this week, hopefully. I'll see if I can do some doodles in the wood and take a few pics to post.

 

[dkulze]

Hmph.... Guess I'll have to experiment around a bit this spring. It doesn't surprise me that the wood gets damaged, just that it seems kinda selective. Oak and Cherry are pretty tough woods so I'd expect them to hold up ok.

Ah well, live and learn. I'll post in the spring after burl cleaning season.

thanks for the conversation,
Dietrich