• The forum upgrades have been completed. These were moderate security fixes from our software vendor and it looks like everything is working well. If you see any problems please post in the Forum Technical Support forum or email us at forum_moderator (at) aawforum.org. Thank you
  • February 2026 Turning Challenge: Cookie Jar! (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Matt Carvalho for "Red Mallee Folded Form" being selected as Turning of the Week for February 9, 2026 (click here for details)
  • AAW Symposium demonstrators announced - If the 2026 AAW International Woodturning Symposium is not on your calendar, now is the time to register. And there are discounts available if you sign up early, by Feb. 28. Early Bird pricing gives you the best rate for our 40th Anniversary Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 4–7, 2026. (There are discounts for AAW chapter members too) For more information vist the discussion thread here or the AAW registration page
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Segmented Objects

C

Charlie Kirk

Joined
Jan 25, 2022
Messages
2
Likes
0
Location
Rochester, NY
I am turning a segmented piece - actually a hollow sphere - of curly maple and padauk. How do I keep the padauk dust from not discoloring the maple. When I finished turning the sphere, the maple was white. After sanding it has an orange tinge.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Howdy Charlie,
This is why I dislike turning Padauk... that orange dust is ferocious and sticks to everything. I kinda swore it off in my shop and go with other woods to get the reds and maroon type colors. There is nothing you can do to stop Padauk from turning brown either... you can slow it down with UV resistant finish and hiding it in the shadows. But it's gonna happen.

As for your question, your last cuts on the lathe should be a clean as you can possibly get them. A clean cut will take that dust away from the surface and not contaminate your Maple. The next step is to apply a finish to seal all the pores in the Maple as best you can. A sanding sealer, shellac, or perhaps a water-based finish that contains a UV inhibitor might be a good choice. Something that will dry well and not be soft. While an oil might pop that Curly Maple for you, it may take a while to cure because of oils within the Padauk... maybe weeks depending on the product. An oil with a slow drying time might also carry the red color dust and reddish oils across to the maple in a "bleed" type scenario. I would absolutely stay away from anything with wax.

Once you have the wood sealed and dry, try your sanding targeting by hand where you need it. Be super meticulous with controlling that dust. Re-seal the Curly Maple as needed to keep it clean. Then if you need, do another sealing coat on everything if you need to go with an oil or wax on the final finish so that surface bleed can not happen and ruin your efforts.

Best of luck! I hope you are able to get the results you were looking for!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top