I couldn't tell what the grain of this the 8/4×7" x 50" piece looked like because it was rough cut and dusty.
I cut a strip off and the grain appeared to be not so straight. Ran it through the planer…chip out. Reversed the direction of feed…chip out. Looked very close and see this is swirly, curly and a bit knurly. I guess it must be sanded.
Have any of you seen this grain in purpleheart?
It was fresh from the planer so it hasn't purpled up yet.
Yep; thats going to be nice when finished.
For this wood you might try scrapers instead of other power tools methods. As for sanding…well…to me it almost always lways seems to take way too long on figured woods to get the desired results. Card scrapers or a no 80 scraper is what I use to get it done fast! Its amazing how smooth you can get a surface with a well tuned scraper. Someday I'm going to spring for a no. 112 scraper plane.
Now you need to figure out what to make with it? Pistol grips or knife handles would be amazing.
Lisa,
Have you tried the drum sander taking very little off?
I also read somewhere that wetting the wood (in the case of that post it was birds eye maple) can make it plane easier.
Looks like a beautiful piece of purpleheart!
What will you do with it
don't know much about scraping ,
i just sand it in my machine ,
light passes ,
until it talks to me ,
one side flip other side flip etc.
then i can ask it what it would like to be !
Ahem…how are we going to use a drum sander (a tool most of us don't possess as yet) on a 7" wide boards edge? Granted, there is usually more than one way to get the job done, especially in ww.
I've heard about wetting the face of the wood before planing or jointing boards that tend to chipout. I'll have to try that next time.
That is so frustrating. When I get tearout like this at the jointer, I wish I had a sanding jointer. I have two jointers, I am dreaming of converting one into a" belt jointer" for just these occasions. I mean, taking the cutterhead out and replacing it with a contact wheel and running an abrasive belt on it. I haven't gotten too far into the project to think about how to easily swap belts, but I think it would be handy on stock like this… Maybe some industrious LJr out there will build one and show us all how to do it. Maybe run multiple belts with different grits, just move the fence over for different grits?
Nearly all the PH I get is curly… not much straight stuff..and that was in more than 1 cubic metre…[ 400bf.]
I use the drum sander to dress both sides…slowly and carefully…Quickly joint one edge and then rip it to size… mostly small enough so I can use the Drum sanderon the cut edges…..
I've never seen purple heart with a grain pattern like that, but I have some rosewood with a similar pattern. Also, if you're having a hard time with tearout in both directions, try wetting the surface and letting it sit for 30 to 45 seconds or so before running it through the planner with a light cut. The water causes the soft fibers to swell and act like a "pad" for the harder fibers and it can give a cleaner cut.
Yep , swirly and curly is the way it all should be…this is the reason I own two drum sanders and also use the "wetting" technique with great success : )
I hate to be a nagging older brother, but when is the last time you sharpened the blades on your planer? I know I've been guilty of neglecting this more often than I'd like to admit. But if you're going to wet the boards, it would be good also to have sharp blades ;-)
I have a better idea, it your blades are dull, then it's time to replace the whole cutter head with a spiral cutter head assembly. That's easier than sharpening blades, right?
As to scraping, I was truely amazed the first time I saw a demo for scrapers at a wood show. I had never realized how smooth you could get boards without using sandpaper. hen I went back to using my planer. Sigh! I don't know how much I could do without electricity!
Dearest nagging brother….
Aahhh you may be onto something.
I was just thinking earlier I should flip the blades.
I don't want to wet the boards anyway.
I'm going to build a drum sander like Autumn and Eddy built.
I have a set of scrapers but I am developing arthritis in my thumb joints.
I don't get very far with scraping.
Thanks for the advise, even though I am not so sure the purpleheart will behave with sharp blades either.
Lisa
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