Tear-out in Silver maple

[Stuart Reid]

I am turning a large salad bowl (14" D) and have the bowl shaped but I am having trouble with tear-out on the end grain of the bowl. I have sharpened my tools, increased my speed, and have taken teeny weeny cuts with a gouge, a C2 tool, and with a curved corner scraper. All to no avail as I still have tear-out! I have sanded with 80 grit - went through 6 - 5" discs on my power sander and the tear-out is still there and noticeable. Help, Help, what else can I do? This bowl is part of a set and I have the individual bowls completed so I would like to complete the set.

Stu

[Mike Minto]

Stuart, if the wood is still thick enough to turn, use a steady rest, if available; lacking that, I have tried to 'stabilize' wood that wants to tear (usually end grain for me) with lacquer, shellac or something similar; let dry, then sand. Makes the wood less likely to tear, and you can still finish the way you want to. Hope this helps, sure you'll get more answers here - let us know.

[charlie knighton]

i have used shellac on maple and then finished turning as i was pretty close to end depth

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use either shellac or mineral oil before the last cuts.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I treat tear out areas with a coat of the finish I will use to do the final finish. Soak in into the area and heat it up to dry it. Now return the area or use your 80 grit on a power sander. If you have reverse on the lathe use when sanding. As a last resort power sand with the lathe stopped. Go easy and broaden the area with each finer grit. I've also have used cabinet scrappers on a shearing angle with good results. Hope this helps.

[David Christopher]

Stuart, a razor sharp skew should do the trick

[Stuart Reid]

I finally went with power sanding with my random orbital sander with the lathe stopped. I was able to remove 98% of the tear-out and then finished with all grits to 400 on the power sander with a pretty good result.

I think the problem was created by the large bowl size and the re-chucking process with a roughed out bowl. The bowl never seemed to spin properly after I cleaned up the tenon and re-chucked it on the stronghold chuck.

Now I have to make a larger donut chuck, as mine is not big enough to handle this bowl, so I can clean up the bottom. This is the time I wish I had a vacuum chuck. Thanks for all of the suggestions. When someone suggested slowing the speed down that got me thinking and I finally tried it with the lathe stopped and it worked, pretty much. Anyhow my wife loves it and that is all that matters.

Stu