Curly Maple Question

[Joe Shinall]

Ok, so I just bought my first pieces of curly maple to work with. I'm building an end table with legs from African Mahogany and the skirting and face of the top are going to be curly maple.

My question is how hard is curly maple to work with? I have heard some people say things about figured wood chipping out in jointer and planer. I have a Grizzly 8" jointer and a Grizzly 15" planer, both with straight knives. I'm going to build a mockup of pine first just to make sure I get the proportions right. So if there is anything I need to check on my jointer and planer I can do it on those pieces beforehand. Thanks guys.

[Brian Effinger]

I think sharp blades are a must, as are light passes. I ran some curly maple over my old grizzly jointer and through my dewalt planer with great success. A little sanding after took care of any chipout that may have been there.

[Van Huskey]

Sharp knives, light passes and maybe running them on the bias if the boards are narrow enough.

[Prashun Patel]

I've jointed and planed both using light passes. If you get a little tearout, try running it through in the opposite direction.

Also, unless you're good with scrapers and sharp plane blades, you'll save headache by using sandpaper when surface prepping it.

[harry boyer]

For me and my limited equipment I had problems with edge jointing the curly maple. The corners would chip out slightly on the edge surface. My solution was to join the edge with the piece slightly wider then rip saw to final dimention. Joined edge to the fence, rip, turn around to final size and rip again. Gave me nice crisp edges. I plane at an angle and seem to avoid too much tear out. I have the smallest Delta lunch box planer and a HF jointer.

good luck!

[Joe Shinall]

I've jointed and planed both using light passes. If you get a little tearout, try running it through in the opposite direction.

Also, unless you're good with scrapers and sharp plane blades, you'll save headache by using sandpaper when surface prepping it.

I'm definitely not good with scrapers and planes. However, I am one sanding guru!

Thanks for the tips guys. I still want to hear from as many people as possible.

[george wilson]

The curl can chip out in EITHER direction. The chip can EASILY be too deep for any kind of sanding out. Do you know anyone with a thickness sander ?

This is one of the instances when a spiral head is good,because they scrape more than cut. Some guys used to grind a bevel on the FRONT edge of their planer knives. It made them plane figured woods much cleaner,because it makes more of a scraping cut. It would take more power to plane with them. Just take shallower passes.

[Hank Knight]

Joe,

I've found that dampening the surface to be planed with mineral spirits immediately before sending it through the planer helps. Curly maple is strange wood. Some is very tame while other boards are almost impossible to plane/joint without tearout. Mineral spirits and very sharp blades have worked for me in the past. Good luck.

Hank

[Dan O'Sullivan]

You didn't say which curly you had?? Red or Sugar. They are different in the surfacing mode. Is the wood air dried or kiln dried?

Sugar maple(hard white) that is kiln dried is a bear. You can be going along just fine and like G.Wilson said: out comes a big chunk in the middle of the board.

My technique/method: I resaw close to final thickness 7/8" final. If you have a shop near by with a surface sander, its well worth the cost to have it sanded smooth. This is a must if you have joined boards for your surface.

When I do plane, I wet the surface with a damp rag soaked in plain old water. Someone mentioned mineral spirits and that might work even better??

I know it sounds like a lot of trouble but the final results can be unbeatable.

Photo: lonnie bird clock in curly

Good luck
dan

[Van Huskey]

Joe,

I've found that dampening the surface to be planed with mineral spirits immediately before sending it through the planer helps. Curly maple is strange wood. Some is very tame while other boards are almost impossible to plane/joint without tearout. Mineral spirits and very sharp blades have worked for me in the past. Good luck.

Hank


I was coming back to mention just that, although I use water not MS to dampen the surface. It doesn't take much.

[george wilson]

Nice clock !! I think curly maple furniture is beautiful. I made my big dining table's top from it.

[Al Weber]

Wet it with water first. I use a sponge and just wet the surface moderately. Usually by the time I've put it through the joiner or planer twice using very light cuts and very sharp blades the moisture is gone and there is only minor chipout. I guess mineral spirits works also but I've never tried it.

[Joe Shinall]

Unfortunately I do not know of anyone with a thickness sander. Dan, I am not sure if it was kiln or air dried. It is sugar maple. I will try the water and take really light passes. It's 4/4 and I can take it all the way down 1/2 if I have any tear outs and need to go more. Guess we will see!

[Louie Ballis]

Although it was already said, curly maple is prone to chip out as it is quite hard. But having said that I have planed several board feet of it using my ridgid planer and grizzly 6 inch jointer quite well.

I found the key is to just take real small (1/32 1/64") bites until u get to the desired thickness.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

How many bf are you using? May be a good excuse for a drum sander. I've had chipout and blowouts. Tough stuff to work with, and expensive to ruin. Everything seems to want to take chunks out. It all depends on how figured it is too.

One piece I was working on had one of those tiny little ball droplets of glue on it. So I figure, I'll just pop that off with my fingernail. Out pops a relatively large chunk of wood with the glue ball! DOH!:eek: Luckily I was able to find it on the ground and glue it back in. Took a razor and sliced off that little ball of glue.

[Joe Shinall]

Yeah Kyle, I thought of it as an excuse for a drum sander as well. Unfortunately, I can never find a "deal" on a used one around here and I dont have the cash to shell out a new one. It would be nice if someone would just donate one. I mean gosh, is that too much to ask? :D

[Tom Esh]

Like others I've been able to control tearout with sharp cutters and dampening.
What gave me more fits was reactive boards. CM can have really high internal stress compared to things like cherry or walnut. My saw's riving knife saved me more than once with that stuff. Last project I ripped everything on the BS first then cleaned up with the TS. Took a little more time, but did wonders for my stress level. I also machine everything a bit oversize and leave it overnight. Seems there's always a piece or two that decide to warp - occasionally beyond hope but usually they can be re-machined the next day.

[lowell holmes]

I mill it close to thickness and then smooth it with a bevel up smoothing plane with the 50 degree iron in it.

A mist of water spray on the board prior to planing on the jointer (or planer) will help.

[John Thompson]

If you do use the water Joe this would be a good time to run to the super-market or pharmacy and buy a gallon of dis-tilled water to use. Tap water usually contains minerals that can affect finish. A gallon of dis-tilled that has the chemicals removed is always in my shop.

BTW.. going with the grain is very important when either hand planing or machine planing but.. maple can have grain running both directions as mentioned or even if just in one direction.. really difficult to tell which way it goes. The first pass will usually solve the mystery but.. I rip stock proud and edge joint before planing. Ripping a bit proud allows me to find direction in maple as I rip proud enogh to allow at least three 1/32" passes on each side. You get lucky on the first pass sometimes but if you guessed wrong you turn the board around. Once the cut quality establishes the direction of grain travel I put a light pencil mark as an arrow on the top and bottom surface. Then it's ready for planer with grain direction established. Again.. curly may have it going both directions but the edge cut does establish for me the best way to put it through.

Good luck...

[Prashun Patel]

Like others I've been able to control tearout with sharp cutters and dampening.
What gave me more fits was reactive boards. CM can have really high internal stress compared to things like cherry or walnut. My saw's riving knife saved me more than once with that stuff. .

Amen to that. I ripped a harmless-looking flat curly soft maple board that bound so tight to the splitter, I had to turn off the saw to unclench it. (It wasn't the only thing that was clenched...:o)

[John Michaels]

Try calling a local cabinet maker with a drum/belt sander. I've done that before and for a not much money your boards will be sanded very evenly with no tearout. It might burn a little depending on how curly the maple is, but a ROS will take it out.

[george wilson]

I have made violins for many years,as well as guitars and other woods where you want to get the curliest wood you can. Many times I've planed curly maple straight ACROSS the grain with a very sharp,fine set hand plane. You can use water on other woods,like walnut for thickness planing. I wouldn't guarantee that it would stop chipping out curls,though,especially if the water hasn't had time to soak way in.

There is still sold the little round disc with teeth called a Safety Planer. You put it in your drill press,and run wood under it. If you had a flat plywood table on the drill press,and a crude,movable fence (even one you nail down to change the setting), You could run your wood under it,taking successive passes with the 3" safety planer. Plane the convex side first,and make sure the wood doesn't rock.

This would take some time,but would be a safe way to avoid chipping if your wood isn't too large.