Lots of chipout running maple through the planer!

[Nathan Dekens]

Hello, Im in the process of making my first end grain cutting board using maple!....How ever after the first glue-up I ran the long grain piece of maple (about 9" wide 8/8) through my new ridgid plainer. I was only taking about 1/32" at a time in order to even out my glue joints. This resulted in lots of chip-out in the wood. Is this common with maple? should I have taken a deeper cut? I wasn't to worried because I was able to hide the problem when I cut the wood to expose the end grain.

[Jim Becker]

In general, running end-grain surfaces through a power planer is not going to give good results and could even be worse if a big chunk gets thrown. A very sharp hand plane and sanding (manually or with a drum sander) is going to give you the best results with this kind of end-grain surface.

[Justin Bukoski]

Nathan,

End grain is notorious for that. Best advice I can give you is to find someone near you with a drum sander and see if they'll run it through for you. Maybe offer them a little $$ to pay for sandpaper. Try a local cabinet shop or woodworkers guild.

If you don't use a drum sander then I'd use a low angle hand plane. You can also make a jig with a router like the ones used to level a benchtop if you don't have a plane/don't want to do it by hand.

I just can't recommend you run it through your planer again. I've heard of end grain boards exploding in a planer and flinging projectiles all over the place.

Good luck!

[Jeff Monson]

Jim, If I understand the OP I dont think he was cutting end grain. A 32nd is the most I'd take off a 9" wide piece of maple with a lunchbox planer, but that shouldnt result in a lot of tearout, unless its figured maple. I'd want to make sure the blades are in correct and sharp 1st off.

[Jim Becker]

Jeff, you may be correct on that...my original (fast) read after moving the thread here from another area was he was cutting end grain, but after re-reading it, I see that he's just cleaning up the long strip of maple.

So...my guess would be that 1) the knives may not be sharp and 2) skewing the workpiece slightly may also help with chip-out. But there may be some figure in that maple that's just prone to chunking out. It happens.

[Justin Bukoski]

I made the same mistake. :o Sounds like dull knives...

[Nathan Dekens]

Thanks for the replies guys! ...no i wasn't plaining the end grain and yes the knives were new and sharp. I do think its was due to figuring in the wood! Thanks!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Nathan,
Were you planing glued up boards? If so, did you make sure the grain was running the same direction on each board when you matched them up? If not, you are planing some of the wood against the grain.
fmr

[Thomas Bennett]

Your quote:(about 9" wide 8/8)
what is 8/8? Is it the same as 4/4?

[Jim Mackell]

Your quote:(about 9" wide 8/8)
what is 8/8? Is it the same as 4/4?

Thickness is usually measured in quarter inch increments. A 4/4 board is nominally 1 inch thick, 8/8 would be two inches thick. To complicate it even further, the thickness is usually given before planing. So if your project called for 1 inch of finished thickness you would need to purchase 5/4 rough stock.

[Eiji Fuller]

?

You mean 8/4 :)

[Lance Norris]

Thickness is usually measured in quarter inch increments. A 4/4 board is nominally 1 inch thick, 8/8 would be two inches thick. To complicate it even further, the thickness is usually given before planing. So if your project called for 1 inch of finished thickness you would need to purchase 5/4 rough stock.

Nathen, the OP, and later Jim above are not quite correct... There is no 8/8, all dimensions are given with a "four"(4) in the last position of the specification. 16/4 is 4" thick, 8/4 is 2" thick... there is no spec 8/8. The last number is always 4... meaning one inch. Said "4 quarter", "8 quarter", "12 quarter". At least here in Ohio, thats how we've always done it.

[Norman Hitt]

Thickness is usually measured in quarter inch increments. A 4/4 board is nominally 1 inch thick, ___8/8 would be two inches thick____. To complicate it even further, the thickness is usually given before planing. So if your project called for 1 inch of finished thickness you would need to purchase 5/4 rough stock.

Uh...........8/8 would be 1",even though wood is not sized in 1/8ths, (8/4 would be 2" thick). Fractions are easily confused &/or misstated.:D

[Darrin Davis]

Look at the edge of your maple and see if the grain is straight or wavy. If it is slightly wavy they you've got some curly maple. That is very hard to plane down. If the grain is wavy the valleys and peaks of the waves are like planing end grain. The more severe the waves in the grian the worse the chipout. And turning the board around really won't help your problem much. Sounds like you need to find a drum sander to do your planing. Sorry about the sloppy drawing. Just somthing I threw together with MS paint. It represent what I'm talking about. Wavy long grain.
157658

[Nathan Callender]

I get chipout on hard maple with my ridgid planer and sharp knives as well. Hard maple is notorious for this. The way I deal with it is to plane both sides (maybe 1/64 per pass) and I watch to see when I get the least amount of chipout. When I get one side satisfactory, I plane the board down on the other side to the required dimension.

I would like an insert cutterhead for my planer. :-)

[Nathan Dekens]

Your quote:(about 9" wide 8/8)
what is 8/8? Is it the same as 4/4?

Sorry it was a typo. I meant 8/4.:D

[Nathan Dekens]

Look at the edge of your maple and see if the grain is straight or wavy. If it is slightly wavy they you've got some curly maple. That is very hard to plane down. If the grain is wavy the valleys and peaks of the waves are like planing end grain. The more severe the waves in the grian the worse the chipout. And turning the board around really won't help your problem much. Sounds like you need to find a drum sander to do your planing. Sorry about the sloppy drawing. Just somthing I threw together with MS paint. It represent what I'm talking about. Wavy long grain.
157658

Good to know!! And yes I had a solid piece of maple that had some straight grain and some that was as in your picture. I had ripped the board and then re-glued it so that in the end I would get a brick pattern. When I looked at the end grain some pieces are straight and some are wavy.

[Cory Hoehn]

Something that as worked for me is slightly wetting the wood with water. That raises the grain a little and introduces the chip out. I keep a little squirt bottle next to my planer.

[Dan Karachio]

You guys are making it easier and easier to justify buying Grizzly's new 15" drum sander. I think it is on sale for about $500. I have used a friends much larger drum sander and boy, it is hard to go without it once you had it.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

You guys are making it easier and easier to justify buying Grizzly's new 15" drum sander. I think it is on sale for about $500. I have used a friends much larger drum sander and boy, it is hard to go without it once you had it.

If you get a drum sander, you'll be very happy when leveling off your end grain cutting board.

For the chipout question, if it's not too bad, I'd sand it a little, and continue. Assuming you're going to do the end grain cut and glue-up, the chips out will be on the glued surface, and if it's not huge pits, you probably won't see it. That being said, I can think of better projects to make with curly maple.... :)

[David Helm]

You guys are making it easier and easier to justify buying Grizzly's new 15" drum sander. I think it is on sale for about $500. I have used a friends much larger drum sander and boy, it is hard to go without it once you had it.

It's a little more money, well nearly $400 more, but I would go for the open ended drum sander. In fact, I did just that. I have the G0458 18/36 sander. The beauty of the open ender is you can sand really wide stock. With the 15 you are limited. I'm really pleased with my sander. I work with a lot of live edge Western Big Leaf Maple, lots of beautiful figure and wide planks.

[Bill May]

orientate the grain so it cutting into the climp not against and also spraying with water softens the fibers a little allowing a smoother cut and if possible feed on a slight angle so the blades shear the grain not just chop it

[Howard Acheson]

Thanks for the replies guys! ...no i wasn't plaining the end grain and yes the knives were new and sharp. I do think its was due to figuring in the wood! Thanks!

That's your answer. The more figure in the wood, the more likely you will get chip out. For what you are using the wood for, you would be best to look for straight grained wood with no small figure. Birdseye maple is virtually impossible to thickness using a rotary power planer. For figured wood, and some species of non-figured wood, the tool to use is a wide belt sander.

Some things you can try are wet the surface and then wipe off the excess and plane before the wood dries. Another thing is to skew the wood so it enters the planer at an angle.

[Nathan Dekens]

That's your answer. The more figure in the wood, the more likely you will get chip out. For what you are using the wood for, you would be best to look for straight grained wood with no small figure. Birdseye maple is virtually impossible to thickness using a rotary power planer. For figured wood, and some species of non-figured wood, the tool to use is a wide belt sander.

Some things you can try are wet the surface and then wipe off the excess and plane before the wood dries. Another thing is to skew the wood so it enters the planer at an angle.

Well it was priced as regular maple but I couldn't tell it had figuring since it was rough sawn. Anyways I still got half the board left to do something with. :D

[Karl Card]

to me this is a perfect thread where a drum sander could come into use...

I am hafl way thru making a box out of very highly spalted maple, slightly spalted hard maple is going to be for the top and bottom.

Well as was stated the hard maple did horrible thru planer but the drum sander cleaned it up real nice. The very spalted maple I was scared to run thru the planer at all due to so many soft spots...

Just and fyi I think I will put a couple coats of pentacryl on the box, it is just that soft... but man is it gonna be pretty when done...

Anyway just trying to explain the difference between maple and a planer vs. a drum sander...

[Thomas Bennett]

Sorry it was a typo. I meant 8/4.:D
Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering if the industry terminology was changing.
Good luck with your hard maple. I use quite a bit of it. I switched my jointer over to a Byrd head and use a wide belt machine to "plane" it.

[Jim Summers]

Jeff, you may be correct on that...my original (fast) read after moving the thread here from another area was he was cutting end grain, but after re-reading it, I see that he's just cleaning up the long strip of maple.

So...my guess would be that 1) the knives may not be sharp and 2) skewing the workpiece slightly may also help with chip-out. But there may be some figure in that maple that's just prone to chunking out. It happens.

I have had success in flipping the board end-for-end when I run into some chip-out on maple. It is really hard sometimes to figure out the grain direction in maple.

HTH

[Cory Hoehn]

Something that as worked for me is slightly wetting the wood with water. That raises the grain a little and introduces the chip out. I keep a little squirt bottle next to my planer.

Just re-read my post...I meant it REDUCES chip out. Not introduces it. Sorry about that!

[Jon van der Linden]

The small cutting circle of a lunchbox planer will never give results as good as from large professional machines where the cutterhead radius is much larger. This is particularly noticeable with problem grain.

Watching the grain direction is always important, and with problem pieces the solutions already given are right on target - angle the piece and slightly wet the wood (give the water a little bit of time to soak in). What is odd but often true with highly figured pieces is that sharper blades on a planer can create more tearout problems.