Getting dark sawdust off of light wood

[Thomas Wilson]

I have made a box of basswood and padauk. The padauk sawdust leaves bright orange traces in the basswood that are hard to get off. I am looking for tips on getting it off. Here is what I am trying to do now. First and foremost I am trying to avoid getting much padauk dust on the basswood.

1) First sand the parts separately before assembly using different sandpaper for each species.

2) Clean up the orange sawdust in the area very carefully before changing to sanding the basswood.

3) Rub vigorously with a microfiber cloth to remove any dust that gets on the basswood despite 1 and 2

I will have to sand a small amount after glue up. Sanding then will be trickier. I haven't glued it together but I know I will have some contamination. Using water or solvent on rag would probably not work well because the color in the padauk is a natural soluble dye. I am guessing that all I will be able to do is lots of 3).

Thomas

[Dan Hintz]

Sealing before sanding is the best way to go (I deal with mixing light/dark woods all of the time when making pens, so this step is a must for me). If you can't do that, often times a quick wipe (with the grain) using an alcohol-soaked cloth will pick up a lot of dust, but it's not guaranteed to get it all, for sure.

[Thomas Wilson]

I will need to sand a little heavier than that on the joints of my work to get them really flush. I am working on high accuracy woodworking but I still need to sand a little.

[Mark Stutz]

How about a hand plane or card scraper to flush the joint?

[Thomas Wilson]

I am afraid of using a plane very much for fear of tear out. The top of this box has some carved lettering that would be tedious to redo. Scrapers don't work very well on basswood. It leaves a fuzzy surface. I will probably seal the surface as Dan suggested even though I will sand through it in places. It should provide some protection.

TW

[Mark Stutz]

Never worked with baswood. Good to know. I only used Paduak and Maple combo once. Never could figure out how to avoid this problem, so never tried it again!

[glenn bradley]

I would have to think for awhile to come up with two woods that would cross-contaminate better. The open soft basswood is just a sponge for the dark and stain-capable padouk. When I use maple and padouk, I finish sand the parts prior to assembly, pre-finish and then glue up. This allows for a final topcoat or two without the fear of contamination. This works well with the tight grained maple but will be tricky with the very open basswood. I think you are getting the best recommendations from others here as best as I can think of.

[Thomas Wilson]

Ha, Glenn. I backed into the combination of woods. I had a piece of padouk on hand for this project and was looking for a contrasting wood that was easy to carve for the rest of the box. Hence, I chose the basswood for carvability. I am doing ok on minimizing the cross contamination.

The box is for my daughter's wedding. It is a Wedding Wine Box. This is her idea. I had never heard of such a thing. Brides have such crazy ideas. I will post a picture in this thread when I get it finished, probably tomorrow.

I made some padouk and curly maple boxes a few years ago. The padouk sawdust could be scrubbed out of the maple with a cotton cloth. Basswood is different. The lettering in basswood was easy to carve and looks good though. I consider the project a success.

TW

[Thomas Wilson]

I finished the Wedding Wine Box. I promised pictures so here are two of the completed project. If anyone is interested, the external dimensions are 5.25" x 5.25" x 14.25". The material is all 5/8". I also made the table that the box is sitting on. I am reasonably pleased with the result. I plan to plane some shavings with a toothed plane out of leftover basswood. It will make string like packing material. The stuff used to be called excelsior.


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[Mark Stutz]

Looks like you figured it out! Great job and a wonderful gift.

[Dan Hintz]

Nice choice of wine, too ;)

[Thomas Wilson]

Nice choice of wine, too ;)

Yes. My wife bought that wine for me recently as a gag. It is actually pretty good. The real wine for the box was made by the groom's uncle.

TW

[Gary Yoder]

Wow that is stunning! Good stuff.

[glenn bradley]

Ah, the basswood makes perfect sense now ;-) That came out great and is sure to be a treasure. Well done.