Machining bamboo

[Dan Cameron]

I need to make some custom molding to use with bamboo flooring. Any words of wisdom re sawing and routing bamboo (flooring). Is it hard on cutting edges?

Dan

[dan moran]

watch out for splinters..

[John Bush]

Hi Dan,
I just helped a friend's son build a "boomilever", basically a double truss cantilevered horizontally from a vertical base. I milled the components from bamboo stair treads and it actually milled very well. I didn't do any router profiling but it cut very smoothly on the BS and TS. The treads were made from 1/4" X 1/2" strips glued together and were easy to rip.

BTW he won the contest- the 40cm long boomilever held 165#s before failure. Good luck, John.

[Jamie Buxton]

I second Dan's reply. When you rip the stuff it can have very sharp edges. If one of those edges gets dinged a little in shop handling, a splinter can form. Later, if you run your hand along that edge, you'll drive it a long way into your flesh. I work on the stuff only while wearing gloves. If you just break the edges with sandpaper or a small-diameter roundover bit, it stops being dangerous.