Black marks from jointer and planer

[Dan McCallum]

I have noticed that wood run through my DW735 planer gradually picks up an accumulation of black marks, like the board is being dragged across a dirty surface. The more passes that are made with that side down, the dirtier it gets. It is especially pronounced at the ends of each board just before where any snipe starts.

I've noticed the same problem, but to a far lesser extent, from the jointer fence. I haven't really noticed it elsewhere, but I do use a crosscut sled on the tablesaw, and in any case don't typically make multiple passes on the other machines.

Now the planer of course has the rollers inside, and the infeed and outfeed tables appear to be made of chromed steel. The jointer fence has no rollers or feeders in it, and is made of cast iron. So that makes me think that the problem is not the type of metal, nor is it the rollers in the planer.

I have noticed that cleaning the heck out of the planer beds seems to make no difference either.

Any idea what causes this and how to eliminate it?

Dan

[Brandon Shew]

Try waxing your table tops

[Peter Quinn]

I get this on jointer/planer on light woods like maple/poplar, often worse after acidic woods like white oak, mahogany have been run. Polishing tables vigorously with 0000 synthetic wool/paste wax, let wax haze, buff out removing residue from nooks and crannies solves problem for me.

[Dan McCallum]

Ahhh! Good observation on the light woods after dark woods connection! I had not picked up on that, but have noticed it is not totally consistent - some times it happens quickly, other times it takes longer.

I've tried wax in the past, but with no good results. In fact one of my theories is that the wax attracts dirt. Your waxing process sounds much more thorough than what I have tried in the past though, I will give it another shot.

Thanks,

Dan

[Anthony Whitesell]

I would remove the old wax first. Clean the beds with some mineral spirits or lacquer thinner first, then hit it with the wax.