Planing bird's eye maple

[Carlos]

Ran a piece through the planer, and it pulled out all the bird's eyes, leaving little holes instead. I ended up running it through the drum sander with 80 grit to surface it, then 150, and on to the hand sander.

Is there a trick to planing this stuff, or does it simply not work? I have a lot of it, and if I do a large project it's going to take a really long time to do it all on the sander.

[Tom Miller]

Is there a trick to planing this stuff...?

Sorry, no trick here. In fact, bird's eye maple was the reason I got my little drum sander in the first place. I used what few tricks I do know -- wipe surface with wet sponge, angled passes -- but the birds eyes popped out just the same.

Regards,
Tom

[Black wallnut]

I've had some success planing birdseye. I have done it taking very small cuts and lots and lots of passes. It can be done but it is time consuming and still not guaranteed. If you have drum sander available it would be better even if you have to pay a cabinet shop to do it. Birdseye is just too expensive to take a chance on wasting it.

[SARGE..g-47]

Tom has pretty much nailed it with bird's eye maple. All maple is a problem and very difficult to read grain direction but bird's eye is a the most difficult. You might try skewing it through and taking an extremely light pass (and I mean light) but.. it is the one case I wish I had a drum sander which I don't.

I love maple other than the planing factor and the main reason I work with very little of it.

Good luck with it...

Sarge

[Knottscott]

BEM is tough to plane. Sharp knives, light passes, skewing the board, and dampening the surface are all tricks that might help a little, but a drum sander is your friend if you've got one.

[Carlos]

I did a couple more boards yesterday. I took light passes in the planer (1/128" each time) just to get the roughest parts off, then on to the drum sander with 80 grit. The planer still left damage even with those light passes.

What grit do you guys use in the drum sander to start? Do you feed straight, diagonal?

[SARGE..g-47]

I did a couple more boards yesterday. I took light passes in the planer (1/128" each time) just to get the roughest parts off, then on to the drum sander with 80 grit. The planer still left damage even with those light passes.

What grit do you guys use in the drum sander to start? Do you feed straight, diagonal?

I don't have a drum sander but I would feed it straight. The reason you skew with a planer or hand plane for that matter is it lowers the angle of the cutter which relates to even a lighter pass than you are set for. But.. on the DS I would think that send it through as close to "with the grain as possible" would be best. And remember that DS's are not designed to take more than 1/32" in actuality.

If I had one I would put 80 or 100 grit on the front roller and use 120 or 150 on the rear to kill two birds with one stone.

[Tom Miller]

What grit do you guys use in the drum sander to start? Do you feed straight, diagonal?

For me, starting grit depends on nothing more or less than how much material I want/need to take off. If I have to take off 1/32" or more, I start with ~80. If I have to take off more than that, I'll use the planer, and leave at least 1/32" on each side to account for tearout that I'll clean up on the sander.

Feeding diagonally doesn't really accomplish anything on the drum sander AFAIK.

Regards,
Tom

[Carlos]

If I had one I would put 80 or 100 grit on the front roller and use 120 or 150 on the rear to kill two birds with one stone.

A dual-drum sander?? Whoa, that would be a luxury.

Feeding diagonally doesn't really accomplish anything on the drum sander AFAIK.

I have only experimented with it a little, but it seems to remove material faster by alternating angles. Also with the heavy grits, two passes at opposite angles leaves less marks to remove.

Although I've had it for a while, I still feel like a drum sander newbie. I still don't know what's the best speed/depth ratio. I've been doing fast feeding and very light passes, but maybe I should try the reverse.

[Tom Miller]

...it seems to remove material faster by alternating angles. Also with the heavy grits, two passes at opposite angles leaves less marks to remove.

Oh, that may be -- I meant in terms of grain issues I can't think of a reason to feed at an angle. With only a 10-20, I don't have much room for diagonal feed!

Although I've had it for a while, I still feel like a drum sander newbie. I still don't know what's the best speed/depth ratio. I've been doing fast feeding and very light passes, but maybe I should try the reverse.

I'm no expert, either. I just try to feed fast enough to avoid burning (wood species-dependent), while not overly bogging down the machine with the "cut" depth.

Regards,
Tom

[SARGE..g-47]

A dual-drum sander?? Whoa, that would be a luxury.


I have only experimented with it a little, but it seems to remove material faster by alternating angles. Also with the heavy grits, two passes at opposite angles leaves less marks to remove.

Although I've had it for a while, I still feel like a drum sander newbie. I still don't know what's the best speed/depth ratio. I've been doing fast feeding and very light passes, but maybe I should try the reverse.

As Tom has just stated... he see's no advantage to feeding diagonal. Keep in mind I don't have one and what I know is based on the fact I demonstrated machines for Steel City at the International WW Fair last August. I didn't demonstrate drum sanders as I knew little about it. BTW.. the Steel City drum sander is a double drum.

So... what I know is based on what I picked up from many cabinet shop owners in the Steel City Booth. I saw quite a number run stock through and not once did I see one "skew" the piece. And they all set up for light passes for the most part with a few heavy ones just to see how the SC machine would handle it.

Therefore.. play with it and listen to those that have and use them for advice as again... I am not one of those so fortunate. At this point I will probably never get a new machine as I have accumulated about all I need in 37 years but.. if I did I would upgrade my DP which I will be doing soon as I am going to field test the SC 17" variable DP in my shop and....

I would get a drum sander which I could use today with about 40 board feet of re-saw I did yesterday. I will have to clean up that re-saw by hand as I have always done but would love to have that drum do it for me.

Good luck and you will find the answer with keen observation and some experimentation.