Have you worked with ebony?

[atgcpaul]

Originally, I was going to plug the screw holes in the side of my Maloof dresser
with shop cut, 3/8" walnut plugs. Well, I bought a 4" square chunk of 8/4
ebony two years ago that I was saving for a special project. This was it, I
thought. I chucked up a new 3/8" tapered plug cutter in my drill press and
started plugging away.

What a nightmare! Even going slow and steady the first few plugs just exploded
in the cutter. Pretty surprising when it happened. You really have to fight
the instinct to let go of the wood when that happens. Good thing I was
using a fence. Each time it happened, I was thinking, "Well, it's not too late
to go back to walnut plugs" or "There goes another 25 cents!" I had 36 plugs
to cut! Was I going to make it?

The worst was when I'd get a few good plugs cut then one bad cut would not
only destroy the plug I was cutting but the one I just cut next to it. That was
frustrating!

In the end, I did not need to cut 36 individual plugs. Some on my screw holes
were drilled deep and some shallow. Since the plugs are tapered, I was able
to glue in a few plugs until they were seated in the hole and then cut off the
protruding end with a flush cutting saw. I found that with 30% of the holes, I was
able to use the offcut to plug it. Thank goodness because with my success
rate, I wasn't going to make.

How do you work with ebony? I'm convinced it's mined from the ground and
not harvested from a tree.

My cutter only had 2 cutting surfaces. Would more be better? I also don't
know my drill press speed. I never change it because I rarely use it. Slower
is better for stuff this hard?

Paul

[JR]

I don't have any answers fory you, but I am interested seeing some discussion.

I was recently able to buy a few small pieces of ebony at a very good price at Woodcraft. I plan to start using it soon and wasn't anticipating anything like this much trouble.

JR

[cabinetman]

Ebony is one of the hardest woods I've worked with. Very dense and hard on tools. Cutting edges have to be very sharp. Drilling works best from medium to slow speeds. The cabinets below are done with Ebony veneer (the dark). Even the veneer is hard to cut without splitting. Cutting and fitting the inlays were very difficult.
.

.

[JimD]

I have not worked with ebony but I sometimes have trouble with plug cutters that is reduced by clamping the work piece to the fence. It sounds like you were holding it by hand. I also juggle speed around and often works better to use a higher speed - I change it several times if necessary for it to work well. I lose a few too - working in woods not as hard as ebony.

Jim

[atgcpaul]

Ebony is one of the hardest woods I've worked with. Very dense and hard on tools. Cutting edges have to be very sharp. Drilling works best from medium to slow speeds. The cabinets below are done with Ebony veneer (the dark). Even the veneer is hard to cut without splitting. Cutting and fitting the inlays were very difficult.
.
.

C-man, did you buy the veneers or cut them yourself? If those are cabinets
you made, by far my favorite of all your projects. Very classy. Is that someone's
house or a business?

When I see people in wood mags work with ebony, they make it look so
effortless. I can't imagine having much success inlaying thin slivers of ebony
into something else without a lot of cracking and subsequent cursing.

Another wood I haven't worked with but have in the shop is wenge. I'm
expecting an even harder time with that one. At least with ebony, the chips
that come out are pretty clean. Like cutting into the densest chocolate or
wax. Wenge looks like splinter city.

Next time (not for a long time), I'll see if I can go for a slower speed.

Paul

[cabinetman]

C-man, did you buy the veneers or cut them yourself? If those are cabinets
you made, by far my favorite of all your projects. Very classy. Is that someone's
house or a business?

When I see people in wood mags work with ebony, they make it look so
effortless. I can't imagine having much success inlaying thin slivers of ebony
into something else without a lot of cracking and subsequent cursing.

Paul

The cabinets are in a residential dining room. I bought sequenced flitches of .062 veneer. The inlays are the same as the doors and they are Satinwood stripe, another hard species. Working with hard, hardwoods is really a labor of love.
.

[scmhogg]

When I had to plug some screw holes with ebony, I bought a package of violin/viola pegs on ebay. They were top quality ebony and tapered just right. I kept the ends to use a knobs in the future.

Steve

[atgcpaul]

When I had to plug some screw holes with ebony, I bought a package of violin/viola pegs on ebay. They were top quality ebony and tapered just right. I kept the ends to use a knobs in the future.

Steve

After the fifth blown up plug, I seriously considered buying the plugs off eBay
but when I did a search for "ebony plug" on eBay, all I got were those
large hoop earings people use to stretch out their ear lobes. I'll try your
search.

I didn't have the luxury of time (or the foresight) to buy the pegs ahead of
time since the baby to be is not going to wait for me to finish this dresser.

Paul

[rollo]

ebony plugs

I've cut tapered plugs (~16-20) in ebony before to plug screwholes on a walnut bookcase I made. I don't remember having any problems. I cut mine from a ~3/8" thick scrap piece and cut them all the way through. I have the self centering 4 fluted cutters that are relatively new and sharp from rockler (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...plug%20cutters) . As said before, run your DP at a lower RPM (~400 or so i think?) and you should do fine. Incidentally I've also used those cutters on Jatoba (hard, dense wood) as well and they cruised right through more than 50 plugs w/o a whimper. Good luck.

[Uncle Cracker]

Ebony is dense and hard to work... It also retains energy as it dries, so if you cut it , it might fracture, or "explode", as you call it. Do you have to have tapered plugs? If so you can make them on a lathe with a sharp tool. If tapered is not needed, I'd still turn straight plugs on the lathe, but they'd be easier than tapered. Have fun...

[warrenp]

I needed some Ebony plugs and cut some 1/4" square x 4" long pieces.

I then turned it on the lathe to the shape I wanted. I also made some small knobs for some boxes in the same way.

[LCHIEN]

You should really learn to check and modify your drill press speed, its not very hard and makes a great difference in how things drill. See the thread linked below. There are charts showing the correct speed for many types of cutters and hardwoods or softwoods. Usually hardwoods require a considerably slower speed than soft, in my recollection.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=20132&highlight=drill+press+speed

[Norm in Fujino]

I recovered ebony from an old Chinese table for use as the panels in my A&C loveseat last fall. The worst part was planing the stuff, since the panels were thin and they really didn't want to go through my thickness planer. As you discovered, the stuff tends to chip/explode a lot when cut.