Big Leaf Maple

[Rockytime]

I just received this big leaf figured Maple. Gorgeous stuff. Vendor is Daniel Zimmerman. He is often found on Facebook and on various groups. I purchased one box containing: 11 21X7-1/2X1/4" boards, 10 21X3-3/4" boards. $64 including shipping. Gorgeous wood. It is rough sawn. I don't own a planer or a large sander but is is smooth enough that my hand orbital sander will work. I had a nice DeWalt sander which was stolen. Consequence of keeping the garage door open. Now I have two HF sanders, a Bran and a Central Electric. One with 80 grit and the other with 220 grit. The combo works quite well. Daniel can be searched on Facebook. I can hardly wait to start scrolling it.

[WayneMahler]

Really nice looking piece of wood. I'm jealous  May have to look this guy up.

[TAIrving]

Beautiful wood, can't wait to see what you scroll with it. 

[FrankEV]

Beautiful wood.   Also looking forward to see what you do with it.

I don't own a planer either, but that is about to change.  I have a birthday comming up and between my Lady and Daughter they asked what I wanted and I told them to get me the small Craftsman Planer that Lowes sells.  It is a small bench top planer that I really do not have room for a permanent setup in my shop but will come up with a way of using it on a portable stand when needed.  JUst have to find a suitabl place to store it in the meantime.

I have access to Rough sawn lumber of various kinds but the cost to have it planed is high.  I'll only be doing small pieces mainly to reduce rough sawn 3/4" material down to 1/2" or 1/4"  or 1" down to 3/4" for frames, so I'm hoping the Craftsman unit will do the job.   

[stoney]

Beautiful wood Les.   How rough is the surface?   Was it milled with a circular saw or a bandsaw?   

[barb.j.enders]

I am jealous.  I saw his facebook posting but to ship to Canada would make it way to expensive.

[daveww1]

great piece of wood

[LarryEA]

I love to work with figured and spalted Maple.

It is beautiful wood

[Denny Knappen]

That is sure beautiful.  I call it Flame Maple.

[lawson56]

Now that is Beautiful wood.

[Rockytime]

12 hours ago, stoney said:

Beautiful wood Les.   How rough is the surface?   Was it milled with a circular saw or a bandsaw?   

The wood is a little rough but I cut a piece for a project. The wood is cupped so I used an orbital sander for a couple of minutes and smoothed the convex side with a little orbital sander. Worked well. Of course the cupped side I would have to sand by hand. Been lots of discssion on flattening wood and I paid no attention as I had no cupped lumber. Now I have to look up what I must do. The average thickness is .260" just slightly over a quarter inch. Wish I had a planer. Not knowing the difference between circular saw and bandsaw finishes I can't tell you.

[Rockytime]

Here is a sample treated with 50/50 BLO.

[Roberta Moreton]

On 5/14/2021 at 9:01 PM, Rockytime said:

The wood is a little rough but I cut a piece for a project. The wood is cupped so I used an orbital sander for a couple of minutes and smoothed the convex side with a little orbital sander. Worked well. Of course the cupped side I would have to sand by hand. Been lots of discssion on flattening wood and I paid no attention as I had no cupped lumber. Now I have to look up what I must do. The average thickness is .260" just slightly over a quarter inch. Wish I had a planer. Not knowing the difference between circular saw and bandsaw finishes I can't tell you.

To fix a cupped piece you need a jointer, not a planer. A planer will press the wood down and remove wood, when the wood exits the planer it will just cup again. A planer makes each side parallel, not flat. Wetting your wood and weighing it down might flatten it. 

[WolfmoonCT]

I just ordered a box from him.  He said he's sending some mix of curly, quilted, and lightly spalted..  I'll post some pics of what I get when it arrives. I'll prob let it sit in my shop for a few days to acclimate to see how the cupping is first.  It's going from WA to CT..  not sure how the humidity is out in WA.

 

[ben2008]

On 5/14/2021 at 9:29 PM, Rockytime said:

Here is a sample treated with 50/50 BLO.

I have some that looks like that. It is just over 3/4"  I have had it for about 20 years and still tryig to figure out what to use it for.

[Jim Erickson]

Frank:  Have you considered an abrasive planer rather than a regular one?  Years back I bought a Grizzly 12" abrasive planer to go along with my 12" DeWalt portable planer I already owned.  The abrasive unit is much better for small stuff.  Cuts a lot slower, and more precisely.  

I don't know whether Grizzly still sells the small one like I have.  It's preformed pretty well for me.  Typical Grizzly, crumby switch, and requiring adjustment out of the box, but a solid performer.  One thing though, it makes a lot of dust, so you need to hook it up to a dust collector.  BTW, you can flatten wood with a planer.  It involves alternately planing both sides, taking off the high points and making the board flat.  Jim 

[OCtoolguy]

On 5/13/2021 at 9:21 PM, Rockytime said:

I just received this big leaf figured Maple. Gorgeous stuff. Vendor is Daniel Zimmerman. He is often found on Facebook and on various groups. I purchased one box containing: 11 21X7-1/2X1/4" boards, 10 21X3-3/4" boards. $64 including shipping. Gorgeous wood. It is rough sawn. I don't own a planer or a large sander but is is smooth enough that my hand orbital sander will work. I had a nice DeWalt sander which was stolen. Consequence of keeping the garage door open. Now I have two HF sanders, a Bran and a Central Electric. One with 80 grit and the other with 220 grit. The combo works quite well. Daniel can be searched on Facebook. I can hardly wait to start scrolling it.

I have been tempted to buy some of his wood. You can't beat the price. Now that I know it's good I'll buy some. I usually buy for a project but it might be nice to have some of that laying around. I have a planer, never used it. But now that may give me the incentive I've been lacking. Thanks Les.

[WolfmoonCT]

Maybe I need to buy a panel sander.. that would prob do a great job..  See, I just talked myself into a new tool I don't need.  LOL

[OCtoolguy]

On 5/14/2021 at 9:01 PM, Rockytime said:

The wood is a little rough but I cut a piece for a project. The wood is cupped so I used an orbital sander for a couple of minutes and smoothed the convex side with a little orbital sander. Worked well. Of course the cupped side I would have to sand by hand. Been lots of discssion on flattening wood and I paid no attention as I had no cupped lumber. Now I have to look up what I must do. The average thickness is .260" just slightly over a quarter inch. Wish I had a planer. Not knowing the difference between circular saw and bandsaw finishes I can't tell you.

 

Les, I have had good luck wetting the cupped side, turn it over and clamp to my bench overnight. I hope that works for you.

[FrankEV]

On 5/16/2021 at 9:49 AM, Roberta Moreton said:

To fix a cupped piece you need a jointer, not a planer. A planer will press the wood down and remove wood, when the wood exits the planer it will just cup again. A planer makes each side parallel, not flat. Wetting your wood and weighing it down might flatten it. 

You can make a cupped board flat with a planer if you do it correctly and if it is not toooo severely cupped.  You need to only take a very ligt cut with each pass throught the planer flipping the board betwee each pass.  It does not remove the cup, it will simply thin the board to a uniform thickness dimension.   Since the board is already cupped it will not cup any more.

I've used this method to make flat many rough sawn boards that are cupped right out of the drying kiln.  Most often you can get true 3/4" thick boards from rough sawn 5/4, or sometimes  4/4, material.  Yep...lots of waste. 

This method is what commercial lumber mills use, only their planers are 2 sided and it only requires one pass to reach the desired milled thickness.