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1st November 2019, 07:00 PM #1Member
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Trouble preparing western red cedar with a planer/jointer
Decided to build a stile and rail front entrance door. I have really only used Australian hardwood on other projects (except one pine tongue and groove door) and thought Aussie hard wood would be way to heavy, so went with Western red Cedar. The research I did said it was fine for semi protected area, which my 3m veranda provides.
Have bought the WRC in 100 x 50, 150 x 50 and 200 x 50mm's rough sawn.
My problem is today I started to plane the first 100 x 50 x 2100, did the narrow edge OK but in squaring the 100mm edge it just seemed to stick to the cast! The planer/thicknesser is a Jet 310.
I haven't had much experience with above machine and only machined Aussie hardwoods on it (almost all recycled), with no problems. I did keep the infeed at about .5 of a mill for the AHW and did increase to about .75 for the WRC.
I cleaned and waxed the tables and yesterday I put in 3 new blades. The test results on scrap pine 90 x 45 were very good.
Any advice will be gratefully accepted.
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1st November 2019, 09:52 PM #2Member
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This dilemma of mine is more than likely a simple newbie error that skilled woodworkers would take for granted, if that's what it is i don't mind being told.
Would really like to make a dent in the milling tomorrow.
BTW did experiment some with infeed heights with no advantage.
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1st November 2019, 10:39 PM #3
Hmmm. Interesting.
The blades might be new; but how sharp are they? The only comparable experience I've had was recently surfacing some Huon Pine boards. I thought the blades were plenty sharp. But I was wrong.
I turned them over (these are Tersa blades) and it sang through the timber. Blunter blades seem to be less of an issue on hardwoods. Go figure!
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2nd November 2019, 07:17 AM #4Member
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They seemed very sharp Mark.
Will check the blade settings first up but pretty sure they are right as the pine came out great.
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2nd November 2019, 10:23 AM #5GOLD MEMBER
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This is a common problem with soft timbers like cedars. The trick is a super slick table surface and then a waxing. You may need to buff your table surfaces to create the slickness required, a scotch brite pad will do the trick. Paraffin wax the freshly buffed table surface and buff. Now apply a squiggle of wax to either the table surface or the face of the timber to be planed, a thick candle is handy here.
You should now be able to feed with speed.
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2nd November 2019, 11:40 AM #6
If you still have problems with the feed after getting all anal with the table, do you have any sheets of ply lying around? Something you can make a sled from? (MDF would also do, but tends to be heavy.)
Cut a length @ 2.4m x (slightly under max width the planer can handle) and run it through. If it doesn't stick on the first side, wax the freshly cut surface, flip it and run it through again, just to ensure the ply isn't of wonky thickness.
It's a PITA having to put both the timber AND the sled though, slowing things down... but if it's faster than not getting the wood through at all, well...
- Andy Mc
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2nd November 2019, 11:54 AM #7
One other thing I thought of; are you pushing against the fence? As counterintuitive as this may sound; it is easier using the fence, especially with the broader surface area of wider boards.
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2nd November 2019, 04:19 PM #8Member
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Thank you gents.
First up I went over the blades again to have them just moving a straight edge, rather than being same height as outfeed, then started off with 900mm lengths and all was going OK with just a hint of 'sticking'.
Realized to myself at the time, yesterday, I was "over doing things". Almost all the timber I've worked with has been (cheap) recycled and ply, so with this expensive wood I was over compensating, yes Mark, pushing against the fence and down to hard . The long lengths I still had some trouble with but not like yesterday.
Yes rustynail my effort of cleaning and waxing the tables was not to the spec you suggest, so will attend to that.
Hopefully I'll not need the sled Andy Mc as all pieces have now 2 sides flat and square.
I have more questions re building this door so I might open a new thread.
Thanks again blokes.
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2nd November 2019, 05:05 PM #9
I read thicknesser for some reason.
Whoops
- Andy Mc
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2nd November 2019, 06:30 PM #10GOLD MEMBER
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Wax the fence as well.
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2nd November 2019, 10:41 PM #11Member
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2nd November 2019, 10:44 PM #12Member
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