working desert ironwood

T

tmr

Well-Known Member
I haven,t used desert ironwood for a while and i had forgotten how quickly it plugs up the grit on the sanding belts........any suggestions on shaping handles from this material........it is even plugging the teeth on my coarse files.......????
 
I second the recommendation for cabinet makers rasps (not those 4 way rasps you find at the hardware stores) The good ones are not that much slower than a belt grinder.

Doug
 
I went out to the shop and put a new 36 grit norzon ceramic belt on and shaped and contoured the handle using light pressure and it worked quite well....i had been trying to profile handle with a used belt and it wasn't working for me so i guess the key is new sharp abrasive with lots of cleaning during use....i do think that the oily exotic woods are a lot more expensive on abrasive.
 
Doug Lester said:
I second the recommendation for cabinet makers rasps (not those 4 way rasps you find at the hardware stores) The good ones are not that much slower than a belt grinder.

Doug
Click to expand...
Pricey but worth it. The French made ones are a lot more!!!! #49 is slightly coarser than the #50 but not much. Amazing how quickly the wood cleans to compared to say a 36 grit belt.
 
Yep, pretty much anything other that a reasonably new belt will burn Ironwood. it's good at plugging up drill bit flutes too, I use a 1/8" pointed brass rod to knock it out of the flutes while drilling it.
 
bladegrinder said:
Yep, pretty much anything other that a reasonably new belt will burn Ironwood. it's good at plugging up drill bit flutes too, I use a 1/8" pointed brass rod to knock it out of the flutes while drilling it.
Click to expand...
Any of the really dense oily woods will do that with drill bits. The Rosewoods are bad about that. But they are easier to work than Ironwood.
 
it’s counter-intuitive, but slowing the belt speed down will cut the wood without burning it and will keep the belt from clogging as fast. And the big rubber eraser helps tons, as mentioned.
 
I try to use coarse, open coat AO belt on Ironwood, fresh belts and light pressure and keep using the cork block to remove any build up frequently so it doesn't bake into the belt.
 
I do a fair bit of desert ironwood work, and anything 80 grit + is going to gum up, regardless if it's ceramic, A/O or otherwise. Depending on how close to final dimension I get with resawing blocks, I will then either use a flycutter on the mill and surface it to close to thickness, or use a low grit ceramic running at 70%+ and knock off what I need. The trick with ceramic is to run at high speeds with pressure, as that's what re-fractures the ceramic matrix. Ironwood isn't really hard enough to do this effectively with, so you may save some money by using low grit A/O. But I'd keep it in the 24-48 grit range. The larger consideration is removing your lower grit scratches, as it can be real rough getting deep lines out of finished surfaces, so you have to stop short a bit and climb your grits, and then a fine file or 100-220 grit hand sand will get you closer. I usually will utilize my buffer to expose those sharp lines that come from low grit stock removal because they can be tricky to spot on dark wood.

Here is an example of desert ironwood I did, where everything else was soft nickel silver, which makes hard and soft surface and material removal a balancing act.

d8s0m2t.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top