planing birds eye maple

[keith micinski]

I have never worked with any kind of figured wood untill today. I have a piece of curly Birdseye maple and all I did was wet the surface with mineral sprirts and take a very light pass. It came out perfect.

[Steve Griffin]

I have never worked with any kind of figured wood untill today. I have a piece of curly Birdseye maple and all I did was wet the surface with mineral sprirts and take a very light pass. It came out perfect.

Sounds like a fire hazard to me.

-Steve

[keith micinski]

Your actually worried that wiping .01 of an ounce of mineral spirits on a board would somehow be ignited by the friction of a spinning blade? At that point I would be more worried about a Meteroite hitting my shop while I was in it.

[Steve Griffin]

I wouldn't worry a bit if it was .01 of an ounce. But I'm also certain that amount would do absolutely no good. Surely you are using at least an ounce for a panel?

I didn't say a fire was likely, nor that the spinning blades would cause it. I'm sure you are familiar with dust collection fires, or sparks created by a hidden staple etc.

When I was a mountaineer I used to say any time you can avoid an extremely unlikely accident you should. Take a 1/1000 chance of a bad result 1000 times, and statistically you are in trouble.

-Steve

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Dampen the wood slightly, and hand plane across the grain only with a razor-sharp smoothing plane with the throat almost totally closed. If that doesn't work, sand it!

[Van Huskey]

My frst choice would be a helical head, second drum/belt sander, third would be dampening the wood.

[Jason Beylerian]

thanx guys for your help