Working Green Wood With Power Tools

[Alan Gan]

Hey all,

I got all this Mesquite wood from the storm fallen tree last week.

I did some searhing but have not found a solid answer.

Can I run some Mesquite Slabs through my Dewalt Planer? Same question as to Bosch Table Saw...

I do not want to ruin my blades, any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

[scott vroom]

Alan, I've never worked with mesquite.

It's 2345 on the Janka hardness scale which is a moderately hard wood (nearly double the hardness of red oak) but I see no reason it would ruin your blades. I do know that mesquite exudes sap so I'd guess that milling it green might leave a buildup on your blades but cleaning them is an easy task. You didn't mention how many board feet you have to cut and surface, but in general the harder the wood the faster the blade wear. The person running high volumes of mesquite will likely have to have their blades sharpened more frequently than the person running high volumes of red oak. But if you have just a small volume of mesquite, the impact on blade sharpness would likely be minimal/unnoticeable.

[Alan Gan]

Thanks Scott,

I do not have a lot that will go through the Planer. I have a few Cutting board slabs, most of the wood will be used for turnings.

I did leave out part of my question. I have sealed the open face Slabs with AnchorSeal 2, will that harm the blades? I think it will be fine for the Tables but not so sure about the Blades.

[Allan Speers]

Anchorseal is basically just wax. It couldn't possibly hurt anything.

Green wood is harder to cut than dry, mostly because it moves a lot. This can be a problem on a bandsaw, for instance, as the kerf can close up while cutting, requiring a special blade. However, this surely is not a problem when surface planing.

I assume all you want to do is rough-plane this lumber, to make it easier to sticker, yes? I wouldn't worry, then.


However, if you want to minimize wear, so as to replace planer blades less often, consider getting a scrub plane (hand plane) to hog-off most of the protrusions and thick areas. This is actually very easy work, and kind of fun, too. You could use the scrub to get things close, then just finish-plane with the machine.