Lyptus first impression

[J. Clarke]

Turning 8/4 stock into half inch. Resting a bit before I tackle the next piece. (OK, so I'm an old fat guy who spends too much time in front of the TV)

Stuff weighs a ton.

Makes dust. Ran one piece through the jointer and grabbed a respirator. Huge cloud of dust, so finely divided that it looks like smoke. Thought I'd set something on fire for a minute. Doesn't smell particularly pleasant either. If I'm going to do much work with this stuff I may want to rig real dust collection on the jointer.

Makes splinters on cut ends. Not great big ones, just little annoying ones.

Careful on the feed, going through the bandsaw I burned it a little bit. Never managed that before. Other than the burning though it saws nicely. Makes dust.

Has a good luster, even coming fresh out of the planer it's shiny enough to see reflections.

Did I say it makes dust?

Interesting color, light, reddish, almost salmon-pink. Think it might turn out to be pretty. Have to see what it looks like in an assembled piece though.

[J. Clarke]

Grain looks kind of like Makore, but with some occasional patches of curly figure. There seems to be some kind of bug that gets into it while it's growing, there are several little round holes, maybe a sixteenth inch or a wee bit more in diameter all the way through, and one tunnel showed up on the face of one of the boards I sawed out of the 8/4. Haven't found an actual bug yet though--presume the KD cycle either killed them or ran them out.

Band saw blade tried to wander on a couple of the cuts and the saw bogged down in a couple as well. Thought the blade was getting dull then I noticed how much cup developed in a couple of the slices--seems like there was some residual tension.

>

[cselby]

I thought it was just me.

No it doesn't. It weighs more.

Correct on the dust as fine as smoke. Think about using a box fan with a fine furnace filter behind it. All the dust collectors you probably have won't clear the air enuff. That dust may irritate nasal membranes and swell eyes. The smell is an aquired taste like aromatic cedar.

Wait until you use a router on any part that begins to upgrain. I'll probably be shredded for suggesting moving the router backwards is some spots.

With a new blade, I found it sawed slowly and wanted to stall the bandsaw. Without a dust collection system going, you would think wood this heavy would drop any dust like gravel. Dust collector and a box fan/filter next to the blade and a full face respirator makes the cutting easier.

Did I mention the dust is fine as smoke?

It will turn out very pretty - nice grain patterns and color. The ends of the boards should have a code stamped in for density. Density is not consistant and affects colors. To get a sense of color matching, try to use the same numbers for glue ups.

Enjoy

Pete

[J. Clarke]

Turns out that the splinters itch like the blazes if you don't get them out right away.