Planing Maple

[Thomas Mitchell]

I had some 6/4 hard maple stock that I planed down to somewhere between

4/4 and 5/4. I noticed a lot of chipping out through out the board, even when barely planing any material off. Is this typical of maple? First time I've planed maple.

Thomas

[Rob V]

Sounds like 1 of 2 things.

1 - the chips are not getting out of the way of the planer blades. 2 - you are feeding it against the grain.

[alexy]

Which are subpoints of "A -- you are using a power planer"

Then we have B - you are using a hand plane and

1 - iron is not sharp 2 - mouth is too large 3 - you are planing against the grain

[leonard lopez]

It is very common in maple. Search the newsgroup for old threads on this one. Sharp blades, prewetting the stock, and running it through at an angle, are all partial solutions. Somebody also suggested using a thickness sander for the last part.

Len