Would like to know your experience with African Padauk. What are the advantages and disadvanges when working with this type wood. Would it need special glue for lamination? Is it very dusty? Any information would be very helpful. Thanks,
I have made a number of boxes from Padauk, using normal tools and glue. No problems, glue holds, no customer complaints. Looks great with a tung oil finish.
Steve
I have turned some for pens and have found it to be somewhat porus, but sands down well to give a nice surface but very easy to grip. I am using Behlen's turners finish on it (Woodcraft). It is somewhat dusty but not worse than other woods. One peculiar thing is that the heartwood can be pithy, almost to a point of becoming paste. As I would center drill the pen blanks, I would have to bring the bit out and clean it (orange paste type substance) then continue drilling. It did not affect the glue's ability to work(Titebond II) nor did it affect the strength of the wood. This must be some sap leftover from kiln drying? I am somewhat of a newby, but I hope this helps. Lyndell
Huh.
Contrary to previous posts, I found that when I milled and sanded padauk, it produced a very fine red dust that got EVERYWHERE (it covered EVERY horizontal surface in my shop), that I swear produced a nasty chest infection that lasted for weeks (read: "wear respirator"). It milled nicely and glued well enough (Titebond II). I've read here and in books that oil finishes cause the color to turn to brown faster than water-based finishes.
-jbb
In all fairness to the dust situation, Walnut gets dark dust every where also. Dark woods produce dark dust that seems to get everywhere. Actually most any wood get dust every where but is less noticeable when working light woods. As for the wood turning brown, I suspect the sunlight may have more effect. I have some furniture finished with oil and oil based varnishes and the Padauk is still red, dark red but not anywhere near brown. These pieces are over 20 years old.
I've made a bunch of pens and desk accessories and a jewelry box out of Paduak (check out my website for pictures of the box). It works quite well and glues up nicely with normal wood glue (Elmer's Pro-bond). I do notice that the dust tends to be almost magnetic. I've not had any respiratory problems with the dust. It's a very attractive wood but just be aware that it will darken in time. I finish my pens with a shellac based product and the box I did with lacquer and I'm quite pleased with both finishes. I plan on making more with this wood as it's really quite striking.
padouk is one of the worst dust producers out there. some tropicals make fine dust no matter what you do to them and padouk is one of the biggest. it will make clouds of very fine dust just crosscutting or ripping it. it takes a cyclone to catch that sawdust too. it turns everything that color. all my clear hose is that color now. but padouk is a oily wood and if you use yellow glue the joint can fail. poly is my choice and gorilla glue the best. freshly mill/sand and dampen both sides and glue up. as usual poly won't dry very well and a oil finish takes awhile to dry.
true but some tropicals are far worse at making fine dust where there would only be chips. padouk is one of the worst bloodwood about the worst. it is almost impossible to trap all of the bloodwood dust. a couple of others are really bad too. but padouk for a softer wood is really bad. Plus the dust will stain everything.
Padauk is beautiful stuff which is something of a pain to work, being both hard and somewhat coarse-grained (splintery). I just finished a carving project using it. I found I needed to keep my tools very sharp.
It doesn't appear to be dusty and I don't know about toxicity.
--RC "Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.
Yeah I have been down that road a few times with Padauk. I do not recall the dust being exceptionally bad but then I have been cutting a lot of Ipe lately. :~). I do recall the red dust staining though. I have used it wit Oak and Maple and the Padauk would easily bleed over on to the lighter wood. I have a Padauk, Walnut, and Cocobolo coffee table and that was not a problem.
I worked with this wood on several products and actually still have some of them around. The wood machines very well. It is a "glossy" type of wood (for lack of a better word) in that is cuts and polishes easily. It can burn if you push the speed or the router bit. I have waxed or oiled this wood with good results. It polishes on a buffing wheel to a high shine. The blue ups are up to 10 years old and yellow glue seems to be working with out special effort. The wood is reddish and can have black purple brown or other color streaks. Overall it is a very nice wood to work with. max
On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 21:47:44 -0800, the inscrutable Steve Knight spake:
Jarrah is pretty bad about that, too, but I haven't found it to be the dye the padauk dust is said to be.
I found some TiteBond Poly glue in the hardwood store yesterday and grabbed a bottle. $5.75 for a 4 oz. bottle. Have you tried it?
---------------------------------------------------- Thesaurus: Ancient reptile with excellent vocabulary
it is believe me I used to use a hell of a lot of padouk. when it gets mixed with other sawdust all you see is padouk (G) when I used a bag on my DC you could always smell the padouk dust and the bag is now permanently orange (G)
it's ok most are but if you want the strongest bond gorilla gave it. it matters more on oily woods then regular woods though. I don't think on regular woods it would make much of a difference.
unless you test the joints you won't know. it's not like the wood will pop apart when you use yellow glue a day after you glue it up. but the joint is weaker then the wood if you use yellow glue. I used to test this out all of the time finding the best glue and playing with temp and stuff. if you want a stronger then wood joint you have to glue oily woods right. I glue one hell of a lot of oily woods and if you don't believe me well I guess you can pay the price later on (G)
On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:16:55 -0800, Carol Dufour wrote (in article ):
I've made two tables using paduk, and second the comments about it being hard and splintery- hand chopping mortices was really no fun. It does, however, finish to a beautiful, lustrous sheen. Yellow glue has worked well for me (knock on wood)- it doesn't seem to be an oily wood.
Here's a link to the tech sheet:
its and oily wood. a simple test is to use poly on it. it will take weeks to dry if it ever does. if it is not oily it is not the normal padouk most of us get.
On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 11:35:31 -0800, the inscrutable Steve Knight spake:
Do you use acetone to clean prior to gluing? If not, what solvent do you use? Just curious.
Speaking of curiosity, how are my planes coming? I can't wait to try the Japanese iron. I hope to have the gallery up tomorrow or Tuesday.
========================================================= The Titanic. The Hindenburg. +
Steve Knight wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Hi Steve,
Just curious if you are in favor of wiping with acetone prior to gluing oily woods?
I've read differing opinions ... some say that with Gorilla it doesn't matter. Others say differently. I know you do a lot with tropicals so I was interested in your opinion.
Regards, Nate
no acetone tends to pull the oil to the surface. freshly mill/sand and dampen both sides and use gorilla glue.
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