I'm seeing tearout using a planer on birch. a closer look at the grain of the board I'm planing shows the grain in a u shape. I'm guessing that this was my first lesson in proper board selection. am I missing something?
(I already tried replacing and adjusting the knives...no joy).
Dave
Not sure exactly what you mean by U shaped.
One point of concern is to determine the direction thet the grain meets the surface being planed. It will always esentially hit the surface at some angle. You want to make sure you feed the board so the angle of the grain is pointing back out of the end of the planer that you are feeding it in from. So the angle is aligned with the direction the blades are hitting the surface (if that makes sense). This would mean one end first for one side and the other end first for the other side (usually).
If the grain has a lot of figure (ie wavy, irregular, changing direction) it may just not work well in a planer. You can try wetting the surface, which will help a little on figured grain.
I haven't worked with Birch too much but I've seen it used in my shop (a lot recently) and they don't seem to be having those problems. One guy mentioned some fuzziness when he edge trimmed some stuff but sharp bits seemed to fix that.
Plane it in the opposite direction, take off less per pass, moisten the wood beforehand with a damp cloth or a spray bottle. May not help, but you will have then tried most everything there is ... other than becoming a neander.
The u shape I was refering to was the grain direction looking at the board edge on. Seems like this means the board is good for a half the ride through the planer, then tearing into the grain for the other half.
tx for the comments btw. I'll definitely try much shallower cuts as well.
"Swingman" wrote in news:NZydnTybwtIp55 snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
And even if you become a neander, you will have to plane it in the correct direction, take small amounts per pass, moisten the wood on occaision, and sometimes scrape. ;-0
Relax. It's wood. Sometimes, it just does that.
Patriarch
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