Tear out on hedge when going through the planner

plowboyswr · January 29, 2018, 02:11:22 PM

I was planning some lumber this morning and on the hedge (Osage orange) I was getting quite a bit of tear out. I did some oak, cherry, and walnut before and after and didn't see any on those. As far as moisture I don't know on any of it. The others were smooth as glass. I'm using a 13" bench top planer so there is no deep cutting to it. Mostly skip planning shallow cuts.

WDH · January 29, 2018, 08:37:27 PM

You have to feed the board with the grain running in a right direction in a planer. Maybe the hedge had grain that did not behave or was wild and squirrely.

farmfromkansas · January 29, 2018, 09:37:28 PM

Seems to help if you have a helical cutterhead.

plowboyswr · January 29, 2018, 10:42:27 PM

Tried feeding both directions. As far as the grain didn't think it was too wild.

What do you think. say_what this being my first at finishing hedge so not sure what to think. You can see some of the tear out in the bottom right corner of the picture. It is where the grain changes some. Gonna take a bit of sanding to smooth it all out. Making a butcher block top for a tool box out of it for a coworker so I want it right. And a helical head just isn't in the budget right now even though it is on the wish list.

WDH · January 30, 2018, 06:50:29 AM

I suspect the knives are a bit duller than you think; the hedge being so hard that it shows up with it and not on the woods that are less dense and hard.

Sawmill_Bill · January 30, 2018, 04:37:48 PM

To plan Osage Orange, the knives need to have a 10 degree back angle ground into them. This will change the planning action into a scraping one. I have a set of knives for my lunchbox planer just for this purpose.

Brad_bb · February 04, 2018, 02:12:18 PM

It's not unusual for Osage grain to change directions multiple times in a board. I've had tear out with my beam planer so I usually resort to belt sanding to smooth it out. 50 grit, 80 grit, then 150 grit.

plowboyswr · April 01, 2018, 02:37:05 AM

Well it turned out nice. ;D

Dan_Shade · April 01, 2018, 07:23:46 AM

That is very nice .

E-Tex · April 01, 2018, 08:18:58 AM

nice plowboy...

DPatton · April 01, 2018, 01:00:51 PM

Yes it did turn out nice indeed. How did you take care of the tear out problem?

plowboyswr · April 05, 2018, 02:51:55 AM

Didn't get it all to go away. Slipped in a new set of knives and was still having problems. So left them a little thick and took Brad's advice and sanded it on down to final. Took a while, good thing for a beltsander if I had done it by hand I would still be working on it. :D Glued up great. Put 3 coats of oil on it. He was happy, now I have 3 more wanting tops. Told them that they are gonna have to wait I don't have any more dry lumber of the hedge. Wonder how it would do quarter sawn? smiley_huh Hopefully got a sawing job out it from another guy so not a bad deal.