>I've turned my first two maple bowls and am going nuts sanding them. I can usually get my bowl smooth enfuf with a combination of sharp tools, careful fine finish cuts and same scraping or shear scraping that I can sand them down in about 15 minutes or so.
Not the maple. I recut one, and still got tool marks on it, and the other I bit the bullet and sanded until my fingers were sore, and still it isn't up to my standard.
I've used butternut, ash and walnut successfully. Same lathe, tools and techniques are failing miserably on maple.
Oh, the lumber yard said it was soft maple, not hard maple.
When I have had trouble getting a fine tool finish on maple, either due to variances in the wood, or tearout, I have found that by power sanding I can quickly eliminate any unwanted marks in the project. I recommend either a Sioux or Milwaukee angle drill/sander.
Don't you just hate when that happens!? Some woods are just like that. Maybe it's where they grow or how they were dried or maybe it's just a bad day.
When that sort of thing happens to me I like to rethink my process. Often something as simple as a sharp tool will resolve the issue.
So here is my list of actions:
Sharpen the tools and try a few light passes to see if things improve.
Try a smaller sharp tool
Try a larger sharp tool
Try a different tool (perhaps a spindle gouge when a bowl gouge had been used)
Fortify the wood with something before cutting (water or finish or oil or glue)
Cut in the "wrong" direction. (large diameter to small diameter on the outside of a bowl...)
Reverse the lathe and cut from the other side of the lathe
Slow the cut down
Speed the lathe up
Slow the lathe down
Support the wood as I cut (bowl steady or hand support).
Usually what happens is something will make a slight improvement and I will stick with that process until the problem areas are resolved or I have decided that solution isn't working.
I will also sand with the lathe off specifically on problem areas. The sand with the lathe on but turning slow so the sanding paper can keep contact with the wood as it spins around.
>Walt, sanding with oil will do wonders to solve a problem like you have. I use the same oil that I use for finishing. Daly's Danish Tung Oil. However, other brands will do the same thing, or you can use mineral oil. Just apply a fairly liberal amount of oil to the wood and start sanding. I suggest that you start with 80 grit, and work your way up through the grits. I only use oil for the first couple of grits. Oil also makes shear scraping easier in areas where the wood has tool marks or end-grain tearout.
Also, don't overuse the sandpaper, keep moving to a fresh grit. Overuse will tend to burnish the wood, making it very difficult to remove sanding marks.
>I haven't been back to the shop to try your ideas--thanks everyone.
I DID find out that part of the problem was a poorly sharpened scraper. Fixing that took 50% of the tool marks out, but the surface is still unacceptable. I'm going to try wetting it down with mineral sprits and see what happens as I try to get it smooth.
