Express from scratch

[McGinnis]

Got some nice Flame Maple here. Going with the Kelly schematic and the cleanest layout I can come up with in this chassis I have here. I'm gonna carve out a flamed maple faceplate on this one to. FUN STUFF!!! Will keep you all posted. Everyones two cents welcome.
[IMG:640:480]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281 ... ead003.jpg[/img]

[Lonely Raven]

Looks like fun!

Enjoy carving (chipping) flamed maple down to 1/8" faceplate! Ugh I hated doing that.

[Big Jim]

Godspeed and happy building! That is some pretty wood. Ought to be a beauty.

[amplifiednation]

Where do you get wood like that? How do you reduce it down to an eighth of an inch? I used alpha pots on my rocket and had to use paper thin art store wood as my faceplate and its already cracked

[selloutrr]

planer - reduces wood.

[don]

if you have a local rockler store, they would have curly maple that is really thin......just a bit of sanding and you can squeeze it in

[dreric]

planer - reduces wood.

IME, flamed maple (and almost any kind of flamed or curly wood) chips out with a planner. Better off with a table saw and a thickness sander.

Eric

[angelodp]

Nice start. Welcome and looking forward to your progress.

Ange

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Plane ... laner.html

On second thought +1 on the thickness sander..... and band saw.

[McGinnis]

Thanks folks. Yes the planner just rips chunks out so it will be a thickness sander to get down to 3/4. The faceplates ill just rip and sand down. Got a buddy with a lumber company that hooks me up with the wood. He says only about 1 in 500 trees have flames. I'm stocked up enough on wood to build about 8 or 10 cabs right now, unless my wife needs a table or something LOL

[amplifiednation]

Went to Rockler today and got a nice piece of curly maple with tons of figure for $12!! Sweet guys, thanks!

I don't know to use it for a faceplate or the front of a new cabinet for my Rocket?? It's a sweet piece of wood, i wish I got more of it.

Do you think i could just take the 1/8inch piece down with my belt sander? Or am I going to ruin it?

[selloutrr]

I would assume...
It would depend on the grit of your paper and how aggressive you were. I'd worry about getting it even across the surface.

[Lonely Raven]

Yeah, when I used to make faceplates for the forum, it was difficult thinning them out with a belt sander. You tilt slightly and the the thing goes lopsided.

I typically used an aluminum bar with sand paper glued to it, nice and flat, and very controllable.

I'd get as far as I could with the planer first though...I'd tape the thin stock to a larger board since my planer can't go less than 3/16". Then I'd just bring it down 1/4 turn at a time and finish by hand. Chipping was a problem, but not if my blades were sharp and I took everything slowly.

If I still had access to a laser engraver, I'd probably have bought a nice thickness sander by now.

[telentubes]

I've bought maple here before... http://www.curlymaple.com/
It's called Maple Leaf Hardwoods. You'd have to do your own milling.

[passfan]

The trick with a planer is to send the board through in the right direction, take small bites, and wet the wood with mineral spirits. I almost lost a finger doing this on a tablesaw. If you must , use a bandsaw.

[don]

thinned my rockler piece w/ just an electric sander......sand,fit,sand, fit ....then voila! on a couple of builds, i've used bournes pots from steve at apexjr...got enough thread area and shaft length to use the rockler faceplate