Anyone ever turn Black Palm?

[sachbvn]

Hey guys - I been tinkering with some Black Palm, which I thought was GREAT looking.... well - I got one half of a pen done and it looks as awesome as I'd hoped.... then I busted like three half-blanks.

From what I can tell - the wood is awfully "fibery" or... kinda stringy... like it'd be awful to cross cut.... and it seems super hard.... I am getting more like filings than chips.... it's not dust - a little thicker than dust - but by no means are curls shooting off.

Anyone able to support my thoughts on the matter?


Zac

[monty]

Zac,
Turn it close to final size, hit it with thin CA to stabilize then turn a little more and finish by sanding.

[rhull]

Nov 24, 2009 7:30:23 GMT -6 sachbvn said:

From what I can tell - the wood is awfully "fibery" or... kinda stringy...

IIRC, Palm is really a grass, not a tree. Which means it isn't really "wood" per se.

[maxwellsmart007]

Yes, I've made pens from black palm and red palm...it's very fibrous, so you won't get curls from it regardless...

I think that the best way to turn palm to size is with a skew - it cuts the fibres, rather than digging through them like a gouge...

Makes a very pretty pen when finished!

[TDHofstetter]

I've never turned palm... but I've spoken with several people who did. It's difficult material to turn well, doesn't actually like steel very much. Some believe that it should be turned primarily with abrasives instead of steel.

[Doug B]

Cross cut Palm (I don't know if it is Red or Black) is the one thing that I got one barrel turned and have not finished turning the second barrel because it was so difficult to do that it was no fun at all. I did make a pen with the same wood that was not cross cut, but it was like you described Zac - kept wanting to peel apart on me and it was not nearly as eye catching as the cross cut Palm.

Cross cut palm is incredible looking, but I agree that it is probably best done with abrasives rather than turning tools. My intention was to use my spindle sander to do the second barrel, but I may never get that particular round tuit

I think Boodrow has made some bottle stoppers using Palm that looked really neat. Maybe he will chime in with his dos centavos

[maxwellsmart007]

I've turned some palm stoppers too - again, it's tough to turn well, and it requires a good bit of sanding afterwards unless you use a skew (which is hard to do on a stopper, as it has a lot of undulations - unlike most pens not made by Marc!

ANdrew

[boodrow]

Ive made a lot of red palm stoppers , and figure there is no way I will try a pen. The stuff is very dry , very brittle and I dont like turnin it one bit, but the palm is prob one of my top 3 sellers , so I will continue to turn the damn things.
boodrow

[sachbvn]

Oh god...ok - so.... let's say each blank makes two half blanks... so - when I bought 4 blanks - I got.... that's right - 8 halves.

One I drilled off center and ruined the blank - my fault, I didn't look to make sure the thing wasn't on an angle and there isn't an excuse for that....

Two halves I split down the middle when trimming the barrels - and I was being careful and going slow.... - one more kinda split but totally went to crap on the lathe - see below.

Four halves tore apart on the lathe - one split at the end, the other three split full length of the tube.

One half I actually got shaped, sanded, finished, and it looks AWESOME!

Moral of the story? Black Palm kicked Zac's arse!

I will not be ordering this stuff anytime soon.... *barf*


Zac

[Doug B]

LOL Zac. This time you were the bug! And it won't be the last time either. Sometimes you just get some problematic wood - I would not expect all Black Palm to be quite that bad. If you really like it, you might try it again down the road aways when you have forgotten how much you cussed it this time.

For drilling, I would recommend this: www.newwoodworker.com/turning/mkdrilvicejaws.html from Tom Hintz over at new woodworker. His site seems to have some problems right now, but you can still read his article about making your own pen blank vise. I made one just like his and it has worked fantastically for a long time now.

[sachbvn]

Doug, neat link. My method isn't the fastest way to drill a bunch of blanks - but it does work - however, I just didn't take the step to make sure it wasn't crooked.

I do need to come up with a method - whether it's a hand clamp - or a small vice with wooden jaws and a notched insert like you posted - I need a way that keeps the, no always square, bottom off the DP table - that way as long as the table is level - and the bit is 90 to the table.... life is good!


Zac

[Doug B]

I hear you Zac! That little blank clamp is just about as neat as frog hair. You will appreciate it once you get around to getting something to hold your pen blanks square to the table

[boodrow]

I use a drill press vise to hold my blanks. I couldnt see buying a holder since most of the blanks u get are not square. The way I do it is titen the blank just a little , use a 4" machinst square and eyeball it to be square with the vise and snug it up and recheck. I bought 2 drill press vises at a garage sell for 20 dollars.
Boodrow

[sachbvn]

I bought an old Craftsman 4" (I think) general purpose vice at an auction for like 2 bucks - I have it mounted to a piece of plywood and just stored away - I already had a vice but couldn't pass this one up.

I think I will make some plywood jaws for it with a 90 degree V cut vertically and match them up to make holders for the pen blank corners. I think this will work well - we will see!

Zac

[Joe Lyddon]

As far as I can remember, my Palm has always been white except when it was in mud... ;D

... no matter how I Turned it, it was always the same...

[Doug B]

You got it Zac, that "V" groove notched in a wood replacement face for the drill press vise ensures that your blank will be square...assuming the blank is square to begin with, but usually it is plenty close enough even if the blank is a little warped. I would use a good hardwood (I used hard maple) instead of plywood. The plywood might start coming apart on you where it is notched.

Boodrow, my clamp is a Harbor Freight drill press vise with the face plate replaced with hardwood and a V groove notched into the face. I used a single piece of maple, used a morticing machine to make a mortice all the way through the piece, then cut the maple into halves to make the new face plates. Putting opposing corners of a pen blank into each "V" groove makes a quick and easy way to clamp a blank for drilling. I also use the vise to hold the blank when I use the barrel trimmer. And finally, I attached a vacuum hose to the top of the rear wood face and have a foot activated shop vac that sucks the chips away as I'm drilling. Adding the foot switch to the shop vac was probably one of the smartest things I did.