Aspen

[CarverJerry]

I'm in the middle of carving a piece of aspen and was wondering if anyone else has ever carved this kind of wood.
What I'm seeing is (and I hope you understand) when the cutting bit is climb milling (going from right to left towards keypad) it looks like it's leaving a bit of a rough finish, but then when it reverses and conventional mills it leaves a very smooth looking surface and the chip that is coming off looks like something from a jack plane. My bit is somewhat new but was wondering if this is common on aspen. Thanks in advance.

CarverJerry

[Kenm810]

Hi Jerry,

I've had the same thing happen on a few projects carved on Aspen,
it's a nice creaming white wood that stains and finishes well,
But it's also a soft loose grained wood that needs a little extra sanding and clean up.
If you're just planing to paint your project -- a coat of Sanding Sealer is what I use to save sanding time.

[CarverJerry]

Ok, cool. I'll give that a try.

CJ

[liquidguitars]

I'm in the middle of carving a piece of aspen and was wondering if anyone else has ever carved this kind of wood.
What I'm seeing is (and I hope you understand) when the cutting bit is climb milling (going from right to left toward keypad) it looks like it's leaving a bit of a rough finish, but then when it reverses and conventional mills it leaves a very smooth looking surface and the chip that is coming off looks like something from a jack plane. My bit is somewhat new but was wondering if this is common on aspen. Thanks in advance.

CarverJerry

Jerry,

It's Common.. the grain direction is a factor with any wood running on the CW.

Try pointing the grain forward in the unit with the feed.

LG

[CarverJerry]

I agree and I did not mention that I had to turn my board due to the size of stock I had. I think aspen is even softer than pine. It did carve ok, but some of the long strands of chips would every now and then wrap up around the bit but would cut it's self off on the next pass.

CJ

[will george]

Wood is wood and it will ALWAYS do it's own thing. I would think that the rough cut is what you would do using a hand router. The smooooth cut was a 'climb cut' with the bit that could be a bit dangerous for hand routing if you are not sure about what you are doping. I think..
I use my hand and table routers ever day. I always finish off with a 'climb cut' that is much smoother but not what you want to do without much experience.

I would think that the CW programmers could do this in software but it would take a second pass on the wood..

NOW MAYBE if you could tell the software what the grain direction of the wood was... Maybe in one pass?

[Icutone2]

I have carved many pieces on Aspen, they always seem to be fuzzy. I use a sand mop on them then sand seal them and re sand mop them. The strings on the carving bit seem to build up after time, I stop the machine and cut them off. Have had them build up sounds like a airplane prop till I stop it. Great wood for carving just watch the stringing and you will need to sand it a little more than pine but it is great looking wood.
Lee

[laxraxman]

I've just completed a few aspen pieces with centerline text: out of the machine the text is extremely fuzzy, but it sands off well and a clear, gloss poly really highlights the grain! I think that aspen requires more sanding, and I go from 80 - 180 - 240 - 320.

[SteveEJ]

Aspen is high in silica and will dull the bits a bit faster than harder woods like Cherry or Oak. The high silica content also has the cut effect you describe and would leave more fuzzies to take care of later.