Dirty Maple...

Zims Rack

Zims Rack

Promoting the Cueing Arts
Silver Member
During the building process, what's the best way to get a curly maple forearm back to a white color? I have a cocabola/curly maple full splice blank. During the sanding process I kept air blowing on it and constantly wiped the dust off. I now have a cocabola/lightly stained curly maple forearm, but what's the best method to remove the dust that has managed to build up on the curly maple?

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Zim
 
Zims Rack said:
During the building process, what's the best way to get a curly maple forearm back to a white color? I have a cocabola/curly maple full splice blank. During the sanding process I kept air blowing on it and constantly wiped the dust off. I now have a cocabola/lightly stained curly maple forearm, but what's the best method to remove the dust that has managed to build up on the curly maple?

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Zim
Click to expand...

Once you stain it, you are pretty much screwed. You could try using an eraser (the brown ones that come in a small block) but you will probably have to cut about .005 off of it to completely clean it.
What I have found in these situations is that you need to cut the cue to finished size and then sand it VERY LITTLE. Like one small piece of 400 grit, blow it off, then a piece of 600, blow it off, hit it with an eraser, clean it off and finish. I have put holly into very orange cocobolo with this method. A very solid tapering system is a must, and the last cut has to be really smooth.
 
dirty maple

Always sand & wipe FROM THE LIGHTEST COLOR TOWARD THE DARKEST. After my final cut I sand, with the lathe turning, using 400 grit. Then using the 400, I sand WITH THE GRAIN. I follow that up with the same steps, using 600. Always wipe the work down from light to dark. Then I finish with 600 with the grain on the light colored wood ONLY. That will take any of the wood with dark saw dust out of the light. Dry wipe,when ever possible. I finish up with a wet wipe of mineral spirits. Again from light to dark...HOPE THIS MAKES SENCE & HELPS...JER
 
dirty maple

I might add, that I have a jar of fine cocobolo sanding dust, that I put on a paper towel, wet with mineral spirits. Then with the lathe turning I rub this concoction into the grain of birdseye maple. The eyes & figure will pick up a slight stain. It really brings out the eyes. Then give it a light sanding ,wipe, seal & paint...JER
 
I pretty much do the same as already mentioned. Don't sand back and forth, sand in the direction of the darker color if anything, but even better is to taper clean enough that minimum sanding is needed. sneakys and points are even harder to sand without staining, and sometimes will stain from the router even. you may be able to try sealing the maple somehow, but Seems once the coco gets in the maple, It's in there, unless room left to cut it out. If I remember correct, your setup close to me. If your using a straight router bit by some chance, try to set up so the front of the bit is just touching the work piece before the back, and It may cut cleaner if It's giving you a hard time. The closer I can get it without hitting flush the cleaner they seem to cut for me. May want to play with both speeds alittle also for best results. I prefer a slow feed myself.

Greg
 
BLACKHEARTCUES said:
I might add, that I have a jar of fine cocobolo sanding dust, that I put on a paper towel, wet with mineral spirits. Then with the lathe turning I rub this concoction into the grain of birdseye maple. The eyes & figure will pick up a slight stain. It really brings out the eyes. Then give it a light sanding ,wipe, seal & paint...JER
Click to expand...
I have to admit though, with the cocabola dust in the curly maple, it does bring out the curly and you can really see the grain texture! I'll try to sand a little more and get some of the dust out. I'll post photos when finished!
Thanks to all,
Zim
 
on a similar situation as ZIMS

do any of the solutions above work as well for removing the dark residue from sanding black linen joint collars?
or better yet, is there a way to avoid this problem all together?
 
stix4sale said:
do any of the solutions above work as well for removing the dark residue from sanding black linen joint collars?
or better yet, is there a way to avoid this problem all together?
Click to expand...


Phenolic can be tough also. Even when I am cutting with the router It gets dust on the maple. What works for Me is to pull it off with a shop vac after cutting, before it Gets down in the pores. I try not to touch the piece because that can smear It into the wood making It hard to get out, and watch the hose end the vac, because if dirty, It can also stain the piece.
Yes, some of what's mentioned goes for it as well. never sand back into the maple if It can be helped. Sometimes I seal the maple & sometimes I don't. If you are going to stain the wood anyway, depending on color, there may be other options to deal with the problem also.

Greg
 
A good trick is to use a blow gun on fairly high psi when you sand.
This blows the dust off right away. I've had good resultes with ebony points into maple...the maple still looks really clean.
The only problem is that all of the fine ebony dust goes airborne and gets all over everything. For that reason, I do all of my final sanding (with the blow gun) in the garage on a seperate lathe. If anyone needs to set one of these sanding stations up, a wood lathe with a 3 jaw chuck is cheap and works just fine to spin or hold the cue.
Mike
 
I agree with Mike - use a higher PSI when sanding and I do not go above 400 grit sandpaper or the blown air becomes useless. I have had great results with this method. If you still see a few flecks use the blower to get them out intstead of sanding - it can get a bit messy though blowing all that dust around.
 
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