Tips for Red Palm before I start?

[sschering]

Any tips for turning Red Palm before I start?
I drilled and glued up the blanks yesterday with epoxy. They have had all night to set.

I know after I trim to length I need to soak the ends with thin CA and go slow with a sharp skew.

Any other tips like run down to woodcraft and get a carbide tool? hehe

I was thinking I may take the corners off on the band saw to reduce the chance of a catch early on.

Thanks!

 

[KenV]

Cactus Juice helps tame palm blanks.

 

[Seer]

Take them to a sander and round off any sharp corners helps them to not catch as much

 

[jttheclockman]

Keep drizzling thin CA as a stabilizer if you are worried about it. Knocking the corners off is a good idea and a sharp skew will get you there better than carbide. Keep working the bushing ends down just ahead of the center of the blank.

 

[sbwertz]

Does this all also apply to black palm? I received an 18" black palm turning square as a gift, and I have never turned it.

 

[jttheclockman]

Does this all also apply to black palm? I received an 18" black palm turning square as a gift, and I have never turned it.

It can not hurt. Whenever a blank is questionable I would walk on the cautious side of the street.

Both those woods should turn just fine.


www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/monocots/red-palm/


www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/monocots/black-palm/

 

[JimB]

Does this all also apply to black palm? I received an 18" black palm turning square as a gift, and I have never turned it.

I've turned a few bottle stoppers from Black Palm. I didn't do anything special to it. I sharpened my tools and turned. It did take a little longer to turn and a little extra sanding due to the grain but other than that everything else as usual. It comes out really nice.

 

[low_48]

Use a skew, it doesn't like scrapers at all. All palm is like a bundle of hard strings, held in a softer matrix. I'd say the stuff is related to corn, because of the similarity of the stalk structure and the trunk. Don't sand it with really fine grit, and use a sanding block. It's easy to get a wavy feel from sanding away the matrix more than the hard fiber.

 

[sschering]

I did it! Super light passes. fresh edges on all my tools. The palm shaves off like dust.. anything that looks like a chip means it's time to back off. Treat it like a chip prone acrylic blank.

Just to make it worse this is for a Panache. A smooth concave shape with no scraping is a pain to get. Just need to do the finish and I'll post it up.

 

[TimS124]

Does this all also apply to black palm? I received an 18" black palm turning square as a gift, and I have never turned it.

I've turned Black Palm without doing anything special to pre-treat it. I have some other type of Palm that was grown in Silicon Valley that's FAR softer (and boring in color/contrast compared to Black Palm)...that stuff is very dusty and takes a lighter touch. But Black Palm turned nicely (sharp tools, light cuts when you get close to final size, don't get crazy aggressive during rough in...normal stuff).

 

[sschering]

Here's the cap.. I can't finish the rest till I can figure out where the nib coupler trim ring ran off to.

Dyed with wiped on blue Aumlite then toned back with WTF. CA finish.

 

[sbwertz]

I'm going to try a bottle stopper with the black palm. Thanks for the tips.