First Experience With Cherry


baok

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I recently bought some cherry from a guy who had it laying around but was not ever getting around to building anything with it. I talked him out of it. He apparently got it from someone who had milled it from a fallen tree.

Saturday, I set about planing it with a borrowed surface planer. Gentlemen, this is at least 10 times more work than I imagined it would be; even with a nice power tool to do most of the work!

8263723449_e1602658cf.jpg

Planing by gregwest98, on Flickr

Part of my problem is that the planer is sitting on the floor and I have to bend over a lot. I planed this one board and then had to go inside for a nap (although I later realized that I was coming down with a head cold at the time so that accounts for part of the wimpiness). Next time, I will put the planer on a table or something but that does not take anything away from the fact that these 10” by 8’ boards are heavy!

As you might notice from the photo, I have a Dust Deputy between the planer and the shopvac and this works wonderfully. I filled the bucket twice with this one board. The boards seem thicker at the ends than in the middle which makes for some awkward planing. The planer will remove a bit of material from the ends and then stop as the thickness decreases and the rollers can’t drag it forward. So I have to drag them forward. I guess that’s what happens when you cut up a tree with a chainsaw and try to make your own lumber – I wasn’t there for that so I don’t know how it happened. Other than that, the stuff looks pretty good. One board containing the pith has some splitting down the middle but that’s not surprising.

It occurred to me later that since I already know what I’m making with this material, I need not leave it full-sized. Last night I started breaking them down into more manageable pieces which should make the planing easier. I’ll just have to watch out for snipe.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to use an axe and wedges to get your material. The pioneers of this country were tough people.

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I recently bought some cherry from a guy who had it laying around but was not ever getting around to building anything with it. I talked him out of it. He apparently got it from someone who had milled it from a fallen tree.

Saturday, I set about planing it with a borrowed surface planer. Gentlemen, this is at least 10 times more work than I imagined it would be; even with a nice power tool to do most of the work!

8263723449_e1602658cf.jpg

Planing by gregwest98, on Flickr

Part of my problem is that the planer is sitting on the floor and I have to bend over a lot. I planed this one board and then had to go inside for a nap (although I later realized that I was coming down with a head cold at the time so that accounts for part of the wimpiness). Next time, I will put the planer on a table or something but that does not take anything away from the fact that these 10” by 8’ boards are heavy!

As you might notice from the photo, I have a Dust Deputy between the planer and the shopvac and this works wonderfully. I filled the bucket twice with this one board. The boards seem thicker at the ends than in the middle which makes for some awkward planing. The planer will remove a bit of material from the ends and then stop as the thickness decreases and the rollers can’t drag it forward. So I have to drag them forward. I guess that’s what happens when you cut up a tree with a chainsaw and try to make your own lumber – I wasn’t there for that so I don’t know how it happened. Other than that, the stuff looks pretty good. One board containing the pith has some splitting down the middle but that’s not surprising.

It occurred to me later that since I already know what I’m making with this material, I need not leave it full-sized. Last night I started breaking them down into more manageable pieces which should make the planing easier. I’ll just have to watch out for snipe.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to use an axe and wedges to get your material. The pioneers of this country were tough people.

Since I started buying rough sawn lumber, my favorite part is planing. I love the top "rough" layer coming off and exposing the grain pattern underneath. Looks like you have some really nice quality clear lumber there!
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I bought a entire bunk of cherry for 180.00 from a person who worked at the mill and pulled off 2nds. Some of it is cupped,cracked

knot holed and sap wood. It takes me sometimes 30 minutes to plane 1 board but in the end I come out with beautiful pieces.

Look at each piece and if its bad cut out the bad spots. Take out the cups and split them and you will end up skinner pieces but usuable

for trim and smaller projects. If the weather is nice take the planer outside and use it without DC it will speed up the process and elevate your planer

you will be able to work longer. If you need the longer pieces that are not catching the rollers in the middle youll just have to pull them thru

untill all the surfaces even out.

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I've found that certain hardwoods burn in the saw no matter what. Whenever possible, I cut it a 1/16 th wide and plane it to the right dimension. This gives me a nice edge and eliminates all that extra clean-up.

I've actually started to do that as well seeing how much better an edge my jointer left as compared to my table saw.
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Nice! Cross cutting the boards and leaving 1-2" extra on each end makes it easy. Cherry isn't as hard or as strong as many popular woods. I made a cherry cradle, and I carried the entire cradle wrong while finishing it, causing one of the end panel frame tenons to rip open the mortise!

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Nice! Cross cutting the boards and leaving 1-2" extra on each end makes it easy. Cherry isn't as hard or as strong as many popular woods. I made a cherry cradle, and I carried the entire cradle wrong while finishing it, causing one of the end panel frame tenons to rip open the mortise!

I've had the opposite experience with cherry. I find it to be very strong and it mills well. I LOVE the stuff. Certainly, there are harder and stronger woods out there, but I've never needed anything stronger than cherry.

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