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What Wax to Use to Coat Wood Planer Table?

Newman109

Diamond
Joined
Sep 4, 2006
Location
Sacramento County, California, USA California
I have my vintage Parks Wood Planer all cleaned up and dialed in and making nice cuts now after being stored for some years. I've been in wood shops where the operators use wax to coat the machine tables but I never asked what brands or types were used.

I'm wondering what would be a good wax to buy for this purpose? There are lots of paste waxes available but I don't want to buy something that isn't suitable.

Any ideas or brand names would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Parks 7-11-20 010.jpg
 
Talc

Baby powder

If you are going to use the machine

Butcher's wax
if you are just setting it in the corner.
 
I use Bostik GlideCote.

I've always been wary of wax rubbing off on the wood and compromising a glue joint. Probably won't if you buff it off, but... For wax I like Trewax.
 
I use Treewax carnuba floor wax. Been using the same can for over 50 years and some still left in the can. Apply a thin coat and then rub or buff it off, never had a problem with it getting into the wood.
 
Some Feedback:

Thanks to all who posted. I ordered a one pound can of Trewax on Amazon. It had high reviews from customers who used it on machine tables. I actually have five tables to do: 4X12" Parks Planer, 10" Rockwell Contractor's table saw, 4" Rockwell Jointer, Side table on 6X48" belt sander and the table on my Delta Rockwell 14" Band-saw.

The Trewax is listed as clear with Carnauba wax and silicone-free. I have found out that it is important to read the reviews on Amazon both bad and good. This product has been used on machine tables with good results so it should be OK.

Thanks again. :)


5.0 out of 5 stars good stuff
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2019Size: 1-PackVerified Purchase
Used on cast iron saw tables and planer bed. Also great for finished wood products. Good stuff.

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Dan

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for cast iron tool surfaces
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2016Size: 1-PackVerified Purchase
This stuff is perfect for the cast iron table surfaces in my wood shop. It prevents rust, and creates a nice smooth surface for wood to slide over. This stuff is a basic maintenance product for any shop and I recommend it highly.Read more

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R. Martinez

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2014Size: 1-PackVerified Purchase
Works well on cast iron table saw and jointer tops to make them slick.

One person found this helpful

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Sadly, Butcher's Wax went belly up. It's now sold as Bowling Alley wax but I'm not sure it's the same. Haven't bought any.
 
Thanks again for all of the good suggestions.

From what I've gathered, a good thing to put on a machine table would a a clear, hard wax that has no silicone and which contains some carnauba wax.

I looked on Amazon and eBay and found numerous brands.Some of them are rather expensive so I went with Trewax,which was about $14 for 16 oz.

As I say, there are others that are similar. I'll let you all know how it works when it arrives later in the week.

My son wants to build a guitar so that's why I have been working on the planer recently. It will be his first and my tenth guitar. The planer will get the wood down thin enough to steam bend.

We will be using Bolivian Rosewood (Pao Ferro) for the back and sides and Sitka Spruce for the top and braces. The neck will be Honduras Mahogany with a Macassar ebony fingerboard and bridge.

Happy Trails.
 
After having hand-planed and scraped, and thickness-planed, and drum-sanded guitar plates, overhead belt thickness sanding is the ticket. Although my production has been negligible, I bought a powermatic 18" open end sander which works well. A cabinet shop will thickness sand all the plates a hobbyist can use in a year for $100 or so. A planer is waiting to devour (partially or in whole) thin, crunchy, wild-grained, pretty exotic delicacies--you never know when it's hungry, so that does provide suspense. I still hand scrape them after sanding.
If you'd like a chunk of 25+ year air dried split quartered western red cedar for your project, pm me--I have several lifetimes' supply at my rate.

Some more Background:
When I started working on guitars, my brother and I owned a guitar shop in Los Angeles (ca. 1968-1980) and, by default, I became the repairman. The need for thin woods arose early on and all I had at the time was my 14" Delta wood-cutting bandsaw.
With some home-made fixtures, I was able to resaw woods such as Brazilian Rosewood, Mahogany, Spruce and Ebony down to size with good accuracy. These I planed by hand down to usable sections. That was not much fun so shortly, I bought the Parks Planer. It was in used condition but the table was good and it came with a new 2 hp Emerson motor to seal the deal from the Oliver Machine Company, which at that time was in Los Angeles. My dad and I spent six months refurbishing the Planer with all new blades, bushings, drive chain and lots of phosphoric acid for the rust.
There were no inexpensive sanders or planers at the time. such as might be found on the market, so I learned to work with the Parks Planer. Obviously, if you put thin woods through such a planer unsupported, you will end up destroying the wood. The way that I came up with was to used a thick particle board backer for the wood to ride on. The wood is held down with clear carpet tape. In all the thin woods that I've done, I've been very successful avoiding damage in this way. It's necessary to look at the wood closely for runout to make sure that you are going the right direction.
As to sanding, I tend to avoid it since I use clear lacquer and unless the wood is very smooth, it will show up later on. Once through the planer and to thickness, If anything further is needed, I would use a cabinet scraper.
With regard to having someone else do work for me, that's out. I'm naturally impatient and I like to have everything that I need on hand. I'm also easily disappointed when I get work done that's out of spec.
Note also that everything I did in the early days was "pre-Internet". That left the Yellow pages and the few requests that I made at the time were generally met with a "What? Say What". LOL.
I've never used Cedar but I know that some custom builders do use it. I'm sure that it would sell in the right venue. I do like Spruce as all the guitars in my collection have spruce tops.

So I'm good. :)
 
Some folks can get "religious" about sharpening tools, sanding versus planing and scraping, etc. I also used the double-back tape on plywood for sides/backs when planing, and jigs to compound-taper fingerboards (classical guitars, hence the cedar tops), and still have had several "mishaps" (things like figured-mahogany and figured-maple are a crap-shoot, no way to determine a grain-direction). To me, the process of using tape is a mess and time-consuming, and still have to get one side flat/smooth enough to use the tape, and some of the roughsawn blanks for sides and backs were very rough to begin with.
Considering all the manufacturers use thickness-sanding (and hand-planing/scraping rosewood, etc., is no fun (unless one is in it for the work-out)), I'd found a book written in the 70's by Jose Oribe, one of the preeminent classical guitar makers (still making guitars--no prices listed) , and it showed him measuring top plates with calipers coming out of a big sander (looked like at a commercial shop, it was huge),at that time, I figured if sanding was good enough for him and his customers it was probably OK (these were expensive guitars back then). So I bought a couple of sanding-belts for a local cabinet shop, and they'd sand stuff for me. I do hand-sand the plates and scrape them after belt-sanding, etc. Have fun, make chips (and/or dust)!

That's all well and good if one has the money for a sanding machine. They would be fine for a production shop. C.F Martin and others use them. I will stick with what I've been using for years.

With my resaw technique, I've not had a problem with the carpet tape. It comes off nicely. In any case, once the first side is planed, the other side is easy.

As to methodology, I've been studying guitar making for years and I've discovered that there are as many methods as there are builders.

As to highly figured wood, it can tear out going through a planer, but I never use it. Certainly it is pretty, but I prefer straight-grained woods in any case since I tend to believe that they ultimately sound better. If it's good enough for C.F. Martin, it's good enough for me. LOL.

My 1968 Martin 00-21 in Brazilian Rosewood. I bought this one new in that year.

'68 00-21 234138 (8).jpg
 
Nice to discover there are acoustic guitar makers here on PM. I'm retired furniture maker, doing banjos now, still have most of the big machines, including a 37" wide belt

For my furniture, I sawed all my own veneers, sawn to about .050, sanded to .036" (the old 1/28" standard for veneers) I initially tried all sorts of ways to plane them - vacuum platen, tape - but nothing was satisfactory so I took them to a big shop with a sander, eventually bought a used one. I was using highly figured stuff, that was the whole point.

Newman109 - I have seen a curly maple Martin, a J-40 maybe. And Gibson sure made good use of it. My long time favorite guitar is a 1991 Collings SJ in qt'd curly maple with red lacquer, their take on Gibson's J-185, the model the Everly brothers used. Made for the NAMM convention, kinda bright looking but a real cannon.

Hey, if you want a widebelt, you could certainly sell your gorgeous 00-21, buy a used sander, and have enuf $$ left to buy materials to replace it. Just sayin...

Great that your son is interested in guitar making, how old is he?
 
Oh, I wasn't criticizing, and whenever folks says there is only one way to do things, or theirs is absolutely the "right" way, it's best to get advice from someone else (this applies to from hobby, to engineering to medical advice). I'm lazy, and got tired of hand-planing and scraping backs and sides, especially since I had a bunch of (very) rough-swan blanks that had to be flattened on one side before even trying to plane them, since the the plane-resaw-plane method isn't possible. Cheers


Sell my precious 00-21? What would I do with the other $10K after paying for the sander. LOL.


EDIT from above:
The link below is the type of carpet tape that I like. It's clear like shipping tape but it's double sided and leaves no residue. It's been more than strong enough for running wood through the planer. In any case, the in-feed and out-feed rollers as well as the pressure bar keep the wood from moving around for the short time that the wood is passing through.

In the case of the Pao Ferro that my son is going to use, that came from a professional guitar wood-seller and it's about 3/16" thick and very smooth. With two or three passes through Mr. Parks, I will get it down to .090 thick for the backs and sides. The spruce top will be at about .125 thick to my liking.

Happy Trails. :)



https://www.amazon.com/XFasten-Remo...words=Clear+carpet+tape&qid=1596040432&sr=8-6
 
Nice to discover there are acoustic guitar makers here on PM. I'm retired furniture maker, doing banjos now, still have most of the big machines, including a 37" wide belt

For my furniture, I sawed all my own veneers, sawn to about .050, sanded to .036" (the old 1/28" standard for veneers) I initially tried all sorts of ways to plane them - vacuum platen, tape - but nothing was satisfactory so I took them to a big shop with a sander, eventually bought a used one. I was using highly figured stuff, that was the whole point.

Newman109 - I have seen a curly maple Martin, a J-40 maybe. And Gibson sure made good use of it. My long time favorite guitar is a 1991 Collings SJ in qt'd curly maple with red lacquer, their take on Gibson's J-185, the model the Everly brothers used. Made for the NAMM convention, kinda bright looking but a real cannon.

Hey, if you want a widebelt, you could certainly sell your gorgeous 00-21, buy a used sander, and have enuf $$ left to buy materials to replace it. Just sayin...

Great that your son is interested in guitar making, how old is he?

If I were a professional instrument builder (Luthier) I would certainly invest in a top sander. I really like the idea, but there's really no need in my case.

Son is mid-40's now but he's been playing guitar since he got his first one as a kid. I recently gave him my 1962 Martin D-28 and he has several others. He wants a Jumbo guitar, the same size as the Gibson J-200 and since I have a mold for one, we'll be getting on that soon.

Here are two guitars that I built in 1977. The one on the right is the same size as a J-200.


Mann 0008, 0009 A1..jpg
 
109, I could think of lots of ways to spend that left over $10K!

Nice looking guitars, how have they held up over the years, and are you happy with the tone?

Building a guitar has always been on my list, but somehow never get around to it...
 








 
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