Re: Wood in the metal shop

> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 08:06:41 -0700
> From: "Smoke" <Smoke@...>
> Subject: Re: Re: Re: re:Re: Lead screws for ever...(plastic)
>
> For what it's worth....I learned a long time ago when I worked for a guage
> design outfit, that if your going to be machining wood, the best thing to use
> is hard maple. The reason for this is being that when you store guages in
> maple blocks, the guages won't rust! If you cut walnut and lots of other
> types of woods containing acid, you better clean the tool thouroughly after
> finished to prevent your machine parts from rusting!

The problem is not just the acid/resin content .... ALL wood is hydrostatic
(fancy way of saying saw dust attracts wood vapor). It's not the "big"
saw dust that get ya .. it's the fine particulate. I cut wood on my
metal working mill and lathe and indeed they both share space with a
full woodworking shop. Keeping the metalworking tools free from saw
dust takes some attention and upkeep. Having said that, if you work
with metal and wood in the same place you're going to get some rust
... all you can really do is minimize it. Here's a interesting tip
someone told me a while back. You know how you get that brown residue
on router bits, etc. when working wood at a little too high a speed
or pushing the tool too hard ... that's burned resin. Sock the tool
bit in a straight baking soda solution ... stuff comes right off.