Vectric Customer

Has anyone tried milling coconut palm? I tried today and it didin't turn out well. I used a .25" EM at 40 IPM and a cut depth of .125". Have any of you had success with a different bit? I was trying to do a Prism but any narrow pieces chip off. See the photo below.

Coconut palm is very brittle.
I've had good luck using 3-flute spiral solid carbide bits [www.cuttingtoolsource.com]
I run rpms at 18-22,000 and feed rate 40-50
When possible avoid square corner cuts that go across the grain, if possible extend the cuts past the corner
This works with red oak too
You can do this by making cross cuts first [use layers so you can create separate tool paths]
If 3d carving try to follow the grain just like you would on a planer, jointer, or hand plane [avoid running the cutter cutting into the end of the grain]
If your wood is really dry you may need to first soak with wood hardener, peg, penetrating sealer, or etc.
I sometimes dilute wood hardener so it dries slower and penetrates deeper
Good Luck, the character of the wood is worth the effort
Dale

If your wood is really dry you may need to first soak with wood hardener, peg, penetrating sealer, or etc.
I sometimes dilute wood hardener so it dries slower and penetrates deeper

That is great advice and well worth the time for certain woods.

Wow thanks for the great advice. I will certainly look into the wood hardener.

So on my cutting use more of a raster path to cut along the direction I want to avoid spintering?

Have any pictures of your coconut palm projects?

I also picked up some leopard wood, purple heart and padauk. The place I went had 140 different species, it was pretty awesome.

i'm by no means a wood expert, more of a wood collector and I've never heard of coconut palm, i know different wood will go by different name in different regions. I have heard of red palm and black palm. Red palm comes from coconut trees and black palm is from a type of grass cluster. To me it looks like you have black palm. if that is the case then it will be next to impossible to keep it from splintering.

wbrock, You might want to do a search regarding Coconut Palms. As to working with palms, a trick I used for turning these for pens was to use superglue. It also works wonders on corncob pen blanks. Be sure to have plenty of ventilation.

Superglue in what way?

Used to do that when turning spalted beech. Soak the wood in superglue, let it dry and then machine. A less smelly and cheaper way is to use a wood hardener meant for rotted wood.