My boss had an Ash tree fall from a bad storm a few weeks ago and used a chainsaw to cut the branches up and gave me the slices, so I’m working on surfacing them with with a 1in surfacing bit. I’ noticing that there are burn marks in the wood. That’s not an issue for the wood because I’m going to do a final pass, but are the burn marks from too fast of a speed rate or too slow? Spindle speed is set at 18000 per CC and I’m trying to adjust the feedrate with each section to see if I can find a good speed. Any advice would be appreciated.
Too slow feedrate for the RPM & number of flutes, and/or too shallow a pass.
Burning happens when the tool is rubbing rather than cutting, and that usually happens when a) the cutter is dull or b) it takes too small bits per revolution/tooth
EDIT: and then again some wood are most susceptible to this anyway, must be something with the sap.
Air drying takes about a year per inch of thickness. Green wood should not be used intil it has dried. You could try a microwave or oven to accelerate drying but that leads to warping and cracking. If you have a piece that you could experiment with. If you are patient and let it dry naturally use sealer on the ends. They make special sealers but latex paint works. Sealing the ends keeps the wood from cracking on the ends because that wood drys faster than the interior and leads to stress resulting in cracking. It may crack anyway but it is minimized.
. There are a lot of variables to learn with these things, huh? I’ll get the hang of it in a frikin year or 2 
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