Machining white oak

[phil_o]

I have a job to make 2 doors with panels. Each door will be 24" x 36" and will have four panels. Each panel will have a carved family crest. The customer has requested white oak as it a suitable wood for use outdoors. I have never carved (machined) white oak. I'd like to know how well it cuts on a CNC router. Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Phil

[Brady Watson]

Grab a hunk & try it...It machines fine - better than red oak - not as hard. Like all oak, it has 'open grain' so plan on slathering some kind of filler on it if the customer doesn't like the open grain.

-B

[dlcw]

I have a job to make 2 doors with panels. Each door will be 24" x 36" and will have four panels. Each panel will have a carved family crest. The customer has requested white oak as it a suitable wood for use outdoors. I have never carved (machined) white oak. I'd like to know how well it cuts on a CNC router. Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Phil

Phil,

I couple years back I did a large custom outdoor bench from white oak with carving in it.

It does cut very well. Take shallow passes (3/16" for roughing) at most. I got virtually no splintering. My spindle speed was about 11K rpm with feed at around 4ips. I roughed everything with a 1/4" ballnose and finished with a 1/8" ballnose. Not much sanding when I was done as I set my finishing pass stepover at about 6%. Takes longer but saves a boat load of sanding time. I'd rather have the CNC spend the time, while I can be working on something else, then me spend the time sanding. Just my preference.

I also did a white oak plaque for a former Marine in Tucson, AZ.

[phil_o]

Thanks for the replies - very helpful

Phil

[hh_woodworking]

White Oak


A closed-grain hardwood, white oak is almost impervious to water. The pores of the heartwood of white oaks are typically plugged with tyloses, which is a membranous growth.Tyloses makes the white oak impenetrable to liquids and particularly suited for use in the boat industry. Because of its resistance to moisture, white oak is also widely used to construct outdoor furniture.
White oak is fairly straight-grained and is a favorite material used in many types of fine furniture. It’s usually available quarter sawn. The grain in quarter sawn white oak has a striking ray flake pattern.
The coloring in white oak is varied. Separate boards of white oak lumber may be dark brown, light brown, or brown with yellow tones.Stain and wood sealer tend to beautifully enhance the appearance of white oak.

[bleeth]

When resawing white oak planks into staves there may be considerable tension springing of the pieces. Be prepared for this. I have had it stop the saw blade on a 3HP Unisaw. It is a great wood though. Gustav Stickley used it exclusively for his furniture and it was also a favorite choice for boat timbers back in the day.

[Chuck Keysor]

Phil, concerning Dave's point about white oak binding...... I had a white oak tree cut down and all turned into quarter sawn planks. The lumber mill told me to not even bother with cutting the huge branches/limbs into lumber. He said that limb wood is naturally full of tension, and will move when the wood is machined. So though it pained me, as I had some HUGE limbs on that old tree, I turned those into firewood.

Now what I was told seems like it would be probably true for any type of tree, but the lumber mill owner was specifically commenting on white oak. In any event, maybe what Dave experienced was the result of cutting white oak that came from a limb. I have cut up a lot of my white oak with both a band saw and a table saw, all from the trunk, and none of it ever moved or pinched.

Of course, if you are simply buying a board, how do you know if the wood is from a limb or not, I don't know. But I do know, despite snickers that this has generated on previous posts, that it is easy to differentiate white oak from red oak. If you suck on the end of a white oak board, you can't pull any air through the pores. If you do the same with red oak, it is very easy to suck air through the pores.

Good luck, and may all your white oak be trunk wood! Chuck

[bleeth]

Some interesting info Chuck. I appreciate the new knowledge. The old shipbuilders used a lot of limbs as this is where they got the curved pieces from for the knee ribs, but they were cleaning the up with hand tools.

[Brady Watson]

Thanks for the additional info guys. I learned a few things here too

-B

[twelchPTM]

I don't have anything nearly as informative as these guy but a while back I posted a bow-tie carved from some white oak, it was one of my first 3-d projects and had really no idea what I was doing but the wood was so easy to work with I was successful on my first try. My feeds and speed were certainly on the cautious side but they worked nonetheless. I hope this helps you to proceed with confidence!!