[Syzygies]

I've admired various projects I've seen here incorporating wood, so I want to share a source: Rockler.com thin woods

I visit one of their retail stores, where of course, two of the three woods I bring home aren't even listed on their web site. From left to right above, Bolivian Rosewood, Bubinga, Bloodwood. Each is 1/8" stock, 1 1/2" by 24" for $4 to $5. Wider and thicker stock is also available.

For the photo, I hastily sanded and oiled short samples, which I needed to cut off so the rest would fit my carry-on luggage. The picture doesn't do them justice, sanding the Bloodwood for example leaves a brilliant red chalk dust that looks like a ritual killing took place. It was the crowd favorite for looks, and would be very striking against a black Hammond case. The Bolivian Rosewood has a plastic workability that could make it a builder's favorite, and also looks great.

These hardwoods are strong enough to dull cutting tools, far stronger than plastic of similar thickness. We're talking much stronger than domestic hard or soft woods. I see no reason to use thicker than 1/8" on portable amp end panels. I'll let you know how these turn out...

 

[walangalam]

This is exactly what I'm looking for to complete my dynalo.

Thanks for the link.

 

[skyskraper]

skyskraper was heading down to the lumber yard next door to the hardware store after breakfast today to get some jarrah.

i think a gainclone in a jarrah case would look very very nice. might have to get some jarrah veneer for the speaker kit too

 

[Garbz]

Man if I didn't just order a huge peice of plexi glass fo rthe front I would have been up for that.

 

[Syzygies]

For anyone new to exotic hardwoods, here's a couple of key points, well-known to anyone who works with these woods:

Workability: Cutting rectangles out of and drilling holes in 1/8" stock is pretty much the easiest task one could imagine, but it is a step up from making squares for a chessboard, which is a typical application. When people say these woods dull tools, they're not kidding. At least this supports my assertion that 1/8" is plenty strong enough.

Some of these woods have rough grains that splinter, a problem the chessboard-maker can manage, a problem that drives a pen-turner crazy, for that matter anyone using a lathe or a plane. We could manage with such woods, but why bother?

Health: Some people are allergic to the dust from working some hardwoods. I like to contain the dust from sanding circuit boards, and clean up and wash my hands afterwards, for a small task like headphone amp end panels this is probably fine. Nevertheless, one should take care if considering woods with allergy potential, with so many choices out there.

Search the internet for advice before buying and using an unfamiliar hardwood. Here's a typical site with great information on the above:

Wood Properties - Wood Flooring International

Now, sanding the flooring in a house or apartment is a different order of exposure than working a couple of 1" by 3" blanks, but you'll notice they give the cleanest bill of health to my Bloodwood. I will use the Bolivian Rosewood with care (I see this as less of a challenge than processing several hundred chiles for hot sauce) because I love how it works.

None of these health issues apply to handling the finished product, these are concerns about the dust.

I tend toward very simple rubbed oil finishes, I think anything else makes the wood look like it is encased in plastic, so the finish notes don't concern me, I'll finish a sample and see how it looks, that's my answer.

 

[aeriyn]

I used a piece of 3/8" thick purpleheart for the faceplate of my pimeta. I would've gotten 1/4" inch for ease of workability, but 3/8" was the thinnest piece that Woodcraft had, so it's what I used. Very, very, VERY HARD WOOD this stuff is. A drill press was necessary; it was almost like working metal.

After I drilled holes and countersunk them with a forstner bit to allow panel components to mount to the faceplate, I rubbed it down with a liberal coating of lemon oil. Deepened the color, improved the grain contrast and all around generally made it look much nicer.

I'd not recommend purpleheart for newbies, my dad is very into woodworking and he helped me considerably, but this is a very tough wood to work with.

Suffice to say that my next amp will have a simple brushed aluminum faceplate.

 

[BradJudy]

I have a couple of pieces of 1/4" cocobolo that I used for faceplates on my META42 and phono pre-amp. When using a drill press, it went very smoothly, but I undersized the holes and tried to quickly expand them with a hand drill - that was a mistake. There are several chips and cracks in it now. I highly advise a drillpress and measuring twice when making hardwood plates.

This thread reminded me that I still have some cocobolo in the garage and could have used it for my PPA.

 

[Syzygies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradJudy When using a drill press, it went very smoothly, but I undersized the holes and tried to quickly expand them with a hand drill - that was a mistake.

From this angle, I love the "six tries for four bucks" aspect of the 1/8" strips I bought.

1/8" strips flex a bit in 24" lengths, but so do steel airplane wings. Cut a strip down to a couple of inches, and it really does feel like steel, much stronger than plastic. 1/8" stock is much easier to work than 1/4" or thicker, these stories teach us to respect wood, not to stay away.

Here's the definitive free online reference on wood I've posted before:

Wood Handbook - Wood as an Engineering Material

Here's a great link, if anyone is still not sure about 1/8" stock:

The Sagulator - Shelf Sag Calculator

Imagine a Brazilian Rosewood 1/8" front panel on a Hammond J12 case, 70 x 24 mm, only supported at the ends. Now press on the middle like a 1 Kg weight. How much does it sag? This is the same problem as a bookshelf of width 70mm, depth 24mm, thickness 3.15mm, with a center load of 1 Kg. The deflection is 0.09mm.

There are a few cube laws at play here, covered in the wood handbook above. More realistically, recompute with the panel supported top and bottom, it takes 100 Kg to get noticeable effects. Here, wood strength issues like how the load interacts with the hole start to take precedence.

 

[Porksoda]

Hmm... if I could sandwich a couple of those Paduak panels and sandwich them together, I could make Grado woody chambers out of that stuff for cheap!

 

[Cyrillic]

lol, good luck. I've built senn woodies and they're hard enough, and I thought about grado woodies but unless you're handy with a lathe or are otherwise very good at woodworking, I doubt you can do it.

The dust from some hardwoods really should be taken into consideration. I use a gas mask when woodworking, lol... I'd hate to think about all that sawdust just lining my lungs... ugh. That's gotta be like smoking a hundred cigarrettes all at once. So yeah, at the very least wear a flu mask or doctors mask or something similar.

 

[Syzygies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrillic unless you're handy with a lathe or are otherwise very good at woodworking, I doubt you can do it.

Part of being handy with a lathe is knowing which woods are lathe-friendly. Most exotic hardwoods are not, and they're unnecessarily heavy and hard to work, to boot.

Ten years ago I made a hand-turned lateral drill press for boring long holes in hardwoods for making one-piece pens. I rounded them using a Japanese plane, rotating them in a planing frame around a brass rod through the hole I'd bored. I used every hardwood I could find. It turned out that the unabomber was also using exotic hardwoods, and the FBI was asking around at the stores I was shopping...

In any case, I saw pretty much everything that can go wrong with exotic hardwoods, go wrong. Get samples of several varieties, before picking one.

 

[Syzygies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrillic unless you're handy with a lathe or are otherwise very good at woodworking, I doubt you can do it.

Part of being handy with a lathe is knowing which woods are lathe-friendly. Most exotic hardwoods are not, and they're unnecessarily heavy and hard to work, to boot.

Ten years ago I made a hand-turned lateral drill press for boring long holes in hardwoods for making one-piece pens. I rounded them using a Japanese plane, rotating them in a planing frame around a brass rod through the hole I'd bored. I used every hardwood I could find. It turned out that the unabomber was also using exotic hardwoods, and the FBI was asking around at the stores I was shopping...

In any case, I saw pretty much everything that can go wrong with exotic hardwoods, go wrong. Get samples of several varieties, before picking one.

 

[Syzygies]

So workability and dust-containment is always an issue with exotic woods. I learned recently of an interesting treatment developed by wood turner Ron Kent, immersing green or dry woods in concentrated dishwashing liquid for a number of days before working them:

Experimental New Treatment for Wood (scroll to find this title)

He buys his $7 a gallon at Costco, but for our needs we can probably borrow some from the kitchen.

I'll be trying this for my Canarywood PPAv2, I'll report back if it makes a difference...

 

[JWFokker]

Where do you guys get your exotic hardwoods? In particular, I'm trying to find bowl stock (not regular turning stock), something along the lines of Padauk or Koa. I've found the occasional chunk on Ebay, but I'd like to find a steady source. I've only found two websites with good exotic bowl stock and they each have $75-100 minimum order before shipping, which is also likely to be excessive if you order than much wood.

 

[amisdad]

Owl hardwoods in Des Plaines, IL has the best selection, best prices I've ever seen. If they don't have it, you don't need it. I buy all sorts of wood for real cheap. I usually get lots of "cut off's" for pennies on the dollar. Let me know what you need and I'll pick it up next time I go. I go twice a week.