Marks going across the grain

[Wrayster]

Hi,

I’ve been making a wooden plinth for a turntable I own.

When finishing it marks appear perpendicular to the grain as you can see in the photo.

I bought the wood as offcuts. I was told it’s American Walnut. Does anyone know if this is a feature of this sort of wood? Or perhaps I’ve not prepared it properly.

So far I’ve sanded (quite a lot) at 80grit with a orbital random sander then by hand in the direction of the grain with 120 then 240 grit sandpaper.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Steve

 

[marcros]

you have some beautiful rippled black walnut there.

 

[custard]

It's really difficult to be conclusive working from a photo. But if you can't feel any undulations on the surface of those boards, then I suspect you've stumbled across some quite rare and very desirable "rippled" Walnut.

I regularly work with similar Black Walnut, but I have to work very hard to track it down, and I'll pay anywhere from £100 to £150 a cubic foot. Here's some of my stock,

If I were you I'd hot foot it back to where you got those off-cuts and see if you can get any more!

 

[Trevanion]

As Marcos and Custard said, It's rippled grain.

This is an example of highly rippled piece:

Almost looks a little like crumpled cloth.

 

[Wrayster]

Wow, thanks for letting me know.

I think it is rippled walnut then as it does feel smooth and as I mentioned I’ve sanded it quite a lot trying to get the ripples out, whoops school boy error!

 

[custard]

That's an interesting board Trevanion., is it Claro Walnut?

I've never seen Claro Walnut for sale in the UK . The only reason I've had some is I have family who are timber merchants in Vancouver, they source from Western Canada but also south into California where most Claro Walnut originates. Consequently I've had a few boards shipped over, here's an example,

 

[Racers]

Hi,

I’ve been making a wooden plinth for a turntable I own.

When finishing it marks appear perpendicular to the grain as you can see in the photo.

I bought the wood as offcuts. I was told it’s American Walnut. Does anyone know if this is a feature of this sort of wood? Or perhaps I’ve not prepared it properly.

So far I’ve sanded (quite a lot) at 80grit with a orbital random sander then by hand in the direction of the grain with 120 then 240 grit sandpaper.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Steve

Lp12?

Pete

 

[Trevanion]

That's an interesting board Trevanion., is it Claro Walnut?

It's not my photo but as far as I know, it's just regular American Black Walnut. I don't tend to work with such high classes of timber, occasionally I'll save the odd nice piece that's come in a pack of timber for something special.

I do have quite a few boards of local rippled olive mountain ash that was used for a staircase, this was made from an offcut:

Need to take a new photo as this one is just bad!

 

[sunnybob]

I wouldnt dream of contradicting the above statements, but there are a couple pointers for your turntable base build just in case you dont already know;

You dont want a hollow wooden box, it will sound like a base drum. Back in the 70's concrete blocks were all the rage to prevent feedback and reverb. At the very least fill the hollow with sound deadening material.
When sanding from 80 grit, you need a couple more in between grits before you get to 240. use 80, 120, 150, 180, then either 220 or 240 (or both). All with the grain. keep sanding each one untill no scratches at all are visible. Its well worth the extra elbow grease.

 

[Trevanion]

When sanding from 80 grit, you need a couple more in between grits before you get to 240. use 80, 120, 150, 180, then either 220 or 240

I usually go 80, 180, 320, dampening the timber between grits to raise the grain. That's only on pretty things, everything external joinery related rarely gets above 100 grit.

Having that amount of sandpaper kicking around gets expensive :lol:

 

[Wrayster]

Hi,

I’ve been making a wooden plinth for a turntable I own.

When finishing it marks appear perpendicular to the grain as you can see in the photo.

I bought the wood as offcuts. I was told it’s American Walnut. Does anyone know if this is a feature of this sort of wood? Or perhaps I’ve not prepared it properly.

So far I’ve sanded (quite a lot) at 80grit with a orbital random sander then by hand in the direction of the grain with 120 then 240 grit sandpaper.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Steve

Lp12?

Pete

Unfortunately not. It’s a Thorens TD-150 which I’ve enjoyed listening. I wanted to make a wider plinth to allow for a wider arm board so I can comfortably mount a Rega R200 arm.

 

[Racers]

Still a nice turntable, Rega arms are very nice, I had a RB300 on my Roksan Xerxes.

What's the rest of your system?

Pete

 

[Wrayster]

I have a old Realistic SA-2001 amp and Q Acoustic concept 20 speakers so nothing really to write home about but I enjoy listening to music through it.

 

[Racers]

That's all you need if you enjoy it.

Pete