Cutting ash on morso

[girlfromkent]

Hi All

I'm just cutting some deep 30mm ash for the first time.

First couple of cuts gave me jagged edges so I've changed the blades for some recently sharpened ones.

Still getting jagged edges. Any tips?

In case it matters, I'm cutting it upside down as my supports are they old shorties.

[Justintime]

Are you taking small bites, little by little and making sure that the last cut is the smallest finishing cut?
If all else fails, the best filler for Ash I have found is Ronseal multi Purpose wood filler "Natural".
How are you joining it? (good luck with an underpinner...)

[fusionframer]

Agree re small last cut. I would imagine most underpinners won't join that well so you will probably need to band clamp and nail anyway, so filler will be needed.

Alternative way to fill is glue and sawdust. For an uneven edge, run glue over and sand. The sawdust will adhere to glue and leave a perfect finish.

Btw, my choice of band clamp is:

https://www.besseytools.co.uk/bessey-ba ... gJJsPD_BwE

Nick

[Not your average framer]

Ash sometimes does that on a Morso. You cut into it and you can feel the Morso as it cuts through each line of grain in the wood. It depends upon the angle of the grain as you view the grain through the end grain of the wood. Some legths of ash are also harder than others as well and it does not mean that there is anything wrong with your Morso, or anything wrong with how you are doing it.

A little bit of tidying and perhaps a little bit of filling and it won't be as noticeable as you might be thinking. Most hardwoods can throw you a curved ball every now and then, it partly the nature of the beast. I stopped keep ash mouldings in stock, largely because the grain can vary so much even in the same length of moulding and I like the grain either side of a corner to be a good match.

I even can get sudden colour variations in the wood as you examine the colour in different places, along the same length. I like to stock oak as my preferred hardwood, but even then to get the best match you don't always make a whole frame, from only one length. Left over bits of oak with defects that won't match up with any other left over bits, get turned into oak driftwood and a unifying colour of chalky emulsion gets rubbed into the grain and the rubbed off. This is often followed with a little bit of colored paste wax and it's ready to go. sold as rustic oak and it quite popular as well and is often more popular that the oak that has more uniform grain.

[girlfromkent]

Thanks all.

Yes, taking nibbles and never missing the last cut.

Maybe I just need to give it some more welly?

I was planning to glue and clamp, then under pin. I'm guessing this is not a good idea.

I've just done some oak and it's not as bad, so maybe it is just the variations in the wood. I'll try again tomorrow.

Also I've just noticed that since I changed the blades my joins are no longer perfect but I can't work out why. The left and right fence are straight against a long rule, but when I clamp the for pieces together one join is slightly out.

Honestly, I feel like giving up. And I've only just started.

[girlfromkent]

[Justintime]

Do a search for "morso set up - thanks", it will talk about tweaking the left fence a tiny bit, which can solve this issue.
Also, I discovered that my long rule wasn't actually straight enough for this purpose. Eventually I bit the bullet and bought an engineers straight edge (yes £50!!!) but it means you can start at the scale side, checking your scale line and right fence are spot on, then checking the right to the left fence and than make the tweak to the left fence! A chat with a morso engineer was also invaluable. Sometimes there is a tiny bit of play in the cutting head, which may only show up when cutting hard woods, but can be sorted with cleaning and adjustments. Be patient, it's worth the struggle in the end. Brand new blades, if you don't have a pair, are invaluable and show up any problems with your other sets. Do your blades touch in the centre without any burr? It takes time to fit them absolutely spot on.

[Skinnymarinky]

You are cutting Ash, not a pre-finished moulding!!!! Don't worry about a few microscopic imperfections, they will go with a tiny bit of filler and a neat sand down. Don't go for a razor sharp 90 degrees, give it a bit of softness by 'knocking off' the corners with 240 sandpaper. Regarding joining, don't waste your time with straps, use two 10mm wedges, not stacked, and not more than half way across from the inside edge. This will hold the frame together nicely then secure the joint with one or two pins from a gun or with with a hammer.

[Steve N]

Ash can be bloody hard, if you look at the jagged edges, they ocur at the same type of grain on the ash, just cut join and fill, pop some glue in the join and sand with sandpaper as FusionFramer said, you are using the same wood (when sanding) to fill the gaps

Don't adjust the fences, the blades were pushed back when cutting the ash , try on soft wood before any adjustments

[Not your average framer]

Ash is really difficult wood at first for new framers. There is a bit of a leaning curve and added to that, from time to time I had some length where the wood has been spolted in places. You often can not do anything about spolted ash, it is a blacked area in the wood created by diseasing in the wood, Years ago there was a trend for black ash, where the ash was stained black and the spolting did not show, but there's not much call for black ash these days.

Personally, I think that it is not uncommon to find that the harder bits of ash can be more of a problem, when cutting on a Morso than the harder bit of oak. Again this also a personal opinion, but I find that oak is also a more consistent wood, that the ash in use. Bit s of ash, that have been in stock a whiile and are exposed to light tend to yellow a bit, where as others in the same rack, but are shielded from the light and don't yellow.

Well you don't get the same problem with oak. Oak is very popular around here and it's not hard to see why. There's a lot of old buildings with exposed oak beams in the area, so is a natural choice for these living in such buildings. Oak can look great when stained, given a light wash and is easy to make it look old. There is are a lot of old cottages, farms and barn conversions around here, so oak is my favorite hardwood and I sell plenty of it.

I don't stock much ash and can not remember when I last used it. I generate plenty of oak left overs and off cuts and I often manage to keep my off cuts as usable lengths, rather that generating off cuts that are a bit too short to use. If the off cut is going to be only suitable for the bin fair enough, but oak off cuts provide me with plenty of oak ready made frames for the shop window and they sell like crazy, but also don't yellow in the sun.

It's not an exageration to say that I'm a framer who loves oak! It is easily my best selling mouldings for frames, with factory finished and hand finished pine a close second. I don't know why pine is not quite so popular with many picture framers these days, with the right finishing techniques it can make some really stunning frames and some barewood pine mouldings are great value for money as well.