Machining properties of Melia dubia wood

In this paper result of working quality of Melia dubia is reported after testing them under six major wood working operations namely - planing, sanding, turning, shaping, boring and mortising based on Indian Standard. The wood performed extremely well under planing. In shaping, the performance was good enough. Though all the other operations yielded poor results, the composite rating factor which is an overall performance indicator was 35 % more than that of Tectona grandis. The ease of working is only 93 % compared to teak. The working quality index which was based on the composite rating factor and ease of working worked out to 107 taking Tectona grandis as 100 mainly because of the high performance under planing and shaping and good performance under sanding.