With a name like "hard red pine" I'll bet it finishes to a very high luster if so desired. What do you make out of it on the mill?
I agree, I don't think a wood chip is going to do the physical damage a metal chip would once it gets pinched between the saddle and the saddle ways on the knee for instance, but I was given to understand it's the resin that's leeched out of woodchips that's abrasive to the ways. I have no idea how pronounced this effect is. I guess it depends on the type of wood (resin) and how much exposure the machine realizes.
I grew up with a 9 inch SouthBend lathe in the basement and most of what my father and I turned on it was wood and we never gave it a second thought except maybe my dad emphasized keeping the machine wet with lube. That lathe is now in my basement and I can't say it's any worse for the wear having turned all that wood.
On the Millrite, I'm consciencious about keeping the wood chips (and metal chips for that matter) clear because the saddle ways on the knee of my Millrite are already pretty gouged up presumably (looks like) from metal chips and insufficient lube. It was like that when I bought the mill. Also it seems to me wood chips/dust permeate the nooks, crannies and crevaces of the mill much more readily than metal chips do and there are just more exposed machined bearing surfaces on the Millrite mill than on the SouthBend lathe.
The other detriment caused by milling wood is that the wood chips/dust tend to wick lube away from parts of the mill you want to keep wet with lube. Of course the obvious solution for this is to lube the mill more frequently when carving wood.
I was first told of the wood resin abrasion phenomena by a tool and die maker who really knew his stuff. (Got his mechanical engineering degree
*after* a couple of decades working as a tool and die maker.) That fact not withstanding, it does occur to me that there might be a wee bit of "machinist arrogance" (uttered with the utmost of respect for the man and the trade) embodied in the information, in that the purist machinist/metal worker might be inclined to frown on using a mill to process wood, metal working being more "technical", woodworking being more "craft", hence processing wood on a machine tool is "an abuse" of the machine tool.(But that last is just an impression, I'm still doing all I can to keep the wood chips clear of the bearing surfaces on my mill.)
Dennis van Dam