Any good for bowl blanks

[Arron]

I need to cull my collection of lumps of wood which will one day become bowl blanks. This is mostly stuff that I have salvaged from tree loppers working in the area so will be no great loss. I need to know:

if a blank has several knots of approximatley 20c piece size, is it usable or should it go?

if a blank is of such a size that it is only usable if the heart (ie the pith or very centre) of the tree is included, is it usable?

I know the best answer is 'try it and see', but its not really possible at this time, and I need to make some space.

thanks
Arron

[thefixer]

G'day Arron

I also get a lot of stuff from a local tree lopper near where I work. The upside is it's free, the downside is most of what I get is not identified. So its the old suck it and see method. What I do is split the logs down the guts and then cut out the biggest rectangle I can get from each piece. I then cut these into squares and turn them into rounds as blanks. Seal the outside grain, put the date on them and store them. The bark and off cuts go into the fire to keep the shed warm in winter and the sawdust goes into mulching the garden. The blanks don't take up as much space as a pile of logs and keeps the SWMBO off my back about messy piles of wood. Most are successful, some are not. I have found that a blank with a few knots in it does tend to crack around the knot. Don't really see this as too much of a problem as long as it not too severe. As far as keeping a piece in it's natural state, IE with the heartwood in the centre, i have a quite a few drying on the shelves and so far so good after about six months.
Maybe a few turners out there with a lot more experience than I can shed a little more light on the subject for you.

Cheers
Shorty

[TTIT]

Ah-ha:; The old 'how long is a piece of string' question eh! :doh:

I had to do a 'cull' a while back myself. Well I started to to do it:C. Hell - every log I pulled out of the rack kept screaming out about how I'll never be able to turn it into boxes if cut it into a round blank or the knot hole might be a good feature in a platter or if you slab me I can never be a natural-edge piece etc etc etc :C:~ In the end I didn't cut up a damn thing and added another 3 metres of storage onto the shed instead :shrug:

[thefixer]

Ah-ha:; The old 'how long is a piece of string' question eh! :doh:

I had to do a 'cull' a while back myself. Well I started to to do it:C. Hell - every log I pulled out of the rack kept screaming out about how I'll never be able to turn it into boxes if cut it into a round blank or the knot hole might be a good feature in a platter or if you slab me I can never be a natural-edge piece etc etc etc :C:~ In the end I didn't cut up a damn thing and added another 3 metres of storage onto the shed instead :shrug:

A fat lot of help you were then:D:D

Cheers
Shorty

[ficfac]

ha ha I'll take some of it off your hands!!!:D

[artme]

Don't you know That the only things you cull are feral cats, dogs, rats. cockroaches fire ants and the like?:doh::doh::doh:

You don't cull blanks. You swap,trade, give to someone in need. Good Grief!:D:D:D

[joe greiner]

Vern's (ttit) not-so-evil twin must be a member of our WT club. He regularly announces a request to come help with "culling" to open space in his four-car shed, for real car storage and shop extension. I filled my ute, and then added more to my own collection of roadside orphans; now, I have the disease too.

Find and/or join a woodturning club. Most noobie members will be grateful for free wood, at least until they're infected.:wink:

All that said, large-diameter logs can be quartered instead of halved, so that the pith is automatically cut away to form the bottom of a natural-edge or conventional bowl. Very little warping too, even without extensive aging. The member above clued me into that. Food for thought.

Joe

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Errr.... yeah... what Vern said. :-

The only time I've had a cull and ended up with less wood was when we moved into this place...

(...and I'm still sulking about that. :~)

[Cliff Rogers]

I've ordered a 2nd container. :-

[Arron]

OK, maybe I can un-hijack this thread by putting it another way. In the picture attached, the heavy line is a cross section through the bowl blank and the lighter lines are the growth rings. Is this blank usable?

I'm suspecting that the answer is no - but it would be OK if the blank was cut off lower so the heart is not included.

I think Joe has touched on this but I dont quite understand what he is saying (needs to be simple for me).

thanks
Arron

[Mulgabill]

Picture attached??????????

[Arron]

Sorry, attached now.

Arron

[robutacion]

OK, maybe I can un-hijack this thread by putting it another way. In the picture attached, the heavy line is a cross section through the bowl blank and the lighter lines are the growth rings. Is this blank usable?

I'm suspecting that the answer is no - but it would be OK if the blank was cut off lower so the heart is not included.

I think Joe has touched on this but I dont quite understand what he is saying (needs to be simple for me).

thanks
Arron

Hi Arron,
I think you could do well with the information attached. I offer my modest apologies to the forumate that provide this PDF document in the first place, which I forgot the name. I put this document on my "timber secrets" folder and the senders name is not on it. This is a extraordinary document (pages) showing every possible combination of timber grain orientation and final view for various cutting methods.
Hope you can make as good use of this info, as I have been since I got it, as the answer to your question is in it...!:D

PS: The PDF file was a little to big so I've "skun the cat to fit":o

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[artme]

Aaron what have you got to lose? Robutacion's info is wonderful and relavent but why not suck it and see?

[joe greiner]

I think Joe has touched on this but I don't quite understand what he is saying (needs to be simple for me).

thanks
Arron

Generally, like RBTCO's second pic. If you consider the uncut log, you can get four blanks from it by quartering on the diagonals. You don't actually cut it that way of course; just rotate the pic 45 degrees for the cutting pattern.

Joe

[AndyCJ]

RBTCO - Any chance you could upload that full PDF to your website and attach a link so people can download it. It's excellent!
Cheers,
Andy

[Arron]

Aaron what have you got to lose? Robutacion's info is wonderful and relavent but why not suck it and see?


Unable to approach turning at the moment due to RSI issues. Perhaps in a month or two I might be OK.

regards
Arron

[robutacion]

RBTCO - Any chance you could upload that full PDF to your website and attach a link so people can download it. It's excellent!
Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,

Your suggestion to put that PDF file on my web site for everyone to easily download is quite good, but not until I find out who send it to me, and ask the respective permissions etc..
For now, and for everyone else that would like also to have a copy of this PDF file (approx 780KB) double to what is allowed here, just send me an email to [email protected]
requesting PDF file, I will then reply sending the file.
Not a problem,

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[Toasty]

Hi Arron,
I think you could do well with the information attached. I offer my modest apologies to the forumate that provide this PDF document in the first place, which I forgot the name. I put this document on my "timber secrets" folder and the senders name is not on it. This is a extraordinary document (pages) showing every possible combination of timber grain orientation and final view for various cutting methods.
Hope you can make as good use of this info, as I have been since I got it, as the answer to your question is in it...!:D

PS: The PDF file was a little to big so I've "skun the cat to fit":o

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO


2mb higher quality link (http://www.classiccitywoodturners.com/CCW%20Newsletters/2006.08.pdf).

[Arron]

thanks to everyone for the replies.

RBTCN - great pdfs.

cheers
Arron

[NeilS]

I'm suspecting that the answer is no - but it would be OK if the blank was cut off lower so the heart is not included.


Arron - Leaving the centre has some aesthetic advantages, but brings its own technical challenges, as can be seen from the crack in the attached photo. As always, it's a matter of judgement based on personal preference and experience. Sometimes it is worth the challenge of leaving that amount of pith wood, as was the case for me with this piece of wood, for someone else it may not have been.

Leave a few like that and see what happens.

Neil

[joe greiner]

What NeilS said. You'd have the devil's own time trying that without help from Mother Nature.

Joe