rsser
13th January 2009, 04:57 PM
With a bootload of timber from Quercus, and the day promising to be hot, I got out early with the chainsaw and did most of the crude work.
Then spent a few hours at the bandsaw and chip fryer dimensioning and sealing some blanks.
The English Ash had been cut into short lengths, with deep checking as a result. Got some useful box/pencil jar blanks out of it and one or two possible bowl blanks. Shouldn't be a prob with a distressing treatment that this stuff responds well too: turn, scorch, wire brush, stain etc etc.
The Brush Box had some fiddleback in the sapwood, which was surprisingly deep. About 50% of diameter. A multi-crotch piece looked promising to begin with but there too the checks ran deep.
I've turned 10" bowls of this stuff recycled from Victoria Pier; all heartwood, so clearly it grows to big sizes. Also a bit on the tedious side to turn since it's full of silica and you spend half your time refreshing tool edges.
I also ripped an Ash spindle blank that's been drying since '02. Not big but it sure gave the bandy a rough time. Not surprising I guess. This stuff makes tough handles as the Sorby folk might attest.
All this was done with a 1/2" bimetal 3 TPI skiptooth blade on the WoodCrarp. It's now working OK since I gave up trying to get the wheels coplanar and pushed the bottom wheel back to the mount.
I use a set of 6 Masonite discs of increasing sizes to guide the bandy cut for bowl blanks. Just use the appropriate disc, tack it to the top of the half-log and use as a guide. Made a circle-cut guide some time ago but gave up on it as too fiddly for my style of butchery.
So there's now a bunch of blanks, a wheelbarrow load of firewood, and about half a recycle wheelie bin of small stuff. And a couple of lengths of Sydney Blue Gum saved for tomorrow.
And how many 'warms' did the old timers say there was in producing firewood?
Then spent a few hours at the bandsaw and chip fryer dimensioning and sealing some blanks.
The English Ash had been cut into short lengths, with deep checking as a result. Got some useful box/pencil jar blanks out of it and one or two possible bowl blanks. Shouldn't be a prob with a distressing treatment that this stuff responds well too: turn, scorch, wire brush, stain etc etc.
The Brush Box had some fiddleback in the sapwood, which was surprisingly deep. About 50% of diameter. A multi-crotch piece looked promising to begin with but there too the checks ran deep.
I've turned 10" bowls of this stuff recycled from Victoria Pier; all heartwood, so clearly it grows to big sizes. Also a bit on the tedious side to turn since it's full of silica and you spend half your time refreshing tool edges.
I also ripped an Ash spindle blank that's been drying since '02. Not big but it sure gave the bandy a rough time. Not surprising I guess. This stuff makes tough handles as the Sorby folk might attest.
All this was done with a 1/2" bimetal 3 TPI skiptooth blade on the WoodCrarp. It's now working OK since I gave up trying to get the wheels coplanar and pushed the bottom wheel back to the mount.
I use a set of 6 Masonite discs of increasing sizes to guide the bandy cut for bowl blanks. Just use the appropriate disc, tack it to the top of the half-log and use as a guide. Made a circle-cut guide some time ago but gave up on it as too fiddly for my style of butchery.
So there's now a bunch of blanks, a wheelbarrow load of firewood, and about half a recycle wheelie bin of small stuff. And a couple of lengths of Sydney Blue Gum saved for tomorrow.
And how many 'warms' did the old timers say there was in producing firewood?