Needs Pictures: 0
Results 1 to 10 of 10
Thread: Stepping outside my comfort zone
-
24th February 2018, 01:40 PM #1GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jan 2013
- Location
- the sawdust factory, FNQ
- Posts
- 1,051
Stepping outside my comfort zone
I hate portable sawing. Don't like leaving my shed where I have all the equipment required to handle logs, a range of saws and resaws to turn logs to lumber with a minimum of fuss, a roof to keep off the sun and most of the rain... and all this within 50m of a beer fridge. If its at all viable I get any contract sawing customers to freight their logs to the mill. If its not viable I mostly am not interested.
But for a couple old customers I make an exception to that. And so last week I found myself beside a corn field on the lovely Atherton Tablelands. With about 10 cubic meters of Bunya log to keep me amused. Warmish too, but nirvana after the coastal climate.
I don't know much about softwood except Kauri, but then pine is a four letter word and Kauri has 5.
So I looks in Bootle for grades and shrinkage rates, discuss the cut list with the guy, hold my breath and go.
Interesting stuff to saw: firmer than I expected, decidedly so around some of the knots. Log was about 1.2m diameter at the butt, and 65 years old based on a local who was 12 when it was planted. Down where it had some clear wood she was nice, but lack of pruning meant the bulk was quite knotty but still structural grade material. I can see why they get 52 finger joints to a 6 meter length of timber anyway.
Interesting experience anyway: id cut it again. The clear would be easy to shift, and I could pull some magic wall paneling out of the knotty top logs.
20180222_144742.jpg20180222_144802.jpg
And a bug because I've never seen one like that. Any bug people's here? Some kind of lady bug but bigger. Pretty!!! Probably eat my arm off or something if i it off
20180223_131244.jpg
Then i came home and had to clean the sap off everything: Pine remains a four letter word.
-
24th February 2018 01:40 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
- Join Date
- Always
- Location
- Advertising world
- Posts
- Many
-
24th February 2018, 02:05 PM #2GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
- Posts
- 1,857
Wow, that grain is all over the place... Pretty wood, pine or not.
I went through a couple of cubes of Hoop making bee boxes in Brisbane. How does it compare to that? I'd imagine the two are similar being of the same genus, but I never got my hands on any Bunya.
-
24th February 2018, 03:06 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jan 2013
- Location
- the sawdust factory, FNQ
- Posts
- 1,051
Never sawn hoop either. Thats a four letter word as well!! Unpruned farm plantings so it looked like hoop in terms of branches up it etc.
But... shrinkage is way less per Bootle which is why its a guitar belly timber. And I was quite suprised at how firm it was under the saw. Cut nice and laid straight with very little movement (which is nice after 1200 ton of hardwood in the last 12 months - this is what normal people saw)
It'll make some awful pretty fruit tree props anyway.
-
24th February 2018, 04:46 PM #4
-
26th February 2018, 07:14 AM #5Skwair2rownd
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- Dundowran Beach
- Age
- 76
- Posts
- 19,922
Love Bunya!! In itself it is a a beautiful tree with its parabolic profile and the nuts are great to eat when roasted.
one of the best features of this aruacaria is that you can get wide boards from the older trees for table and bench making.
The timber seems to be very stable once seasoned and works like a dream. It will get a blue mold if left in the wrong place
for too long so it is basically a matter of seasoning and using in short order.
-
26th February 2018, 12:54 PM #6
The only furniture I have seen made from Bunya Pine was a bush style BBQ setting. There is a bloke about 50Km from here who makes this stuff up. The table from memory was eight place The top was about 75mm thick and I think he had around $3500 on it including the chairs. Quite impressive looking, but not everybody's taste. It was not there when we last looked so I suppose it was sold. This is the type of product he sells:
P1030584.JPGP1030585.JPG
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
-
26th February 2018, 03:58 PM #7Novice
- Join Date
- Oct 2017
- Location
- Newcastle nsw
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 20
Nice milling there.
The bug looks like a harlequin beetle. They like hibiscus plants
-
26th February 2018, 05:19 PM #8
John
I rather like the Bunyas. We have planted two here at home and they seem to thriving. Probably be about ready to harvest in 2118. The Bunya mountains are only three hours away from here so it is the right sort of region although it lacks the elevation to make it ideal.
If you milled away from home, what style of mill did you use?
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
-
26th February 2018, 09:20 PM #9GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jan 2013
- Location
- the sawdust factory, FNQ
- Posts
- 1,051
Hi Paul
Don't forget to prune them. This would have been a nice sawlog if it had of seen a chainsaw every couple decades. As it was there was maybe 6m of clear at the butt, then the knots started. I looked down the road at another row of them and same: what could be high value logs are just low grade crap - but pretty to look at I'll give them that.
I have a 1030 Lucas that's mostly permanently mounted on a deck in my shed for oversize logs: it's a handy machine within its limitations. Shes getting old and tired but it'll still cut a decent enough board. Actually the machine is a credit to Lucas Mill and I can't speak too highly of the company or their product, and the volume of timber we've pulled out of a lightweight portable mill is phenomenal. Bang for your buck they're hard to beat if you aren't in the tonnage game.
Im kinda in the tonnage game but even then it's a handy thing to have
-
26th February 2018, 10:16 PM #10SENIOR MEMBER
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Hervey Bay
- Posts
- 250
Hi Luke,
Bunya is much easier to work than hoop pine.
I should add the hoop pine I've worked with (almost a cube) was finger jointed boards made from offcuts from bee box making.
So they were all the bits with knots and the grain reversed on almost every finger jointed section.
Nevertheless, Bunya is somewhat softer in comparison, and very easy to work.
Cheers, Jeff
Similar Threads
-
Goose Stepping.
By Tonyz in forum NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH WOODWORKReplies: 1Last Post: 7th January 2011, 06:00 PM -
stepping out
By underfoot in forum HAND TOOLS - POWEREDReplies: 7Last Post: 27th November 2010, 05:05 PM -
Stepping out of plywood and needing some guidance
By waveink in forum TIMBERReplies: 2Last Post: 2nd September 2008, 11:05 PM -
Mission Oak Stepping Stool
By basorrells in forum WOODWORK PICSReplies: 6Last Post: 27th January 2005, 03:41 PM