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ptygmit
19th June 2007, 12:54 AM
Out of a desire to try turning somthing other then pine or redgum, which are the only two easily available timbers round my way, i decided to see if i could buy a few blanks online. Im going to the Adelaide wood show in July, but frankly, im an impatient type and want to get my grubby paws on somthing in the meantime!! :)

Ive done a bit of research and there doesnt appear much online, that is easy to find anyhow. Does anyone know of anywhere that sells reasonably priced blanks? Im still pretty new to turning so i don't need amazing burls, just somthing new...

I found this site from the UK (http://www.stilesandbates.co.uk/shop/show_subs.cfm?CID=45&thiscat=Woodturning%20Bowl%20and%20Spindle%20Blanks), and am pretty much blown away by how cheap they are. I think its about 2 bucks to a pound. Wheres the aussie equivilent to this company?? :D

What do you guys do to quench your thirst for different timbers? (aside those lucky enough to have mates with property!)

reeves
19th June 2007, 05:50 AM
PT, there are several threads dealing with this topic and several sites in australia where you can order blanks from. Some will be a little expensive, some will be green blanks. A lot is figured or burl so if you want plain wood blanks its often better to grab a chainsaw and find some local logs.

The links have been posted many times but do a google for woodturning blanks on the OZ google site.

try

http://www.thewoodsmith.com.au/thewoodsmith/
http://www.djarilmari.com/
http://www.woodcentre.com.au/
http://www.tasmaniantimbers.com.au/in-stock.html
http://www.tasmanianspecialtimbers.com.au/
http://www.aussieburls.com/turnblanks.htm
http://stores.ebay.com.au/TURNED-ON-WOOD_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm

another good source is to check out local sawmills for offcuts, look around in the state forest for logs and bits and also check out farms for fence posts, sleepers etc, regularly visit the green waste section of yr local rubbish tip.

I aint been to Mt Gambier for years but I know theres heaps of wood down that way..;-)

wtrueman
19th June 2007, 06:01 AM
If you have access to shipping crates, pallets, dunage etc, you can find odd pieces that can be glued up and turned. I've picked up oak, mahogany, maple and even black walnut doing this. Good luck. Wayne T

ptygmit
19th June 2007, 01:51 PM
Thanks for the tips guys, and the links. I found a few of those in my seaches on google, but a couple i missed and i will certainly get in touch and give em a try.

Skew ChiDAMN!!
19th June 2007, 04:58 PM
Or you could join the pen-swap on these forums... :D

woodturner777
19th June 2007, 05:03 PM
another good place for Turning Blanks if you are still learning the Craft
is the good old Fruit tree, if some one is pulling out the tree, you can get some beautiful timber from Fruit trees, cheers Bob.

Allan at Wallan
19th June 2007, 05:09 PM
A couple of suggestions:

Have a search on eBay for "pen blanks" - it looks a bit lean
on the site today but there are usually plenty available at
reasonable prices.

Join a woodworking club or watch this site for occasional
pen blank swaps.

Talk "wood" to friends or associates. Develop friendships
with people around wood such as getting offcuts from
furniture makers, obtaining branches from tree fellers
and keep your eye out for discarded items on roadside
council collections.

Soon you will have more wood than you can poke a
stick at.

Good luck

Brown Dog
19th June 2007, 05:28 PM
I recently lashed out and purchased one of the 250kg Tasmanian timber specials from one of the sites Reeves has mentioned...Gondwana Forest products

http://www.aussieburls.com/specials.htm.

with delivery it works out to be about $1.60 a kg which I thought was pretty good value. I was very happy with the selection of timbers I got in my pack. I also got one of his pen specials and some boards

cheers
BD:2tsup:

woodturner777
19th June 2007, 05:36 PM
B,D, did you recieve any good Blanks of Myrtle & Ecalyptus Burl with that order or just Timber Blanks.? cheers,

Brown Dog
19th June 2007, 05:40 PM
hi Woodturner..

No...there was no burl in this 250kg pack...but some nice chunks never the less :) .

cheers
BD:2tsup:

woodturner777
19th June 2007, 05:47 PM
BD, well its good to know you got some nice big Blanks,
but i did not think you would get any Burl for that Price, you wait and see what Burl will be worth in a few more years,

reeves
19th June 2007, 06:02 PM
BD, well its good to know you got some nice big Blanks,
but i did not think you would get any Burl for that Price, you wait and see what Burl will be worth in a few more years,

yes i think Brown dog got the standard turning blanks pack for $275 or so plus shipping. Their burls pack is $600 plus shipping which works out to about $3 kilo or so for all burls.

Brown Dog
19th June 2007, 06:11 PM
yes i think Brown dog got the standard turning blanks pack for $275 or so plus shipping. Their burls pack is $600 plus shipping which works out to about $3 kilo or so for all burls.

Yep that right Reeves...it was the special they have advertised in the AWR.
$3 a kg I reckon thats a bargain for burl....way less than I can get it for around here. The last largish chunk of burl I bought locally cost about $80:o .

cheers
BD:2tsup:

Ray153
20th June 2007, 12:33 PM
BD,
I am thinking about going down the same road as you, the price seems pretty fair.

Can you give me an idea of the sorts of sizes you got in the pack? What sort of moisture content, was it half way dry or was there still green leaves and dirt around the roots on the blanks?

How did the blanks arrive, waxed all over or just the end grain?

Brown Dog
20th June 2007, 02:40 PM
Gidday Ray



Can you give me an idea of the sorts of sizes you got in the pack?

The pack I got had everything in it from 25mm square 300mm long sticks to roughly 600x600x75mm blanks
here is a link to a pic of the blanks shorly after being unpacked

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=45067

What sort of moisture content, was it half way dry or was there still green leaves and dirt around the roots on the blanks?

From what I have turned so far some seem very wet some not as wet. The sassafras was sopping wet and had some mold on it. The blackwood seemed a little dryer....but he does say the packs contain green timber nothing has been dried. Some of the Houn pieces still had bark on them but there was no leaves or dirt

How did the blanks arrive, waxed all over or just the end grain?

All blanks are completley covered in wax



hope this helps.

cheers
BD:2tsup:

benji79
20th June 2007, 07:10 PM
OK im sold, asked the misses and have been given the OK for the big turning blanks pack. Looks like a great selection in the photo. Thanks for posting it.

Ive no experience turning green wood and drying it, so should be a good learning experiance.
:fingerscrossed:

Benji

reeves
20th June 2007, 07:53 PM
OK im sold, asked the misses and have been given the OK for the big turning blanks pack. Looks like a great selection in the photo. Thanks for posting it.

Ive no experience turning green wood and drying it, so should be a good learning experiance.
:fingerscrossed:

Benji

hey cool Benji, yes and it pays to be careful when drying those green blanks. A cheapo $70 moistre metre from carbatec helps to suss out how green they are and how fast they dry.

There are several ways of doing it but rough turning and leaving in a very cool dry place for a few weeks/months is probably the most relaible.

Rough turning and leaving in a pile of its own shavings help eliminate cracks.

Turning to form and oiling is ok for some species like eucalypts

Different species dry at different rates and split differently.

have fun!

weisyboy
20th June 2007, 10:51 PM
jou paid $3 an kilo for green blanks!!!

Frank&Earnest
20th June 2007, 11:10 PM
No, a bit more than $1 a kilo, for small size assorted and waxed blanks. $3 was for burls. Would you make a genuine better offer for green rough sawn planks ?

Ray153
21st June 2007, 12:43 PM
Thanks BD,
Seems like a pretty good range of dimensions there and judging by the photo, still can't see any reason to think that it is a poor deal. Time to start counting up the loose shekels from behind the cushions on the couch I think........

benji79
21st June 2007, 02:15 PM
jou paid $3 an kilo for green blanks!!!

The way I look at it, I usually go in to my local wood supplier and spend around $100 on wood, usually 4-6 pieces depending on the type of wood. Now if I can get the amount in the picture, green or not, for that price, i consider it pretty good. Even if it sits there to dry, in 12 months, ill have a heap of dry turning blanks, heaps more then I could have carried out of the shop..

benji.

Brown Dog
21st June 2007, 02:42 PM
The way I look at it, I usually go in to my local wood supplier and spend around $100 on wood, usually 4-6 pieces depending on the type of wood. Now if I can get the amount in the picture, green or not, for that price, i consider it pretty good. Even if it sits there to dry, in 12 months, ill have a heap of dry turning blanks, heaps more then I could have carried out of the shop..

benji.

That's what I thought too Benji.
Anywhere around here that sells blanks will charge around $15-$20 for a 300x75mm round of chamhpor :o So I think getting something like Houn pine for less than half that is not to bad even if it is green.:;.

I also recall reading an article by Richard Raffan...I think it was about rough turning bowls. He was saying how he turns a Ton at a time and was paying around a buck a Kilo... from memory. If someone like him is paying around $1....I think $1.60 delivered is not too bad

wiesyboy if you or anyone you know is able to better the price of $1.60 for timber or $3.00 for burl delivered to Sydney....I would love to hear about it.

Just saw Reeves post of the add...hadnt seen that before. So that would make the burls roughly $3.50/kg delivered to Sydney.... still not to bad....I wish I had some more timber purchasing pocket money:D

cheers
BD:2tsup:

reeves
21st June 2007, 02:49 PM
heres the add from the woodreview just to clarify the current offers from Aussieburls.com

http://www.johnreeves.com.au/images/abadd.jpg

TTIT
21st June 2007, 02:59 PM
Looks like a pretty good deal to me even though I don't (need to) buy timber!:U

benji79
26th July 2007, 09:37 AM
I recently lashed out and purchased one of the 250kg Tasmanian timber specials from one of the sites Reeves has mentioned...Gondwana Forest products

http://www.aussieburls.com/specials.htm.

with delivery it works out to be about $1.60 a kg which I thought was pretty good value. I was very happy with the selection of timbers I got in my pack. I also got one of his pen specials and some boards

cheers
BD:2tsup:



Hey BD, how long did it take you to get the wood? I paid 6 weeks ago and the guys just keeps giving me excuses and telling my I will get in "in a couple of days". Now I have NEVER bagged out a company online but i would find it very very hard to recommend this company to anyone. Communication is almost non-existent and its taking forever for something that has been "coming" for 5 weeks.

I'm giving him till next week (that will be almost two months) and asking for a refund. Ill let you know how I go.

Benji.:C

Brown Dog
26th July 2007, 01:25 PM
Sorry to hear your having problems benji...:(

I cant remember exactly how long it took....but I dont think it took 6 weeks for the the timber I ordered after I had paid. From the time of my first enquiry to the time the stuff was in my shed probably took around 6 weeks, though I think that was due to the fact I ordered some other timber aswell which took a Little while to sort out.


I do remember him stuffing around a little bit though....going on holidays for a week, the forklift breaking down :rolleyes: then he forgot to put in the Pen blanks that I ordered (they took a fair while to turn up :(( ). But the communication was fairly good (considering he is out in the sticks)...he seems to respond to emails resonably promptly. I put the delay down to things just dont move as fast in Tassie:) . Speaking to the transport guy in Tassie also confimed that...he said Shane is a nice bloke but moves kinda slow :U .

Its up to you...Benji...I think you do need a fair amount of patience, above and beyond the normal amount required for similar transactions :wink: . though in my case at least I think it was worth it.

In your case if you havent already been doing it start pestering him with emails...see if you can get him off his butt. Once it actually gets to the transport depot in Tassie it doesnt take long. The transport guys seem a lot more efficient.

good luck

cheers
BD:2tsup:

benji79
26th July 2007, 02:16 PM
Thanks heaps mate, good to know, I was really starting to worry/get pi$$ed off.

Benji

reeves
26th July 2007, 03:42 PM
Thanks heaps mate, good to know, I was really starting to worry/get pi$$ed off.

Benji

shame to here about yr delays Benji, just email or call him and try and sort it out, maybe they were running low on suitable timbers who knows...i dont think he's far out in the sticks, his yard at Longley is about 25 k's from Hobart and his warehouse at Huonville is right near town..

i have found some Tassie suppliers to be a little slow and possibly vague in responding sometimes, not all the time but sometimes......

snappygum
26th July 2007, 08:04 PM
You could also try getting in touch with a Tree Surgeon or Tree Lopper.

ciscokid
26th July 2007, 09:04 PM
When I started woodworking about two years ago, all I was doing was boxes, birdhouses, mantle clocks, and stuff like that. I was only using exotic lumbers bought from a company that specializes that stuff that is near where I work. About once every two weeks or so, I would drive over there on my lunch break and browse his warehouse looking for species that I hadn't used yet. I ended up with a shop full of just about every exotic hardwood I could find. As the boxes and clocks started to pile up, so too did the odd little scraps left over. Too big and nice looking to throw away and, yet, too small to use for a box. I just threw them into a large cardboard box until one day the box was overflowing and could hold no more. This is when I bought a lathe. It was January of this year that I made my first pen. The intention was that I would eliminate my box of scraps by making small turned objects. It didn't quite work out that way. Once the pen making bug bit me good, I started buying large planks of exotic lumber just to cut it up into pen blanks. They cost pennies a piece this way, but now my poor little shop is cluttered with more lumber than ever. :~ I haven't seen my router table in months. I need to take a weekend and just straighten up the whole thing, but every time I walk in there, I end up making something. I glued up four sets of blanks last night. Snakewood, cocobolo, pink ivory, and desert ironwood.

It's a sickness I tell you!

benji79
6th August 2007, 06:43 PM
Quick update on the wood I have been waiting 2 1/2 months for. Ended ringing the shipping company direct and asked them if they knew where the wood was. His reply was "sure, its been sitting in the blokes yard for weeks, he just hasn't asked me to take it...". :(( Anyway, the delivery bloke went to the timber yard and just picked it up for me, so its finally left Tassy, no thanks to the bloke I paid.. The delivery man said he is having heaps of calls about this particular company and its lack of communication/delivery. Wont be dealing with him again.

Rant Over

Benji

Skew ChiDAMN!!
6th August 2007, 06:50 PM
I haven't seen my router table in months. I need to take a weekend and just straighten up the whole thing, but every time I walk in there, I end up making something.

WOOHOO! I AM NOT ALONE! :hpydans2:

rsser
6th August 2007, 07:01 PM
Seriously obsessed ;-}

Yeah, the making is the mark, or is the mark the making :roll:

That said, FWIW, I can't do some kinds of thinking - esp. re new forms, lines etc - with the shed a mess. A clear ordered space seems to help (doesn't apply to my office or study though - they're pigsties :B ).

I'm also a fan of 'time out' ... just pottering: mainly sharpening tools, or rereading instructions, other tool maintenance, dusting down, checking roughed-turned bowls, looking for wormholes in the 'bank', puffing on the pipe and sipping a port. Brings the adrenaline levels down rather than up.

benji79
14th August 2007, 05:53 PM
Well finally its here. Ive attached some pics. The wait was long but it looks like it was worth it. Dont know how green it is, haven't had the chance to get to the shed yet.

These first three are Black hearted Sasa, Myrtle fiddleback/burl and Eucalypt Fiddleback.

53079

53080

53081

benji79
14th August 2007, 05:56 PM
The next three are:

Jarrah Burl, Huon Pine, Native Olive and something i dont know with LI printed on it. Any thoughts?

53083

53084

53085

Brown Dog
14th August 2007, 06:59 PM
G'day Benji

Glad to see it finally arrived :D . should keep you busy for a while
From memory, in the pack I got .....I think the LI might be Leatherwood.

cheers
BD:2tsup:

rsser
14th August 2007, 07:05 PM
Nice stash.

Should keep you busy for a while.

... anything waxed all round is prob. green BTW.
.

hughie
14th August 2007, 07:37 PM
I'm also a fan of 'time out' ... just pottering: mainly sharpening tools, or rereading instructions, other tool maintenance, dusting down, checking roughed-turned bowls, looking for wormholes in the 'bank', puffing on the pipe and sipping a port. Brings the adrenaline levels down rather than up



time out is a meaningful past time in my book. :U Kinda my inspiration time. Dreaming, codge-a-tating,musing,meditating on my knots and so on.:U