Ian Smith 21st December 2007, 05:02 PM I could have put this in the Triton section or I could have put it in the box making section but it's neither really. Anyway, I'm no box maker and although most of my stuff is Triton it really makes no difference. I just thought I'd share my experience of converting an bit of dead black wattle destined for the rubbish skip into something a tad more useful.
The black wattle died about a year ago as a result of the drought or maybe it reached it's use-by date - they only live about ten years, but in any event it was dead and rather than wait for it to fall over I thought I'd give the new chainsaw a bit of a work-out.
As it turned out the trunk was fairly sound, about 120cm in diameter, straight for about a meter, and free from too much splitting, so my thoughts turned to the workshop as I had always harboured a desire to mill a bit of the raw material but lacking a band saw I didn't really give it that much thought until now.
I had to limit the billet to 60 mm in height as that's the depth of cut of my WC2000 but the initial cuts had to be double sided. The clamps and the sacrificial bits of wood seemed to hold things firmly and safely and I kept well out of the way during the initial cuts. I think the photos are pretty self-explanitory and I'm happy enough with the end result.
I'll have to make a second post because all the pics won't fit into one
Ian Smith 21st December 2007, 05:07 PM Just a couple of pics of the final result. I was happy enough with the grain and the finish - I'll probably give it a second coat of Danish Oil.
BTW - corners were done with the quarter inch Triton finger jointer - I'd never used it prior to this - only the half inch version - so it was a bit of an experiment - seems ok - not too much break-out
Ian
benji79 21st December 2007, 06:06 PM nice work, just shows you dont need a milling machine to get nice wood. :2tsup:
Fencepost2 21st December 2007, 07:28 PM Whowee. Excellent work.
Did the wood move much after you had sawn up the planks so ingeniously? How stable is the lid of the box and have you designed in any overlaps to accommodate a bit of twisting or cupping? :2tsup:
Ian Smith 21st December 2007, 07:44 PM Thanks for the compliments - like I said I'm no box maker or a saw miller either for that matter
The wood seemed dry enough. The tree has been dead over a year and we've had bugger all rain. The lid is thicker than it looks as it has a rebated edge. Sides and lid are all about 10mm. thick The bottom is a bit of 10mm ply with a thin veneer of the black wattle on the inside.
It was all a bit of an experiment and if it bows, cups, twists, splits or otherwise misbehaves then I guess I'll just put it down to experience, but so far so good
Ian
Ivan in Oz 21st December 2007, 07:56 PM G'Day Ian,
Very Nice,
But, please enlighten!
Some of those pieces look to be well in Excess of 60mm wide
How did you manage that?
S l o w l y Please.
Ian Smith 21st December 2007, 08:03 PM Thanks Ivan.
I have simply jointed two 60mm planks for the sides and three for the lid. There's three 60mm veneer strips in the bottom to cover the ply.
By the time I'd got enough decent bits from the stuff I had milled for the sides and lid there wasn't enough of the 10mm stuff left to make the bottom, hence the ply and veneer
Ian
JDarvall 22nd December 2007, 02:34 PM Looks good. I think its clever the way you ripped that log.
Those quick grips are great eh. I can't get enough of them either. Particularly good for finish and assembly work
I_wanna_Shed 22nd December 2007, 09:32 PM Great work Ian! The milling and the box itself have come up very nice. I like colour of the grain.
I've wanted to try some milling, and have a question for you. I understand having to 'flip the log' to cut through its depth, and on a square piece of timber this is very easy to do. However, when using a log, how do you ensure that the second cut will line up square with the first, since there is no 'fixed edge' (ie: straight edge) on the log to reference from?
Make sense?
Good work,
Nathan.
Ian Smith 22nd December 2007, 09:47 PM Thanks Jake,
Nathan to answer your question the log has to be fairly straight to start with and after selecting the straightest side to place nearest the fence for the first cut I then turned the log end over end and used a square to make sure the log was clamped up with the first cut as vertical as possible and then ran it through again to make the second cut. It was only out by a couple of millimeters and the thicknesser took care of the rest after I had milled the opposite side. You can see the results of the first side double cut if you look at the fifth pic in the top row of the first post
Ian
I_wanna_Shed 22nd December 2007, 10:35 PM Thanks Jake,
Nathan to answer your question the log has to be fairly straight to start with and after selecting the straightest side to place nearest the fence for the first cut I then turned the log end over end and used a square to make sure the log was clamped up with the first cut as vertical as possible and then ran it through again to make the second cut. It was only out by a couple of millimeters and the thicknesser took care of the rest after I had milled the opposite side. You can see the results of the first side double cut if you look at the fifth pic in the top row of the first post
Ian
Thanks for the reply Ian. Its a nice easy solution too!
Cheers.
robyn2839 22nd December 2007, 11:14 PM good work mate , and a good rap for triton, excellent end product.bob
STAR 24th December 2007, 10:38 AM Great work Ian.
ps By the way, you are not involved in the Lure coursing club at Kuraby, are you?
There is an Ian Smith there, who is exceptionally talented with fitting and turning. the ingenuity shown on your Triton is just the thing he could do with metal.
Ian Smith 24th December 2007, 07:16 PM Thanks Gents,
Bob, yes I find the Triton gear suits my needs with a bit of help from a Carbatec 6" jointer and 12" thicknesser
STAR, it's a pretty common name and no, I'm not exceptionally talented and either fitting or turning:)
An enjoyable and safe Christmas to forum members
Ian
Carry Pine 2nd January 2008, 03:43 PM Thanks Ivan.
I have simply jointed two 60mm planks for the sides and three for the lid. There's three 60mm veneer strips in the bottom to cover the ply.
By the time I'd got enough decent bits from the stuff I had milled for the sides and lid there wasn't enough of the 10mm stuff left to make the bottom, hence the ply and veneer
Ian
Ian,
Having rediscovered this post, I'm now wondering why the planks are only 60mm wide if you turn the log over. Wouldn't they be 120mm wide?
Carry Pine
Ian Smith 2nd January 2008, 03:57 PM Carry,
The log was about 120mm in diameter (not "cm" as in my first post:doh:) hence I needed to make the double cuts just to get the first two opposite sides. I think the final billet was not much over about 90mm wide and 60mm deep by the time I had removed most of the waste - sapwood cracks, and a knot or two.
This was just an "suck it and see" and I had made up my mind that I didn't want to make double cuts to get my planks.
In my PM to you I mentioned something about making those cuts that I think bears repeating for general consumption and for the sake of safety and that is that in making the second cut (for both sides) you have to either leave about 5mm or so to keep the clamps from trapping the saw blade, or alternatively, make the second cut only a small way along then stop the saw and remove the waste and reclamp beyond the blade. Repeat as necessary
Regards
Ian
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