powderpost
27th April 2008, 11:47 PM
Had a good day on the lathe today. This bit of cedar came from an area known as a "dry rainforest", north west from Townsville. It is in an area where there are numerous small lava tubes in the ground. There is a spring in the area also. the top of the lava tubes has worn away and been filled with leaf litter that has broken down and formed these tubes of rich soil. The area has a mix of rainforest trees, including cedar, and an assortment of dry country trees. The owner of the property had cut down three cedar trees and had them milled. We got access to the stumps and crowns. The stumps were about 1500mm diameter and about 1200mm high. The first branches were about 450mm thick. We estimated the trees to be about 300 years old. The timber was quite dark and crisp to work.
After I started to turn, I stopped and checked what was coming up and was a little surprised to see some fiddle back on one side and a series of three borer holes vertically in line on the other side. the plan changed to preserve the fiddle back, and to disguise the holes by boring a pattern. Any way this is the end product. It is 210mm high and 95mm diameter. Wall thickness is just under 2mm. Pity the light covered some of the fiddle back.
Jim
After I started to turn, I stopped and checked what was coming up and was a little surprised to see some fiddle back on one side and a series of three borer holes vertically in line on the other side. the plan changed to preserve the fiddle back, and to disguise the holes by boring a pattern. Any way this is the end product. It is 210mm high and 95mm diameter. Wall thickness is just under 2mm. Pity the light covered some of the fiddle back.
Jim