Thread: Red Gum slabs

Nah worthless mate, best you give them to me and let me take care of them for you

Good score

I prefer to make furniture from smaller sizes glued to width as its far more stable than slabs.

But you could probably sell each slab for far more money than the same volume of timber in smaller sizes so I wouldn't rush into ripping them up.

Maybe cut them so they are 3x1", that way you will have some usable timber, lots of it too.
You can laminate all the 3x1's to make what ever you want and it will be more stable than the slab it came from.

Al

Thanks All,
I don't actually want to sell them Bob, I know what they (around) would be worth at the moment, but I'm really interested in your thoughts and Al's on milling them down to a reasonable size and re-laminating them.
At the risk of being a pain, what glue would you recommend to use in the lamination?
Sounds like more fun than a hernia.
Regards,
Noel

PVA, Ive never had a problem with it.

Ooopps tell a lie, I made a harp and the pva crept and made the joint spread because of the pressure the strings exerted. :eek:

Al

Gotcha,
To make it a real embuggerance, would you use big dowells as well.
I have four choices of glue:
Pva
White alaphatic
Yellow alaphatic (hope that's the right spelling)
Pearl hide glue.
The only reason I ask about dowelling is that I should have an excuse to muck around in the shed with all that kit to justify the embuggerance.
Regards,
Noel

Doweling sounds good, maybe you need one of the Festool thingamees, hmmm lots of dollars honey, but I need it.

Al

Sounds like the real thing
Noel

Like Al I use white glue without problems.

Hide glue is possibly the bees knees as if your joints are perfect you can rub the 2 edges together until the glue bites - no clamps needed at all. Though thats really a darkside practise.

I don't dowel as thats only an alignment issue - doesn't add strength.

Originally Posted by echnidna

Like Al I use white glue without problems.

Hide glue is possibly the bees knees as if your joints are perfect you can rub the 2 edges together until the glue bites - no clamps needed at all. Though thats really a darkside practise.

I don't dowel as thats only an alignment issue - doesn't add strength.

Thanks Bob,
All Marked down...I particularily liked the bit about dowelling.
The hide glue rubbing I just first tried this week...putting braces in a chair frame for "her" birthday. Wonderful stuff.
Can't see myself pressure rubbing heavy lengths of timber that long though.
So PVA might win the day.
Regards,
Noel

Dowelling could actually cause more problems than it cures. I've had a case where the wood shrunk across the grain but the dowells didn't. Will be interesting to see if this ever happens with the dominatrix.

The joints broke along the glue line. For alignment, you could use biscuits.

Originally Posted by AlexS

Dowelling could actually cause more problems than it cures. I've had a case where the wood shrunk across the grain but the dowells didn't. Will be interesting to see if this ever happens with the dominatrix.

The joints broke along the glue line. For alignment, you could use biscuits.

It is another reason I don't usually use dowells for edge jointing.
There are 3 reasons this may happen.
1. The dowel timber has different shrinkage rates to the parent timber
2. The dowel grain is tangental to the main grain.
3. The main timber isn't fully seasoned and shrinks about a tight dowell

It could happen with dominos if the timber & dowel species are mismatched.
or possibly if the tenons are quartersawn into a backsawn member or vice versa

Interesting stuff Bob & alexS,
Wonder what would happen if the dowells were made from the same bit of timber?? (just bought some plug cutters)
I won't rush in...slowly...slowly.
The wood's been there for a fair while (forgotten)...so I hope anything I do in the future doesn't bugger it.
Regards,
Noel