Thread: Roadside chuckout

Not a sheoak, just a casuarina?

Originally Posted by Burnsy

It is now stacked in the shed so will be intereting to see how much it splits - it was dripping with water. Made lovely pink sawdust.

Looks like swamp sheoak (Obesa) Mike. When it comes out of a domestic garden this stuff can just burst apart if it dries too quickly. Cossi and I milled some in late 2007 and it turned into crinkle cut potato chips. The one log we painted the end on and accidentally left for 3 months under a pile of sawdust milled far better than the others. Based on that experience whenever I get hold of some more I will now be quartering it and resawing it later. I would suggest getting some plastic sheeting and covering that pile (not too tightly or it will go mouldy) so that it slows down the water loss.

Did you seal the ends?

noice.

ill have that jack if ya dont want it

Steady state is the word with seasoning any green timber, massive moisture loss will see total loss of useful product! What you need to do NOW is reduce the thickness of the sticks to 10mm, arrange them so they are one above the other to prevent bowing, wrap the whole job in sarking to prevent rapid moisture loss, this will also help level out the temperature, KEEP IT COOL! check and rotate regularly for 12 months min! Demonstration! Get a small piece of your scrap, place it in your microwave, ( with her permission ) put it on high for a few minutes, this is nature in fast forward! result! Massive moisture loss, checking, shrinkage, distortion, to the max! With wood, be patient!

Growth form does not look like the obesa on flora base but that does not mean it isn't. Ends arn't sealed as I thought that the open fibourous grain would loose enough out of it when it is only 20mm thick to stop end checking. Drove back past and there are another couple of lumps out where this came from, maybe tomorrow.

I figured it would split and curl up and I woud have to slow down the drying a bit, that is why it is in the shed against the back wall, concrete floor and brick wall keeps it pretty cool. Will throw some plastic over it as well just for good measure.

Carl, that jack is my log lifter so you can't have it

I have my eye on a similar diameter log of London Plane tree that is about 2.5m long. Was planning on cutting it exactly the same as I figure it would be best used for craft stuff. What do people think, cut it to 20mm?

Originally Posted by Oddjob1

. . . . reduce the thickness of the sticks to 10mm,

Don't go any less than 10 or they will go mouldy especially now that we will be having increasingly humid days in the next month or so. I agree rotation is good and sarking is better than plastic since it lets vapour out.

While we are on a council pickup thread, my council pick up excursion was nowhere near as exciting although this time I avoided looking at timber and concentrated on metal. There's always a lot of thin crappy stuff but occasionally you see something meaty. Did find two good folding saw horses and an old racing bike with alloy handlebar stem - these are for chainsaw mill handles and remote throttle handles

Will keep my eye out for some builders wrap, for the moment it has a spare dusty bag draped over it. Stickers are 15mm and I am not changing them. If I grab another lump and cut it I will use 10mm stickers just so the scientist in me can see what the resulting difference is.

What you need to do NOW is reduce the thickness of the sticks to 10mm

why?

o normaly use 25mm stickers it allows good air flow and they can be used latter.

those boards should be dry in about 6 months.

Originally Posted by BobL

While we are on a council pickup thread, my council pick up excursion was nowhere near as exciting although this time I avoided looking at timber and concentrated on metal. There's always a lot of thin crappy stuff but occasionally you see something meaty. Did find two good folding saw horses and an old racing bike with alloy handlebar stem - these are for chainsaw mill handles and remote throttle handles

I picked up a really nice stroller for my sister to keep at her house and use when baby sitting, four half blue drums for my aquaponics system, a pair of bike paniers and half a dozen 40mm sink drains that I removed from different sinks, again for aquaponics. Was on the lookout for laundry troughs but someone else had beat me to them. I have five already and they make great herb pots when put on raised timber frames, these are going to be emptied though and converted to aquaponic grow beds. I am a huge scab when it comes to raodside chuckout, anything I can't use I sell on ebay, made about $500 last roadside chuckout. Lots of easy money if you know what to look for.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

why?

o normaly use 25mm stickers it allows good air flow and they can be used latter.

those boards should be dry in about 6 months.

The thickness of the stickers (and type of timber, starting MC, thickness and width of the slabs, air flow and temperature) determine the rate of water loss. If the stickers are too thick, the wood is saturated with water and prone to cracking, too much water will be lost too quickly leading to cracking and warping. If it is Obesa then 10 mm is about right for stickers.

I have used them as thin as 6 mm and as thick as 25.

Originally Posted by Burnsy

I picked up a really nice stroller.

Strollers were really big on the menu in the area I was in - it looked like every second house had one on the verge. Broken computer chairs were also big in number. I normally scab SS drums from Dryers (use them as camping fires/oven and fish smokers) but I already have 4! I normally look for interesting pieces of timber but I am banned from bringing any more home until I clear our pergola area of the jarrah I got out of the last skid dive! Metal, that's OK because I can always squeeze another piece of angle iron or plate under the house,

Hello again, wrapping your slabs in sarking, silver side out will level out temperature variations considerably, a good test for this is to place sarking over a piece of your scrap out in the sun for a while and surprisingly you will find when you place your hand under the sarking onto the wood it will be cool. Also great stuff to protect your items while under construction.

Mike, Id be inclined to cut it at a minimum of 30mm and use min 15mm stickers. Plane loses moisture fairly quick also and dont use green stickers. mould will develop and you will end up with stick stain. Same goes for marri, dont strip out marri with green marri sticks or the same will happen and you cant machine it out.