Thread: free timber Brisbane,Rocklea

Twelve months has gone and I remain the only recipient of Mark's generosity after the flood that wiped out his business to have posted photos of how I have made good use of the materials that might otherwise have been destined for land fill.


However, I have always felt it important to give Mark at least some satisfaction that his generosity has been very appreciated by showing him some of the uses of the timber. He lost so many of his life's dreams in that flood.


I noticed today that I am down to, literally, the last handful of the trailer load of flood affected pine boards that I brought home in June last year so this becomes my last expression of appreciation.


From an earlier post in this thread, this is what I brought home...




As seen earlier in this thread, most of the materials have been used for some pretty utilitarian purposes in my workshop and shed, including a lot being used as shelving but also in a wide variety of handy applications including various jigs and, lately, the construction of a cart for my shop vac and cyclone.


I am currently using the very last pieces to build a rack to store my scrap wood pile in a much neater, more organised fashion.


Neither of the last couple of projects are photo-worthy because they are so very utilitarian but the third last project that I completed about two weeks ago turned out pretty good so I am showing that here.


It is simply a little cabinet that I made to slide under my pedestal drill press to store drill bits, drill press vice etc. As you can see from the picture below, I have topped the cabinet table top with a bit of Laminex edged with raised pine edges to allow me to throw things like drill bits on the table without their rolling off.


The cabinet is entirely made from the flooded pine except for the two hardwood feet, the Laminex and a white masonite rear panel. The hardwood feet allow me to slide the cabinet out from under the drill press on those rare occasions when I need to lower the drill press table far down. I have made the feet extra long in the front to prevent the cabinet falling forward when I pull out heavily laden drawers.


The carcass is held together with pocket hole screws and glued. I found that the use of the pocket hole screws allowed me to pull in some of the minor bowing that the flooded boards had and get pretty straight lines out of them. The drawers are all dovetailed using a Gifkins jig. The little doors have raised panels, made using a vertical raised panel routing bit on my router table. When this photo was taken, I still needed to do a final sanding and apply a finish but it looked good enough to photograph so here it is ...






So now I am out of the flooded pine but it has been a wonderful gift allowing me to do lots of little jobs around the place with.


So once again, many thanks to Mark.


.

You've certainly made good use of that load of timber. It doesn't matter really what it's used for, as long as it's not land fill. That's a nice little cabinet for under your drill press.

Hi Charleville,
Thanks for the great updates.Its been really good to see what you've done with the timber.Ive been meaning to post some info on what Ive been up to in the past 15 months.After we sold our premises I looked for another business for 6 months.Nothing there Id want to do so I started up in cabinet making again.Ive been up and running for 4 months on a very different platform.I had to build a shed at home to store all the gear I saved from the flood.The photo shows the size.I think it is 12m wide x 14 m deep. The next photo is the stock Im making.I now have around 180 bookcases in stock and Im just about to start on a range of TV units coffee,side and hall tables,Buffet and matching bookcases.Im making these out of a timber Im bringing over from NZ. Im off to NZ to buy a container next Sunday.

Go on you, Mark! It is great to see that you are back in business. I thought that you might have retreated from entrepreneurial stuff after the flood experience but it is clear that nothing will keep a good man down. As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.


Nice bookcases! Perhaps Mr Harvey and Mr Super Amart might rekindle their acquaintance. I notice that the supermarkets are refocussing on Aussie produce. Hopefully, the furniture retailers will do the same with similar enthusiasm.


BTW, I am envious of your shed. I work out of one half of my garage and I am always getting in trouble for the layer of dust that settles on my wife's car in the other half, notwthstanding that I have a dust extractor with a pleated filter and a shop vac for the smaller tools with a cyclone stage added.


Good luck with the business, mate. I wish you the very best. I also hope that you have been catching a few out in the Bay.

Hi Charleville,
I've just arrived back from NZ and I thought you might like to see some timber I'm about to bring over for furniture.The red spots are not common however I dont mind it.I've attached more photos of what the timber normally looks like.Great figure in the timber..
Attachment 215415

Attachment 215416

Attachment 215417

regards
Mark

Looks good, I would like to see some of it finished in a project. The red spots do add a feature to the timber.

Robert

Originally Posted by pineforyou

Hi Charleville,
I've just arrived back from NZ and I thought you might like to see some timber I'm about to bring over for furniture.The red spots are not common however I dont mind it.I've attached more photos of what the timber normally looks like.Great figure in the timber..

Nice! What sort of timber is it, Mark?


It looks like you will be dressing it yourself. That looks like serious work ahead!


Yup! You cannot just tease us by showing the timber. Now, we will be keen to see what emerges from it.


Thanks for the pictures. The red dots are fascinating.

Hi Bruce,
The timber is "Nothofagus Menziesii" or Silver Beech from NZ. Its a FSC product and I hoping It will arrive in around 8 weeks.Ive ordered a 40' container of it so Im hoping it does sell.The high grade is quite expensive however its lacking in feature.Its a very clear grade.The lower grade Ive bought has all the feature.Some of the grain is outstanding.Im buying the timber skip dressed and that maybe the look I go for in the style of furniture I make.It comes in two colours.One quite a blonde/straw colour and the other in a cherry colour.Ill post some more photos when the timber arrives.
regards
Mark

Wow, the left hand bookcase looks nearly identical to one we bought when we first moved to our first house about 15 years ago. The one we have was based on a design pretty much the same, but we asked the shop to get the manufacturer to add in a few extra shelves with closer spacing for small paperbacks. Wonder if you made that one for us? From memory the manufacturer was based in Toowoomba at the time. nyway, nice stuff.

Originally Posted by pineforyou

Hi Bruce,
The timber is "Nothofagus Menziesii" or Silver Beech from NZ. Its a FSC product and I hoping It will arrive in around 8 weeks.Ive ordered a 40' container of it so Im hoping it does sell.The high grade is quite expensive however its lacking in feature.Its a very clear grade.The lower grade Ive bought has all the feature.Some of the grain is outstanding.Im buying the timber skip dressed and that maybe the look I go for in the style of furniture I make.It comes in two colours.One quite a blonde/straw colour and the other in a cherry colour.Ill post some more photos when the timber arrives.
regards
Mark

Thanks. Mark. I find all of this very interesting.

It becomes a bit of a cliche that retired blokes with absolutely no relevant background often end up taking an interest in woodwork and the cheap availability of machinery suitable for the home workshop makes it all very easy, of course. However, it is interesting to see how one's curiosity about wood develops as the hobby develops.


I have just bought this book to understand more about wood... Understanding Wood - Bruce Hoadley : CARBA-TEC


Likewise, I can no longer watch any show on TV without looking at the cupboards and other furniture in the background to see the sort of quality that has been used in the show.


So, yes, you would have at least one, and probably many more, very interested spectator/s in what you produce and how your fortunes rocket upwards again.


I was always fascinated that you were able to find markets for Aussie made bookcases in your previous business. I guess that it is about finding the right niche. Likewise, I bought a very spendid garden seat from these people a couple of years ago... Garden Seats, Squatters Chairs Brisbane, Outdoor Furniture Brisbane

Not cheap but damn fine quality that I have been very pleased with. So I reckon that a quality product at whatever price point will find a market in Oz. Good luck with your designs.


Best wishes ....

I realise this is an old thread. I was one of the lucky ones that got the free pine from Rocklea. I started building a work bench then got sick for 4 years. The bench isn't finished, far from it, but the carcass is and I finally screwed the chipboard top to it today and placed it.

Better late than never.

The timber I got was all 10" by 3/4" but about 3' to a meter long. Some of it had been joined to form the boards and split after the flood.

I sanded the fungus and mud off, flattened it on my jointer/thicknesser, laminated to thickness, end jointed with a lock mitre router bit and finally cut some mortice and tenons.

I made a lot of mistakes some of which you might spot in the photos. I did this deliberately, experimenting with different ways of doing things. I got the proportions wrong also.

But it is what it is, and these days I'm happy with any progress...

Originally Posted by damian

I realise this is an old thread. I was one of the lucky ones that got the free pine from Rocklea. I started building a work bench then got sick for 4 years. The bench isn't finished, far from it, but the carcass is and I finally screwed the chipboard top to it today and placed it.

Better late than never.

The timber I got was all 10" by 3/4" but about 3' to a meter long. Some of it had been joined to form the boards and split after the flood.

I sanded the fungus and mud off, flattened it on my jointer/thicknesser, laminated to thickness, end jointed with a lock mitre router bit and finally cut some mortice and tenons.

I made a lot of mistakes some of which you might spot in the photos. I did this deliberately, experimenting with different ways of doing things. I got the proportions wrong also.

But it is what it is, and these days I'm happy with any progress...

Well done, Damian. That is a nice job.

When I took my trailer load home and stacked the timbers inside my garage, I wondered how, on earth, I was going to use it all. However, it did not take too long before there was not a board left.

Like you, I used the majority of the boards mostly for workshop and shed storage shelves, which was a Godsend to me. Many of them lost some strength with the water ingress and a bit of warping was present but the best of them survived relatively well. I would have hated to pay for that amount of shelving timber. It was a very generous offer that was much appreciated.

I hope that the nice guy who gave them to us rebuilt his business somehow. He had a fine business with regular big name retail clients so the loss of that business due to the flood was a real kick in the guts to him.

Best wishes ....