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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    27,756

    Default QLD Box, Cutting Board Blanks

    No biggie with this post but thought some of you might like to see these pics.

    Back in 2007 I milled quite a few small QLD Box street trees at the tree loppers yard.
    At that stage I was just learning the milling ropes and was milling anything that came into the yard and so I ended up milling a fair bit of ordinary slabs.
    Some of the worst slabs (e.g. twisted, stuff milled from a curved logs) were eventually separated out of the main stash and left outside in the weather.

    This an example of one of them, ~1800 x 500 x 50 mm. I think this one is spotted gum but they are all grey like this.

    QLD Box,  Cutting Board Blanks-img_4971-jpg

    Recently during a cleanup these wonky slabs were about to be chipped, but one of the fellas from our mens shed felt inspired to make something for our next senior citizens fete and asked me if I could get him some thick pieces of hardwood to make some cutting boards out of.

    So out with the circular, then onto the table saw and through the thicky and this is what is underneath the grey.
    They are about 330 mm long and 250 mm wide by about 35 mm thick.
    QLD Box,  Cutting Board Blanks-img_4970-jpg
    Admittedly there is a fair bit of waste to remove the twists, knots and chainsaw marks to get to clear grain, but still better than being wood chipped.
    This stuff is pretty hard so it gave my 10" combo thicky a serious workout and the blades probably need a sharpen as a fair bit of stock had to be removed.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Townsville, Nth Qld
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    Default

    Wow!! Who would ever have thought such beautiful timber lay beneath that grey slab
    regards,

    Dengy

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Dundowran Beach
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    76
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    19,922

    Post

    I assume that is what I grew up knowing as Brush Box. It is not a eucalypt species but always has beautiful grain.

    As you say, much better than woodchips!!

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    Default

    Yep that's the stuff.

    Many of these Box trees were planted around Perth as street trees in the 50's and 60's. Recently many have been dying as the water table has dropped and bugger all rain falls over summer. I noticed our Council has been forming little earthen dams around some verge trees, especially those on the tops of hills which were suffering the most, and watering them every couple of weeks. Most of them are short gnarly forms and not worth milling but the Tree Lopper I work with has brought in some that were too big for his chipper (<18" in diameter) and in 2007/8 I milled up a half dozen or so. I noticed when milling them that they made the odd spark even in clean wood with no bark on it - apparently when under water stress they also draw up soluble silica which precipitates out as small quartz grains in the wood.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Dundowran Beach
    Age
    76
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    19,922

    Exclamation

    Ooooooooooooh yes!! Can be murder on tools.

    Flooring made from Brush box is a very desirable item to have in a house.

    I did a couple of floors in a house we owned in Coffs Harbour. Just put it down over the the Weertbix sheet flooring that was there and coated with a Cabothane water based finish. I wound up with a gorgeous floor with a lovely soft lustre that was just right for the timber.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    Default

    Well the chap at the mens shed never got around to finishing these cutting boards off.
    He hasn't been well or into the shed for some time and is now quite incapacitated.
    Last week during a major clean up I found the cutting board blanks under a heap of oily rusty metal in the metal workshop in the Mens shed.
    They were covered in oily swarf and one looked like it had been used as a base for drilling bits of metal.

    So I took them home and ran them thru the thicknesser a few times, luckily there's plenty of meat left on them, and then did a few fiddly bits with the router, round over edges and finger pickup grooves, and threw some Ubeaut food safe oil on them.

    Sorry its not a very good picture - 6 year old mobile with probably a bit of the food safe oil on the lens!

    IMG_1535p.jpg

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    Langwarrin, Victoria, Australia
    Age
    55
    Posts
    677

    Default

    You planning on keeping Bob ? Or giving to the old chap ?
    Glenn Visca

  9. #8
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    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn.Visca View Post
    You planning on keeping Bob ? Or giving to the old chap ?
    Sorry I should have mentioned they will be fodder for our next fete/fair to be held in a couple of months.

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Albury Well Just Outside
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    13,315

    Default

    They don't look too bad.

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