Wood Turning and Other Wood Crafts
- Thread starter Legs
- Start date
If any of you lovely woodcrafters is up to making me a wool bowl, I'd really like one. Happy to pay - please PM me if you would like to help.
Last edited:
Semi-hypothetical questions for you all.
Around us they're in the process of doing a lot of forest management felling, and it's done such that I could get a part of one of the trunks from the local guy who processes and stores them. I've got a half-formed idea of making a basic live edge wood coffee table from a perpendicular cut of the trunk (i.e. cut from ground up the trunk). I've done a bit of woodwork before, but I have relatively little kit or experience, so I want to assess the feasibility - the obvious answer is ask the local carpenter, but I'd like to see if I could do it myself. So my questions are:
Around us they're in the process of doing a lot of forest management felling, and it's done such that I could get a part of one of the trunks from the local guy who processes and stores them. I've got a half-formed idea of making a basic live edge wood coffee table from a perpendicular cut of the trunk (i.e. cut from ground up the trunk). I've done a bit of woodwork before, but I have relatively little kit or experience, so I want to assess the feasibility - the obvious answer is ask the local carpenter, but I'd like to see if I could do it myself. So my questions are:
- Most of the appropriate size are scots pine - is it worth doing this with a softwood / pine (given issues with resin etc)? Most of the examples I've seen are hardwood.
- The cut will be from a trunk that is at the moment straight from being cut and resting in a yard, so I've got no real way of establishing grade and will just get what it is. They can do the initial cut. Is this a recipe for just getting a crappy piece of wood?
- The idea is to take a whole cut (~6-foot by the full diameter of the trunk, ~2 foot), done by the yard, and make the main surface of the table from that cut. Is this going to last, or is there a high chance it will split?
- Without a decent set of machinery or kit, is levelling the table going to be unachievable? Underside doesn't matter (I'm imagining simple blocks cut in for legs, and only about a foot off the ground), but obviously an even and flat top is the point.
- How long would the trunk need to rest after cutting? The oldest ones are now a year old stacked outside.
green_slime
War Hero
Green Lumber: What Can I Do With It? - Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To
Lumber that has just been harvested and is still saturated with water in its cells is called "green." Woodworking blog post.
There might well be issues with staining from the sap as it moves, but more significant will be the shrinkage across the grain. You could make joints to accommodate this but it would be difficult.
First, furniture making is not my bag. So take this as you will.
Pine ideally needs to be kiln dried. Left outside (depending on the thickness of the slice) it could take a couple of years to dry. It also needs to be sealed at the ends to prevent checking (cracks). Softwood isn't ideal for this project either. It reacts far more to changes of humidity through the year which could end up causing a majorly warped table.
To flatten it will take either someone with a large Jointer (big machine with a 2 part flat bed, one end of which is adjustable, and separated by a high RPM set of knives or carbide cutters, which when the wood is passed over produces a flat surface - sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs!), a router sled (allows a router to ride over the surface of the slab of wood, gradually flattening it), or a long, hard, exhausting session or 12 with a hand plane.
Roadster280
LE
Concur with @Legs - once it’s dried out, you will need to go one of two directions:
1. Go the 18th Century shipbuilder way and use one of these (or larger):
I’d suggest that this is going to be a very difficult task to even master the plane. As you can see by the state of mine. I rescued it on a trip to the UK about 5 or 6 years ago, and ain’t done shit with it.
2. Go the modern way and machine-surface it. All you really need is two straight planks, a router, and a couple bits of plywood. Position the planks on edge so that they are co-planar, with the slab in the middle. A pair of sawhorses will be ideal for this. Fix all three relative to each other. Doesn’t matter if the wood in the middle is off, but the ladders must be in the same plane. Fabricate a plywood router sled, and make repeated shallow passes all over the slab. It will end up as flat as your planks are. This kind of thing:
1. Go the 18th Century shipbuilder way and use one of these (or larger):
I’d suggest that this is going to be a very difficult task to even master the plane. As you can see by the state of mine. I rescued it on a trip to the UK about 5 or 6 years ago, and ain’t done shit with it.
2. Go the modern way and machine-surface it. All you really need is two straight planks, a router, and a couple bits of plywood. Position the planks on edge so that they are co-planar, with the slab in the middle. A pair of sawhorses will be ideal for this. Fix all three relative to each other. Doesn’t matter if the wood in the middle is off, but the ladders must be in the same plane. Fabricate a plywood router sled, and make repeated shallow passes all over the slab. It will end up as flat as your planks are. This kind of thing:
Teeblerone
LE
My folks had just the same thing back in the 70's. It was at least 2" thick (to stop warping?)
I saw a 'hillbilly' set up for cutting such planks - there was either a bandsaw with supports & rollers either side, or a big chainsaw mounted horizontally.
Barnwood Builders programme? Redneck Alaska or the like.
There are many types of 'homeowner' or small business types of sawmills. Some of the cheaper types use a chainsaw which rides on a wood or metal rail system, then you head into the oversize bandsaw types or the ones with stupidly large circular saw blades. They are all pretty good, and can be come economical when compared to the price of loading up your logs, hauling them to a sawmill, paying them to mill the wood and then hauling them back home - if you are sawing enough to justify the cost. An Alaskan Chainsaw Mill isn't terribly expensive, especially if you already own a chainsaw big enough.
I have exactly the same plane. It rarely comes out to play, but when it does, it is a thing of beauty in looks and function. Mine is in slightly better nick though, but when I acquired it, it was worse than yours. A plane is an ideal starter tool if you fancy a go at tool restoration.
Roadster280
LE
I’ve done plenty, usually machine tools and made money on them, but I think you’d agree, the learning curve for the jointer plane is not as flat as its sole!
Who left the plane on it's sole ?1. Go the 18th Century shipbuilder way and use one of these (or larger):
As long as the blade is backed off, then there is no issue. I always back the blade off when I put my planes down on their shelf.
Roadster280
LE
I did. With exactly the caveat that @Legs mentioned. And frankly, bugger a £15 plane, the granite it is sat on is worth a lot more. I know those planes in good condition are worth far more, but that’s what I paid for it in the state that it is.
Bugger:
Turns out (geddit) that pine is not the best material to make a wool dispensing bowl out of... just too weak and soft. Sadly, that's all I've got with sufficient depth, so I'm afraid I will have to bow out of this for the moment.
Sorry!
I really appreciate your trying sir. Thank you. I love the shape you made.
Roadster280
LE
I’m going to take that as a challenge. My lathe has been laid up for about 10 years, and I’ve never made a bowl with it. So it might be a Christmas present, but it will encourage me to get the lathe back up. For starters I need to move it to my shop from the shed, then clean it up, and get a motor for it. Not rocket science though. I expect the first few bowls will be, erm, learning points!
Even if someone else makes one for you in the intervening time (quite likely!), it’s a little project for me.
Question - the two holes - are they just to park the needles in when you’re part way through a pattern? How big are they? I know nothing about knitting, but I’m thinking the biggest needles are only say 3/8”.
Well, I do like a volunteer! To be honest, the holes for needles wouldn't be completely necessary. They would be with the work, at lease how I organise things! The msin thing is the size of the bowl and its depth, big enough for the 'cakes' that modern wool comes in, yet small enough for a traditional 'ball'. I'll find some pics ...
Roadster280
LE
If you could find a rule, that would be handy. I’m thinking something like 6” inside diameter, 2-3” deep.
Your mahagonish reminds me of Iroko or a teak, did the wood feel waxy to touch?
Similar threads
Latest Threads
-
-
Consultations launched on proposed acquisition of Meggitt plc by Parker-Hannifin- Started by MoD_RSS
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
Defence Secretary Speech at RUSI Land Warfare Conference 2022
- Started by MoD_RSS
- Replies: 3