More Milling

Well Pete was in town so it was time to hit the chainsaws. There has been extremely slim pickings at the woodlot this year, so we had to make do with some pretty ordinary looking logs. Jaime showed up too, so it was a regular chainsaw geekfest!

Pete and Jamie tore into some pretty gnarly and rotted box elder, but came away with a whole bunch of gorgeous bowl blanks for turners.

I worked on a log that I initially thought was Monterey cypress, but as soon as I cut into it became apparent that in fact it was Port Orford cedar. For some reason the growth rings on it are quite tight, very unusual for a city tree. A few too many knots for my liking, but a couple of good sized tight straight sections.

The other log was Deodar cedar, it was a bit rustic with knots and pretty wide sapwood, but there are some nice sections too. Deodar grows so fast here that the growth rings are huge, the main attraction for me with this wood is the smell. Smells like mangoes and peaches and tropical fruit - kind of like a Chardonnay grown in a warm climate!

Big Saw II

Well I managed to pick up another big saw, this time it's a 30" Wadkin. Made in England, probably in the 30s also. Note sure what I will do with it either, but it seemed too good to pass up. I think if I take the cover off the top wheel it'll fit in my garage, of course I'll also need to use the shortest blade possible on it too!

Big Saw

Picked up this a bandsaw this week. It's missing its guides, but I think I can get 16" of resaw out of it. It's a 28" saw with a 3 HP 3 phase direct drive motor on it. Made in Scotland in the 1920s. It's in nice shape, it needs a magnetic starter and some guides.

Unfortunately it is too tall for my shop, so I arranged to store it in a warehouse for now.

Meanwhile, a recent burst of activity in the shop has lead me to good progress on the desk for my daughter. All it needs is some finish and glue up. Oh, and a top.

I have also started on a Japanese inspired tool box, using some of my own catalpa, elm, and Monterey cypress. Cupping was a problem after resawing the catalpa and the cypress, fortunately I left the boards thick enough that after it settled for a  few days I was able to joint  the cup out without too much problem.

I've also found in the past the the Monterey cypress (and Port Orford cedar too) tends to bleed sap, so to prevent that I put my piece in the oven for a couple hours at 175 degrees F to try and set it. No sign of any new sap since then.

Good Day at the Office

Went down to the beach yesterday and milled up a piece of Manitoba maple, AKA box elder. It was badly rotten on one end but I still managed to get four decent slabs and a bunch of smaller pieces. They were nice because they had great brilliant colour and weren't too cracky, which this wood often is.

I closed the deal to rent my neighbour's garage for a year, so that will provide some relief on the storage front.

Easing Into the Holidays

Well I managed to secure rental of the neighbour's garage with an agreement from the new neighbours for the next two years. That is a relief!

I am in the process of emptying the most recent load in the kiln, lots of yellow cedar and maple plus a little cherry. The yellow cedar is wonderful, the maple less so. The cherry is a shame, I started with half a dozen decent sized slabs off the log, lost a lot to air drying, then lost almost all the rest in the kiln. I'll be lucky to get a 2' long 2x6 out of it all.

Picked up some big maple slabs that I milled last year out in New Westminster, they were on consignment with a local shop. They are refocusing their business, so they asked to unwind our little deal and so I took some of the slabs back. Anyone want any 12' long 4" thick maple slabs that are just under 2' wide? I can't even lift the cursed things!

The slow woodworker has been sidetracked by another project in the meanwhile. I have decided to digitize all of our family's pre-digital camera photos and videos. Hopefully they may be more durable digitized than in musty old photo albums that tend to get damaged or thrown out after a couple generations.  To date I have done around 5400 individual photos, slides, and videos. These things take about 2 1/2 minutes per, so for 5400, that's umm, a lot of time! 200-ish hours.

The Dark Side of a Woodpile

Milling up my own wood is a lot of fun, especially when the weather co-operates and the slabs are beautiful and peeling off the log without problem.

While I am pretty sure my milling is economically efficient and good re-purposing of what would otherwise by ground up into wood chips, there is a lot of work involved. I'm not just talking about the work around the chainsaws; the actual milling, the maintenance of the saws, driving to and from the site, etc.

There is a ton of work associated with maintaining the woodpile too. And one of the least pleasant woodpile tasks comes around late every fall, when the weather turns cool and wet. And the rats decide that my dry and sheltered woodpile would make a great winter home. They announce their presence with rat turds everywhere. It is disgusting. I set traps as my main weapon. A week rarely goes by without catching one. One day I had four.

Apparently there are two types of rat I have caught. The typical black Norway rat which based on the size of the ones I catch seem to have no trouble finding ample food. And a slightly smaller rat that is brown in colour with a white belly. In fact their colouring reminds me a lot of my daughter's hamsters, although I have not shared this observation with her! About 10% of what I catch are this variety.

This one was on a slab up higher in the pile and when it tripped it fell off the pile, almost landed on another trap!

Change of Direction

A busy few weeks, although progress on the desk was naturally, slow!

After much soul searching I have decided that no matter how much love I put into my daughter's desk, no matter how much stain I put on it, the wood is still going to be crap and look like crap. The good news is that I liked the design, so I intend to re-use most of it. But my daughter is going to have to wait a while longer now!

 Original magnolia top

So I decided to switch to a different wood. As it turns out, I have several nice slabs of east Indian rosewood that I bought off ebay several years ago. According to the seller, they were from Florida and got blown down in a hurricane, maybe Andrew - I don't recall for sure. One of them will be perfect for the top. I am thinking to cut some jarrah veneers and veneer over the magnolia legs. The jarrah was salvaged from a local mansion that was torn down a few years ago.

 East Indian Rosewood top

Jarrah and more EI rosewood

I emptied the kiln of the last load, and put in a new load of misc things, with some elm, yellow cedar, cherry, and more maple.  I am most excited about the yellow cedar, I think there will be enough good material there to complete my long-delayed curved front glass cabinet that I have been wanting to do for a couple years. The cherry is mostly a disappointment, there is just so much spoilage when I dry cherry it is really disheartening.

 Currently drying away in the kiln . . .

I also had one piece of arbutus in the last load. It has only dried one summer, but the log was down for 3 or 4 years before I milled it. So I put one piece in the kiln as an experiment, and it turned out very well. Hardly any warping or cracking at all, I was very pleased. Some mineral staining on it though. I may put the rest of it in the next load, although the other pieces are closer to 3" thick and may not react as well.

 Arbutus front and centre

And the neighbour has finally sold his house. I need to be out of the garage by Feb 1. Seems like lots of time but I am sure it will go by quickly. I am trying to get in touch with the buyers to see if they are interested in renting.

And my contact at the beach who sets up logs for me  retired at the end of last week. So who knows what the future holds - maybe less milling and more woodworking! I did get down the day before he left and milled up a couple small logs, an oak and an elm.