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.

Desk Time

Well with the neighbour's garage mostly emptied of the best wood, and the kiln loaded and the woodpile reorganized, there was very little else to do in the shop but get down to some woodworking! Well, that and some milling as I explained in my last couple of posts.

So it was back to the desk for my daughter that I had hoped to have completed in early September. I had given some more thought to the configuration of the frame, as I was looking for a single drawer in the middle of the front of the desk. I was wrestling with how to keep it strong with a drawer right in the front, and the usual problem of how to join the skirts to the legs.

I found my solution in FWW 104, a Shaker Desk by Garret Hack, and FWW 93, a Windsor Style Table by Mac Campbell.

So I got down to work, trimmed everything to length and cut some dovetails and mortise and tenon joints. It was nice to be doing some real woodworking again finally, chopping some dovetails and using the horizontal mortiser.

Mortises mostly done

 

Dialing in tenons on the shaper

First  joint complete!

Elm Milling

I noticed that there was a bunch of elm and oak down at the beach recently. I picked out the best piece of elm, and milled it up. November 1st, the day after halloween, it was a beautiful day down at the beach. Unfortunately for me the log had some bad cracks in it, so all I took was three slabs.

I had thought that I might like some blanks to make legs out of, and I had done a reasonable job of keeping my cuts parallel to the log's pith. (so the grain is straight) Plus I had milled to 3" thick, so I could barely lift these slabs, never mind trundle them across the beach to the van, load them, then unload them, stack them, blah blah blah. So I ripped them lengthwise.

I have been making progress on the desk. Will post shortly.

First Milling of the Fall Season

 Had some friends come to visit and we did a day of milling down at the beach. It was a Saturday and a holiday weekend, with decent weather to boot.

 Logs before the millingfest

I only had one of my mills operating, but it worked very well, other than a broken chain at one point. My friend brought his Alaska mill along and we had both going for four or five hours with probably 15 or more people taking turns running the mills. I didn't do a final count, but I am guessing that we finished with close to 20 slabs. We milled 6 different logs: Two Port Orford cedar, cherry, western red cedar, elm, and catalpa.

Afterwards- the debris

 Part of what we milled up

Afterwards everyone came over to my place and helped me by taking wood from my garage! Don't think I will be doing as much milling this winter, as I have very little storage space left. It's official, the neighbour sold his house, I need to be out by early January.

Still plenty of time between now and then though, so I loaded up the kiln with probably the biggest load I have run so far! It took me the better part of two days to load this baby up!

Arbutus, maple, cherry, locust, deodar, lots of different species in there. I was smart this time and trimmed off all the knots, cracks, etc BEFORE the wood went in the kiln. It is not recommended to mix species in the kiln, as they dry (and crack) at different rates, but I have found that since I air dry them for two years first, that it seems to work OK.

A Not Unexpected Diversion

The Slow Woodworker has been focussed on getting all of his wood moved out of the garage across the lane, since that house (and therefore the garage!) is for sale again and it looks like the owner is serious this time. I have decided to take what I want, and then offer up the rest to my woodworking buddies. Whatever is left over I will throw out to the firewood seeking neighbours.

Clearing out the garage has been a good exercise, as it has forced me to really look at what I have and what I really need. For example, do I really need 10 slabs of old growth Douglas Fir? Or 6 big catalpa slabs? No, probably one or two of each would be enough. Similarly, every time I turn around I trip over Monterey Cypress. I'll keep a couple pieces, but the rest has gots to go! Maple with a bad smell, alder with cracks, cherry with bad grain graphics, begone I say!
Probably what hurts the most is yellow cedar. I have a ton of smaller pieces of old growth yellow cedar. It just kills me to throw out a piece of wood that is hundreds of years old, if not a thousand years or more. Someone out there must be able to use them for something . . .

Meanwhile, despite my heavy heart, I have made some progress on Daughter's Desk. I just need to figure out the drawer frame and support, and then I will be ready to start cutting dovetails and mortises, etc. It sure is ugly in Magnolia, perhaps I should have been more proactive in suggesting an alternative wood to my wife and daughter. I will try to stain it so it is a bit more palatable. 

I have a couple pieces of beautifully figured London Plane (like Sycamore) that will make a nice drawer front for the desk.

Pedal to the Metal . . . .Soon!

The Slow Woodworker got side tracked in September and sadly not very much happened in the shop.

The motor on my 12" General jointer packed it in, which necessitated a re and re on the motor switch. And good for me for finding a replacement for a 35 year old motor switch! OK, the second hand one I found needed quite a bit of modification but I got it to work finally. This is the switch inside the motor that controls the starter windings, not the magnetic starter that you push 'start' and 'start' on. A big pain in the butt that I didn't really need, this little nuisance sucked up way too many cycles. 

Then I fell into the 'while it's apart' trap, and wound up spending the better part of the day fiddling with the jointer's motor mount that I have never been happy with. Now I am happy with the mount but annoyed I wasted another day!

Also, my son and I went on a little father/son holiday for two weeks. Bus tour of northern Italy. Great fun!

Then when I got back I discovered that my neighbour has put his house back on the market. Since I am using his garage as my secondary shop / wood storage area, this will be a problem if he sells. And he seems serious about it this time. So I have started clearing the place out. I just dump it in the lane behind my garage, some of the neighbours take it for firewood.

Perhaps I should have a 'wood yard sale' rather than just throwing it out! I am keeping as much of the better stuff as I can, but I have to be realistic about it. I have several thousand board feet in piles in the back yard too.

Once the jointer was working again I was able to finish the stock prep for the magnolia desk. Hopefully oodles of progress will follow shortly!