1146 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
12 comments »
I decided it would probably be boring to show each step from the previous ‘milling everything flat and square’ post, to the final board, so here’s the final board, all finished:
It is 6-3/4”x8-5/8” and a little over 1.75” thick. Or, you know, about the size of the US hardcover edition of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” though the book is a little less than an inch taller in the longest dimension. Note the butcher’s block c...
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1374 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
13 comments »
I didn’t take process shots, but I rough-turned these two over the last week or so from the halves of a single jacaranda log resawed in half. Each was bagged immediately in its own shavings to slow drying and resist checking, though one has checked a bit anyway. Once they’ve dried enough to stop moving, I’ll chuck them up again and turn them back to round, and refine their shapes. I still consider myself in early training-mode, and as such, these are just more training piece...
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233 days ago
by joewilliams |
9 comments »
Got some free wood today….guess I’ll have to cut it up soon like Monte does. Our cousin had this tree cut down because they have a tendancy to fall down on houses without notice. They call these around here: “water oaks”, they have very shallow roots that will often rot below ground or just let loose when the ground gets too wet or too dry. We had one just like it fall down on the other side of the other neighbors house just a month ago narrowly missing the house.
...
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1372 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
13 comments »
I’ve done some smaller things in Jacaranda lately, but what does the larger stuff look like inside? I wanted to do some larger bowl work and other things, so I went to one my larger limbs and cut it into some pieces. They’re simple, but pretty inside, so I thought I’d share. It’s not very common a wood for most woodworkers, I think.
The piece is the large one front and center on top of the pile seen here (and blogged about here):
Here’s me sawing it up ...
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1518 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
4 comments »
I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I’d not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don’t understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.
Uncharacteristically for timid ol’ me, I went back...
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1367 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
14 comments »
Monday of last week, some 12 days ago, I was talking with a coworker who was wearing a small fedora. I commented that I should try to turn him a hat on my lathe. He thought it was a fun idea, and I mentioned I’d seen full-size, wearable cowboy hats online turned from green wood to very thin, then bent in jigs to hold them in proper shape with curled brims and dented-in top until dry, at which point they could be worn. The site was Johannes Michelsen’s woodhat.com, and his gallery ...
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1382 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
11 comments »
In the first half of this blog post, I cut up a Ficus log and made a nearly 11” round for later turning into a bowl. I sealed every part of it in Anchorseal. Flash forward about 12 days, this past Saturday, and I finally chucked it up and made a bowl. Unfortunately, as with everything Ficus I’ve ever sealed, it was covered with mold by this point, and a little bit stinky.
I figured I’d turn the mold away. I went with a faceplate on the soon-to-be-concave side:
...
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1396 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
10 comments »
This past Sunday I decided to saw a Y-shaped Ficus log in half and get some bowl blanks out of it. I couldn’t fit the 14” section under my band saw’s 12” vertical clearance, so I just cut the first half, up to the Y split. Then I spent about 20-30 minutes sawing through the Y with my 24” carpenter saw. Good workout!
I could fit a 10-7/8” circle on each log in the Y area, which I wanted to try turning for the twists in grain and color.
I had to...
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1391 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
10 comments »
In yesterday's dramatic episode, Camille – the homeowner who’s Jacaranda mimosifolia street tree fell over due to fungal rot at the base – was very concerned about a whole host of things that might happen if she allowed me to cut up the tree and take a bunch with me. She was rather justified about some of it, perhaps much of it, but that didn’t help eager me, of course.
This morning, after waiting a whole day for the street crew to come by as promised, she’d h...
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1391 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
7 comments »
In part 2 of this saga, I got a call from Camille who’s lawn was coated in freshly fallen, fungally rotten Jacaranda mimosifolia. Her call awoke me with a start this morning, and soon I was at her house, borrowing her electricity for my electric chainsaw, and cutting up what I could. One heat stroke, or heat exhaustion later, and I drove away with a truck full of limbs. I ran home for my second shower and change, then off to work, then ran home at lunch (nice living 1.5 miles away) to d...
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