812 days ago
by RGtools |
6 comments »
I am currently building a small shelf out of Alder and some mystery white wood to house some of my finer tools so that I do not have to go into my larger cabinet to get them all the time. This is part of a larger initiative to keep my sharp tools sharp and accessible, as someone who only uses hand tools most of the time this is about as critical to my work-flow as paying the power bill before someone fires up their table saw. Roughly six hours got me to this point.
I really did not take a...
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1525 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
14 comments »
I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn’t make it through today’s heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw – the best hand saw I’ve used so far for wet logs (I’ve tried 3 now) – and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It’s getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
...
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135 days ago
by Rick M. |
1 comment »
Just a quick update to anyone following along so you don’t think I abandoned the project.
Right now I’m basically boning up on my turning skills while waiting for a few parts to come in. The motor mount will not work as is, the angle is too acute and the belt rubs on the lathe. There are two solutions:
1: Create a raised platform for the motor that will bring it to the height of the lathe pulleys.
2: Build a jackshaft that will transfer power from the motor to the lathe.
...
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1540 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
6 comments »
I’ve had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It’s laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores :)
Thursday night after work, I came home to find the green plant-matter bin out by the road, indicating the gardeners had been by (landlady pays for them 2x/mo). Unusually, however, were limbs sticking out of it. I only have a f...
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453 days ago
by jfk4032 |
13 comments »
All wood was harvested from Central MD. This first picture the wood virtually has no bark, more like a skin. The wood appears quite white and very dense. The outside of the tree has ridges and grooves that look almost serpent-like.
The second picture has wood with a sharp flakey bark and the wood coloration is cherry like.
The third picture wood has thin very textured bark and the wood is quite dense and smooth. If it weren’t for the contrasting colors of the heartw...
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634 days ago
by jfk4032 |
3 comments »
After being out of power for 30 some hours and bailing over 300 gallons of water from my sump pump well, I did get an unexpected surprise yesterday from Irene. I went to the county dump to dispose of most of our spoiled food and saw the sign for wood dumping area ahead. I drove over there and met several nice folks in my county here in MD who were disposing of trees that Irene took down.
I’ve wanted to start resawing wood, even recently buying a riser kit and some new band saw blades...
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1539 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
2 comments »
It would seem Rob (user: socalwood) nailed another species down for me in my previous post – the Pride of Madeira – going off nothing more than one gnarled limb (which turned out to be the whole trunk and some branches of a small plant) and some withering leaves. Great job, Rob!
I looked a bit more into one of the few branches of the second mystery species, and found a yellowy, eccentrically-ringed wood that seems to love to split along its length down its ring and ray lines. I...
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1185 days ago
by mmh |
9 comments »
I purchased this piece from an Australian source and the woman who sold it to me had no history or information on it. It’s “old” and may be “Mulga” burl is all the information I was given. Since I’m not familiar with Mulga or most Austrailian trees, I thought I’d post this to see if anyone has input to this.
It is a burl that was turned to expose the inner grain. It was polished and may have a light oil on it, but I have not done anything to exp...
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1533 days ago
by Allison |
13 comments »
I am working on a couple Pelicans that I am hoping to incorporate into a “big picture” somehow. They are done completely in hardwoods and I was thinking of perhaps sharing how I sanded little pieces such as these. I have already started and as you can see I still have pencil marks for an eye on one. However when I brought my camera into the shop to show how I was going to sand these lil’ pieces I noticed how dirty, (dusty, sawdust, etc.) my little sanding pads were. They are...
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1532 days ago
by Gary Fixler |
6 comments »
More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
I think it’s either a whole small tree, or the top of a very tall larger tree, as it doesn’t seem to branch in the way a branch would. It̵...
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