| Blog series by Gary Fixler | updated 101 days ago | 13 parts | 8571 reads | 115 comments total |
Part 1: HUGE Eucalyptus score
Sheesh. Good thing I have a truck now. I saw a note on craigslist today (online classifieds) that a guy had put “10 to 15 more” eucalyptus logs out in the alleyway behind his house. LA is all blocks split in half by access alleys big enough to drive 2 cars through (barely). The Google directions were a little wonky (didn’t name one of the roads, had me lost for an hour), and so a 47mi. round trip turned into a 75mi. round trip, and there were an incredible number of cop d...
Part 2: large Eucalyptus log pics - I wasn't kidding when I said big!
Here are some pics of the haul! This one shows a ton of Eucalyptus Longhorn Borer activity, just like the much tinier tree I found awhile ago: with raked lighting here: This log has something like quilting on two faces: Unfortunate checking going on here. I’ll have to see how deep it goes, and if it’s all the way through, I’ll have to learn a little something about filling and stabilizing. It would be a shame to have to turn all of these into ...
Part 3: When it rains... found some more logs ON MY BLOCK!
My bones haven’t finished knitting back together, and the gum tree chunks are still in the bed, but on the way back from a fast food run tonight, I saw a log pile on the grass in front of the sidewalk, right on my block! I backed up in front of the driveway there, and loaded one very large trunk piece, and a bunch of other large branch pieces in right on top of the eucalyptus. I have a feeling they were out all day, and people picked through the little stuff for firewood, leaving the la...
Part 4: quick and dirty homemade dolly (for moving huge logs)
If you recall the enormous gum tree logs I rescued recently, you might have wondered how I was going to move them all. Crushing manly strength alone? Nah, I was still pretty shot after lifting them into the truck in the first place. I slapped together a dolly out of scrap 2×4s (left over from the log rack shelves) with deck screws and some pocket holes (and screws), and a pair of rubber wheels and matching axle bolts that I ended up not needing for another project about a month back. ...
Part 5: more Ficus microcarpa
Remember that haul last week of fig logs? I used the new dolly to move them around back: Here’s the load by the light of day: Exactly one week later, running home on my lunch break, I found ANOTHER PILE of them in the same spot, from the same tree likely. Of course, I had to back up, pull over, and load those in, too :) Pretty big! This rooty section had wood chunks that didn’t match. I think they’re Douglas fir, from a fence or garden somethi...
Part 6: Ficus microcarpa - MAKE IT STOP - 3rd and 4th hauls
A bit over a week ago I found some logs outside a neighbor’s place down the street while on my way home from work on a Friday night. They were Ficus microcarpa (AKA Chinese banyan, AKA Indian Laurel, AKA curtain fig, AKA etc…). Almost a week later – a few days ago – I found another load of the same logs in the same spot on my way home for lunch. This morning while heading into work, I passed the same spot, and the biggest haul yet was sitting there. I was running a few...
Part 7: No, not MORE huge Eucalyptus logs!
I tried to get in touch with the guy who put the logs out in Canoga Hills to see if there were any of the 5 I had left on my last/first trip remaining, and if it would be worth the 30 minute drive. He never got back to me, but I noticed he reposted on craigslist a few days later that he put 15 more logs out there. That night after work I headed up. I’d wanted to find metal brackets that turn 2×8 or 2×10 planks into ramps that lay on the tailgate, so I could dolly the logs r...
Part 8: Largest Eucalyptus log - I knew it was over 200lbs!
In a comment by Topamax in this post he made some assumptions, and ran some numbers, and got 188lbs for the largest Eucalyptus log I managed to lift into the truck and bring home from Canoga Hills. I really felt it was over 200lbs, so today I set this up: It’s just some scrap weathered pine stacked up into a makeshift ramp to my bathroom scale out on the patio, with some 2×4s on the scale to keep the log from pressing its central buttons, or marking up its face. The 2×4...
Part 9: kiln-dried Douglas fir stickers
As a home hobbyist in a big city, not working as much in BF as in “oh look, a log!” I decided to keep things simple on myself and go with KD DF for stickering my slabs. I have a bunch of really old, really dry stuff, and in fact tried to build some finger-jointed frames for another project I’d like to post about someday, but dropping one only a foot to the ground caused all 4 corners to shatter. It’s that dry. I figure that means it’ll be fairly inert, though who...
Part 10: Full, fallen Jacaranda mimosifolia tree - wish me luck!
I take different routes on my daily commutes to see if any limbs or trees have come down. Today, taking a road I never take, I hit the jackpot – a full, large, old Jacaranda tree with fungus rot through its base fell over on its own this morning, on a windless, quake-free day, narrowly missing a pedestrian. I knocked on the door and a nice lady answered, holding back her dog. We talked for a half hour, but she had an endless stream of concerns, all of which I tried to answer: ...
Part 11: O frabjous day! Free Jacaranda!
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...
Part 12: wood gloat: superior grade alder scraps
I can’t believe it’s been just over 3 weeks already since I picked this stuff up. This year is cruising past me. I saw an ad one morning – only a few minutes old – for a very large pile of scrap wood, mostly superior-grade alder, but with a mix of some other things in there, like plywood, and walnut. I wrestled internally for a bit. Do I really need more wood? The answer, it turned out, was yes. I wrote, mentioned I was a budding woodworker, and would love to find uses...
Part 13: Inside Jacaranda
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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