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Thread: Playing with Firewood

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Seems like I may have struck a chord.
    I like how Brian removes his temptation!!
    I regret selling my 3 wheel Inca Bandsaw(it was either that or starve), but have always meant to buy a dedicated resaw bandsaw.

    Joe's comment reminds me that I have to go up to my Uncles to see what he did with my Aunt's Black Walnut tree sections that were mostly in the 24-42" diameter range, and he had 3 4' sections with double crotch, and 2 8-9' sections.
    He's a total Newbie on the 20' trailer sawmill he drove back from Indiana last July, and Aunt's tree was his first attempt.
    I showed him how to align the crotch pieces/marked the thickness passes/ and told him to treat the ends that day...but who knows what he did, and how he stickered/covered it. Now would be the time for a good visit and pick up some small slabs

    Reminds me also of the small branches I managed to scrounge, after the arborists had already carted off most of the branches for firewood/chipping, before my Mom told me what her sister was DOING! I SCREECHED over the phone for her to STOP her sister NOW....and was lucky to stop them from trailering it all off.
    Like HECK any arborist was going chop it into firewood! He was probably charging my Aunt, and then selling it to a friend with a sawmill.
    It's always nice for someone to say "What a beautiful piece of wood...where'd you buy it?" And you can just Smile!

    Think I'll handsaw some Black Walnut branches today 1 winter in the unheated garage...and they may be good for roughing cuts now.
    Good for one ofs gifts, like the one that looks like 2 islands and a lighthouse(if you squint) I gave to a Shopbotter that visited last fall. He'd driven up the day before, and found an out of the way seafood place for supper I love, that has a nice view of the island lighthouse I mentioned.
    I never would have noticed the figure/picture, if I hadn't been machining down on .05" passes at that time.
    Rambling
    scott
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    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  2. #12
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    Apr 2013
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    OK....Today I worked on the largest Walnut branch I scrounged last August.
    Only a Unisaw with 10" blade, but it gave me a guideline for my bowsaw to finish off.
    Next got the big boy sharps out, and cut down both sides for a stable orientation, and to drop wood down to my max cut height(Z1,Z2,Home position in Vectric was .1", and so was VC SafeZ Height...and still I used a small stepover on first pass and used .375 of my available.5" CEL.
    As soon as I got into interesting stuff I stopped, as it's reaction/tension wood, and I also may shim to change my plane before I go any further...but you can see it will be nice
    Marked the split in Walnut 2, and may have to butterfly it tomorrow if it grows overnight.
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    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  3. #13
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    Apr 2013
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    First cuts....deeper and keep it thick or give to a bandsaw friend to split.
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    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Default Branches

    Finished the last 2 branches....PITA having 6" wood and only 5.5"Z
    First cut was more like 3D stepover.
    Tried shimming this one so Heartwood lines matched up better.
    2:05 passes from .05-.125" pass depth.
    Next time I'll try to show up the same day they cut it with a bucket of paint or thinned Linseed!
    Checkering was already too deep for the Linseed wood butter I slathered on to penetrate well, even though it was 85F.
    Odd that it penetrated .125-.25" and kept the wood a whitish color.

    Funny...My Mother is the least wood oriented person you'll ever meet, BUT she dropped off something 2 days ago, and the firewood was on the kitchen countertop, and she said(Where did the beautiful wood come from...it wasn't here before...was it?"
    Time to empty the steel DustDeputy canister!
    scott
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    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Billings, MT
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    22

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    I, too, am fascinated by the quality of wood that can be found lying around. Our construction projects often involve removing trees, and cutting them up for woodturning bowls consumes more time than I like to admit. Last month I cut a 8" 20 sided dice out of a block of walnut from a tree (that would otherwise have been converted to BTU's) to make a wedding guest book. Without a firewood block I would've spent more time gluing up the block than the whole project took.
    I decided to post so that i might suggest a scrub plane for squaring up the wood, and making it easier to machine. It's fast and accurate (In spite of being the method used hundreds of years ago) and a premium plane can be had for $165. I'll post a link if using brand names or links doesn't offend anyone. Even though I have a shop full of Woodworking machines I still find it to be the easiest way to remove the twist from a board, or qiickly expose the grain hidden inside.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Newberry, MI
    Posts
    566

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    Guilty! Here is what I have piled up for the Sidewinder (there's some spalted beech and even some walnut)...
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  7. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Mike, You and Vancouver Island look like you're building a nice stash!
    I hardly ever run across spalted...only fully figured piece I have is one Pappy Baynes gave me that I'm still trying to figure a place for I can use it full length.

    Randy, Thanks for the suggestion! That's one plane I don't own...considered using my 10" Jack but only clamp I have at a reasonable height is 6" Record and it wasn't a good angle(shop was built to build this craftsman/Wright style house with a 3 man crew...the shortest of which was 6', and tallest was 6'8"...so made sense at the time to build stuff their height instead of wheelchair height....I always figured the last thing they would do for me was cut stuff down to my height...BUT life happened and it'll be a bear for me to redo all the cabinets and build a REAL woodworkers bench with full access...slow going...Shopbot/Unisaw/drillpress are the only things that are already adapted).
    SO(after digressing) I was very happy to see my inch and a half Footprint chisel that made short work of getting the wood the right height.
    Absolutely right that working with hand tools is a nice mind-set change!

    OOOOOPS! I thought suction was getting bad on that last piece, but just kept going to finish it...WRONG!
    I'd filled the DustDeputy bin CHUNK FULL. After dumping it I still had low suction from the Fein TurboII, but I thought it was the hose lines I could see sagging with chips...WRONG!
    My Fein had the original March 2014 bag in it(that has always been virtually empty thanks to the DD) and THAT was chunk full also.

    Have you ever tried to find Fein replacement bags that you put in a "Logical" place 3 years ago and never needed?
    FINALLY found them in my shop filing cabinet in the V(vacuum?) folder...Waay to organized back then!

    Long story short, is that this week I looked forward to going into the shop every day!
    Nothing technical, nothing artistic that was doubted or needed tweaking, nothing boring(except MN'ing the height down and pressing RR every 2 minutes)
    Just FUN watching figure and features appear(reminded me of making Opal "Rubs" a lot).

    Already thinking I may use the "Firewood 2" piece, where I surface perpendicular to the birdseye, for 3 5" butterflies for joining 2 live edge boards with a gap Ala Brian Harnett

    P.S. The DustDeputy and old Fein TurboII with the speed control and HEPA filter seems like a match made in heaven for clean air and a quiet environment!
    Wish they hadn't dropped the speed control on the new TurboII!
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    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Bump so everyone can see my "Stupid Dust Collector Moves"

    Funny...I had just emptied it before I started the crib board....Firewood made a LOT of chips!
    Hope I don't need a vac bag for another 3 years
    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Default Walnut Branches

    Walnut branches from my Aunt's tree were fairly dry, but nowhere near fully air dried....also I removed a ton of material...so the inevitable splitting is occurring.
    Had a few of the "Twig" butterflies in figured Maple left...so tucked them in my least figured piece of the branch for testing before I do the bigger crotch pieces.
    Almost out of the Maple "Twigs", so scrounged around and found a thin piece of Sassafras with a lot of figure at 90 degrees to the grain and cut a batch of 30.
    Used the carpet tape on waxed HDO/no residue Duck Tape on the Sass, but Sass had a rougher surface than my usual pre-sanded Ocooch "scroll saw ready" thin stock...so maybe half dozen of the "Twigs" had movement on cut through and are useless. But still left me with a couple dozen to put in a baggie for the future
    Working on other "Twig" designs, and resizing the original for larger pieces of wood, as the .0625" EM at that size eliminates a lot of detail using the regular Inlay Toolpath in VCP.
    Need to make some larger/deeper ones for any slab work also.
    "Firewood" Sugar Maple pieces that the checkering was sawed off for the most part(and then immediately sealed with Linseed/Pine rosin mix) seem to be much more stable than the Walnut.
    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kennebunkport, Maine
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    Had a section of Sugar Maple blow down in December, but didn't fall all the way to ground till March storm....only 6" section touched ground and got punky.
    Took bowsaw down to pond and got 7 sections out of it....Mostly Plain vanilla...BUT thick enough for deeper 3D's when it dries
    Got 3 branch crotch sections, and one was GREAT

    Finally got all My 3 yr old Black Walnut branches in one place for a pic, and the 2 yr old Birdseye firewood I "Borrowed with permission" from "Libby Camps" as I need my center couch back, and wood will be shelved/tabled.
    Bought a bunch of 3D models that May be good for branches....Critters of course

    Maple except for the one piece pictured, is still being saturated with second coat of a wax heavy Linseed/Beeswax mix...and scattered in house and shop.
    GRADUALLY building my stock of funky wood for one-ofs
    scott P.
    2013 Desktop/spindle/VCP 11.5**
    Maine

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