Playing with Firewood

[scottp55]

I'm always amazed at what I find in firewood piles:)
Dad and I went fly fishing last week...and the Camp we stay at had a few pieces I asked for.
Roughed at .1" pass depth against the grain raster until it gets interesting with a Whiteside 1.25" Mortising bit, then change to an offset/conventional toolpath until I get where I want.
Just make a 1 pass 40% stepover toolpath, and then MN and RR down as I go (Thanks Scott!!).
Always like seeing how the figure patterns change as I cut! :)
I have no clue what I'll finally use the wood for...but it will come to me eventually:)
First board Thursday.

[scottp55]

Today's piece.
Only I can change a 4" log into a 3/4" board by chasing an interesting pattern, and THEN remembering I haven't flattened the back:rolleyes:
Fun for an "Off" day though:)

OH...1 close up of the first one...pictures aren't that hot compared to the wood itself.

[Tom Bachman]

Nice pieces!

[VanIslanddan]

Now I can prove to my wife that I am not the only person that does this. Much of what I burn in my stove comes from my property. I mill what I can but there are alway some beautiful pieces that are split or to short to mill. If I see a nice piece I set it aside by the stove to dry and use later.3026630265

[scottp55]

Thanks guys.
With today's piece I got a little more aggressive and got pass time down to 2:04 for .125" passes.
At least I'm beginning to understand Birdseye better!
"FIREWOOD 2" was surfaced almost as if it was quartersawn cut...And I got virtually no birdseye, but really nice curl.
The one today was surfaced as if it was flatsawn, and I got the typical birdseye and circular figure in the wood :)
Learn something new at least!
And next year will know more about pieces to pick. :)
This one at least I surfaced the first side to the first interesting spot, THEN flipped it, and surfaced second side!
I can always take off more:)

[joe]

Scott,

My hats off to you for another great thread. I'm so glad to see there are all you guys out there who are as crazy about wood as I am.

Ever now and again I'll visit one of our small saw mills. Unfortunate for me there are few mills left using a blade most everyone now uses a bandsaw. Not only is lumber more beautiful when rough cut, it's also a good selling point. For me a day at the mill is like a day at the circus. Each and every board I see is a treat and I want them all. Scraps are even more precious and I get charged up with new idea's to explore. Like Scott, I even buy lumber with no idea how I'm going to use it but when the time comes I'm always glad I made the purchase.

Thanks to this thread I'll find time for another visit to the mill.

Joe

[scottp55]

Thanks Joe!
Not many mills around here except personally owned small ones that slab.
I'd hound the scrap piles if there were:)
Today's piece was within .1" of my Z topping out before a little belt sanding.
Much more splintered in the back where the ram split out the branch(?)
Didn't sand this one, so still has offset/conventional toolmarks on it.
I also brought out my Sorby gouges....and now remember why hand carvers prefer straight grain Basswood! :)
Wishing now I had the Foredom carving handpiece, and all the bits!
Kind of looks like a bird if you squint real hard:)

[joe]

This thread has got my interest up with local with respect of local sawmills. That's in regard if any of them are still using a blade. In this state there are huge sawmills in southeastern part of the state. Perhaps an online search would be the most effective method of finding one of these mills. I'd have no problem traveling across the state for the right kind of lumber.

[mikeacg]

So true Scott! It's a wonder I ever get enough firewood to heat my shop! Every time I go out to split up a pile I see something beautiful and, next thing you know I am in the shop cutting it up on my bandsaw.

[Brian Harnett]

Nice wood, Last year I ordered our firewood some of it was cherry I carved some eagle busts out of a few pieces and it paid for our firewood for the year. I have to buy it cut and split already otherwise I would end up milling most of the logs.

[scottp55]

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

[scottp55]

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.

[scottp55]

First cuts....deeper and keep it thick or give to a bandsaw friend to split.

[scottp55]

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

[Pennywood]

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.

[mikeacg]

Guilty! Here is what I have piled up for the Sidewinder (there's some spalted beech and even some walnut)...
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=30306&stc=1

[scottp55]

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!

[scottp55]

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:)

[scottp55]

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.

[scottp55]

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:)

[srwtlc]

Firewood finds are often the nicest looking pieces! ;)

[mdebruce]

That is really nice!!

[scottp55]

What a Shame Scott to have an irregular double live edge slab with a HOLE in it!! :) :)
ANOTHER beautiful piece!!

Something satisfying working on slabs...wish I had your source/stash AND your back and machine:)
Some of this stuff is pushing the limits of my Desktop Z....but where there's a will........

Like how irregularities make you think originally....I've been picking up different pieces for days trying to figure the best use of them:)
May just build a 25' rack against greenhouse kneewall (no direct sun)so I can store them flat and see them more often..out of sight,out of mind...is one of my faults.
Thanks!
scott

[scottp55]

Playing again today with that Sugar Maple I cut down(cutting better than I thought:)
Didn't get everything right, but that's why I used a piece with splits.
Pics only go as far as the last pass with the 1mm TBN....I used 3 different finish passes with that by raising my Z-zero up .5" and then dropping down in 2 .25" passes at 8% stepover.
Final REAL Finish pass is with a .25mm Tapered Ball Nose at 3% stepover, and for that, I MN'd my Z down .015"...It'll be dark and I'll be starving before this cut is done:)
First 3 cuts were 23 minutes...this one's 4 hours for the fur/face details.
SHOULD be a LOT better(fingers crossed!)

I really expected a LOT of FUZZIES cutting a Maple limb that cracked off in December, and just got sectioned last week.
Using my pine resin/Linseed/citrus(50%) penetrating mix helped I think(it Certainly kept the chips together!).
A FUN day except for all the recalculating:)
Looks better here than in a brushpile!
scott

[scottp55]

Not totally happy with it.
Next time I'll use a negative Allowance on the 1mmTBN, and THEN cut with no Allowance with the .25mmTapered Ball Nose to get rid of the "Ditch"edge of the model, and eliminate the edge stepover marks on the .745" deep model edges so that it blends more with the sidewalls....Live and Learn:)

Also no more wet wood cutting, had to apply a stiffening coat and then cut it again at .006" deeper to eliminate wet wood "Velvet Fuzzies", which are the dickens to get rid of!!
(Parked the spindle over it and used spindle warm air to speed drying:) )
Good experiment though...learned a lot!
scott

[Bobtail Farms]

especially like the natural frame.

[scottp55]

Brian...IF your talking about Scott Worden's Walnut Slab work....look here;
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?23947-Walnut-Slab

I looked for the thread that had a link to his other slab work pictures, but didn't look hard enough apparently:)

IF talking about my wet Sugar Maple round...Pure S*** Luck.....SHOULD have taken a flat on pic...entered it in my App Data-Wood folder...and sizing would have been better on this Proto....
REALLY considered Aspire after that cut( AND the Oak Burl "Bowl" that Phill5 in UK was kind enough to make me an .stl as Fluting Toolpath get's Funky when Radial Arraying, and THEN trimming funky vectors!!)

LOVING Scott's slab work....also Check out Steve Glassel's beautiful slab stashes!! :) :)

IF for not cutting "Firewood" for thicker small pieces for my Tiny stuff, I'd be trimming sections off my long slabs( NOT HAPPENING!), and going to a hardwood dealer and saying;
"I'll take one foot of this 12/4X16' slab. and 2' off this 10/4X12' "......AND PROMPTLY get kicked out of the shop!!! :)