30-11-2011, 12:12 AM
Nice turning David, that spalting is nice too, beech dust is not nice stuff,I know a few guys that have had problems because of it, same goes for iroko. The spalted beech log that me and a friend converted (previous post) was used as a counter balance on the back of his crane so we could snatch up four or five douglas fir butts at a time without the crane toppling over, most of the beech we cut went for pallet boards, there used to be a regular order from one particular company and one of the specified lengths was pallett boards 540 mm long I will never forget those ever! we used to get £160 per cube meter sawn for them. It's a lot of boards.
Out of that money we had to pay for the sawlogs, pay for the logging waggon to deliver them to the yard, we then had to convert using two large bandsaws (band rack and band resaw) then crosscutting, stacking and banding and then shift the 60% waste (sawdust) out of the way ready for the next run and buy more diesel for the 100Kva generator...what a life! As you say most have no idea how and where the wood comes from, when cutting pallet wood we used to buy in "Bar Material" 6 ft & 8 ft logs Top Diam. 5 to 7"
The two of us used to break down 10 cubic metres a shift into 4" cants ready for resawing the following day into pallett board blanks ready for crosscutting, that was in the early 90's recession, still, it put food on the table.
The crack with good spalted beech was catching it right, if you opened it up to soon it would have not developed to its best, leave it to late and the spalting was good but a lot of its surrounding timber would have turnrd to puff (soft) which made it difficult for turning and finishing.
Unfortunately for me I had an argument with a large stick of douglas fir (or should I say I got in the way) and the log won and I had severe back problems so I had to give up full time sawmilling I sold all my band rack and all my kit, I still keep my hand in the old wood game now and then, I am fortunate to own my own woodland so I go down and fell a few for firwood as part of the woodland management, also do some gteen oak timber work now and again, mainly oak roofs and structural framing.
David, if there is enough of you in your club it might be worth investing in a second hand chainsaw mill for breaking down any log finds, I have a Logosol which I still use and they do come up for sale second hand, often with the correct chainsaw, they cut accurate and will peel a 2-3mm venner no problem, the finish is better than a large bandsaw, if you go to the other vintage radio site and click on my profile avitar (pwdrive) you can see one in action, they are very light weight and are transportable in a van or even a car
Anyway that's enough of ranting about the wood game I ought to be talking about radios really.
Lawrence.
Out of that money we had to pay for the sawlogs, pay for the logging waggon to deliver them to the yard, we then had to convert using two large bandsaws (band rack and band resaw) then crosscutting, stacking and banding and then shift the 60% waste (sawdust) out of the way ready for the next run and buy more diesel for the 100Kva generator...what a life! As you say most have no idea how and where the wood comes from, when cutting pallet wood we used to buy in "Bar Material" 6 ft & 8 ft logs Top Diam. 5 to 7"
The two of us used to break down 10 cubic metres a shift into 4" cants ready for resawing the following day into pallett board blanks ready for crosscutting, that was in the early 90's recession, still, it put food on the table.
The crack with good spalted beech was catching it right, if you opened it up to soon it would have not developed to its best, leave it to late and the spalting was good but a lot of its surrounding timber would have turnrd to puff (soft) which made it difficult for turning and finishing.
Unfortunately for me I had an argument with a large stick of douglas fir (or should I say I got in the way) and the log won and I had severe back problems so I had to give up full time sawmilling I sold all my band rack and all my kit, I still keep my hand in the old wood game now and then, I am fortunate to own my own woodland so I go down and fell a few for firwood as part of the woodland management, also do some gteen oak timber work now and again, mainly oak roofs and structural framing.
David, if there is enough of you in your club it might be worth investing in a second hand chainsaw mill for breaking down any log finds, I have a Logosol which I still use and they do come up for sale second hand, often with the correct chainsaw, they cut accurate and will peel a 2-3mm venner no problem, the finish is better than a large bandsaw, if you go to the other vintage radio site and click on my profile avitar (pwdrive) you can see one in action, they are very light weight and are transportable in a van or even a car
Anyway that's enough of ranting about the wood game I ought to be talking about radios really.
Lawrence.
