Can you make my apple tree in to a table?

[Doug71]

Just had a message from a friend, they have an apple tree that has blown down and could I make it in to a table?

I have a fully equipped workshop but never done anything like this before (I normally make windows, doors, cabinets etc) and wondered what the steps are and what the potential problems can be?

Do they get it converted to planks and then leave them to dry for a year or more?

I have not spoken to them yet so don't know how big tree is or how big or style of table they are expecting to get from it.

Any advice appreciated as this is new to me.

Many thanks, Doug

 

[Droogs]

You want to get it slabbed and into stick pretty quick. What you make and how will depend on what you gt from the tree once sawn. then it's a case of roughly 1 year per inch thickness of board to let it air dry to about 18/20% and then if they have central heating you need to look at getting it into a kiln after at least a year of air drying. Then to be safe either
aut the lumber into thier house for a month to acclimate to the final resting place and then you can work on it
b: make sure your wksp is about the same RH and temp as their house and build the table.

Just remember it will still warp like crap if you leave it too long between prep and assembly

hth

 

[custard]

I was contacted once by someone who had got my name from a very good furniture client of mine. They had a windblown tree on their land and were interested in having it made up into a piece of furniture. I certainly didn't want to alienate the established client so I followed up immediately.

As is normal in these cases they were a bit optimistic about how much timber it might yield, but naively I thought they were genuine enough, so I got quotes for having it planked and kilned then went back with some prices and suggestions. They still seemed interested but wanted some alternative quotes, including grinding out the roots and laying turf, so I sunk yet more time into the project by assembling alternative quotes and drawing up some furniture sketches.

At the last possible moment the truth came out. What they actually had in mind was that I'd pay for the timber processing, plus I'd make the furniture for free, but my reward was that I could then keep "all the valuable surplus wood".

Yeah right.

 

[Rorschach]

Ahh yes the classic, people think a tree is valuable because wood is expensive, what they don't realise is that wood is expensive because mostly because of the work that went into cutting, drying and transporting it, the wood itself itself is cheap, it grows on trees after all :lol:

 

[bourbon]

Our carpenter in our medieval group, made a table from the firewood pile at Cosmeston medieval village. It was a piece of ash 2 inches thick,that had been felled a couple of weeks before. In the middle of a field, with hand tools only, he mortised four legs on it and made a really nice coffee table out of it. The point was, that when it was made, It stayed in an unheated garage for about five years to dry out. I must admit we were lucky that it didn't split at all and stayed level. As far as I know, It's still being used. 15 years later!

 

[OscarG]

Just curious, when you get a tree "planked" do they take the entire trunk away, machine it up and return it to you in planks or do they bring in some mobile saw-mill thing and slice it up in your garden?

Sorry if this is a daft question!

 

[Droogs]

usualy the later

 

[novocaine]

simply response.
Yes I could, no I won't.
by the time it's ready to be worked they'll have other plans or simply forgotten about it. If you are lucky they will have stored the timber at there place and you wont have had to store it for 2 years only to find it's all split, if you're unlucky it will have taken up most of your workshop for 2 years and it'll be great for the fire only.

even an aged apple tree (20-30 years) tends to only be 8-12" in the round (depending on root stock), they also tend to be short in trunk (a standard would get you 6-8', a half standard maybe 4' or dwarf would see 2') so you'll maybe get 6' of low knot timber if it was from a standard, but as this isn't all that common your more likely looking at 4' from a half standard/semi dwarf. 8" round is only going to return 4-5 1 1/2" boards depending on the splitting method (chainsaw/bandsaw/rived) and 2 or 3 are going to contain pith unless quarter sawn, most are going to be in the 6" width. so a tabletop that at best is 5x3', more likely 5x2', this excludes legs and frame etc.
if you cut it thinner you'll get more board is the hope, but at the risk of splitting/cupping/warping being more prevalent and you'll end up after machining (in 2 years time) with sub 1" boards, not ideal for a table and even if you plank at 1 1/2 you still might end up under 1".

doesn't really feel worth it to me, if it was my own tree I'd do it myself for the learning, otherwise I'd just mess with it as green and see what silly shapes I can make.

 

[Racers]

Split the trunk down the middle and carve a bowl.

You can start it green.

7th February by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Pete