It pays to keep your eyes open

[procell]

It may be wet and miserable outside today but I had a big ray of sunshine.
Whilst browsing my emails last week I found one from Freecycle (a community sharing scheme where people recycle unwanted items by giving them away to others who can use them). On opening the email I noticed an advert from a window company offering free hardwood offcuts for anyone who wants them for wood burning boilers. The pictures on the advert showed several of the large bags used for delivering sand etc and they all appeared to be full with sapele offcuts. A quick email to the advertiser and I had an invite to come and take what I liked.

Today I went to the factory and had my pick of about 8 bags full of offcuts. The guy I met was very friendly and helpful saying he would email me if they get any other types of wood that may be of interest. He also gave me some tulip wood offcuts and several lumps of a wood he said was pickled to prevent rotting. ( cannot remember what he called it)

I may grab some of the runners that are not sapele to make some storage racks for seasoning logs.

 

[Dalboy]

Well done and a nice find worth a few turned bits as a thank you as there is more on the way. You should not be short of odd pieces for turning now =D> =D> =D>

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

very nice indeed. Those runners look like hardwoods too unless they've been stained (which I doubt). Nice haul, great when that happens isn't it

 

[woodiedonald]

Could the "pickled" wood be accoya? Its radiatta pine pressure treated in some kind of resin.

 

[AndyT]

Could the "pickled" wood be accoya? Its radiatta pine pressure treated in some kind of resin.

That was my first thought too. 'Pickled' sounds about right as it's actually acetic acid which is used. According to Richard Arnold, one of its many benefits is that it barely moves at all if resawn thinner.

An excellent source of supply!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

When I was having building work done I watched the supermarkets for good deals on half decent wine - you'd be surprised how much goodwill a £4 - £5 bottle of wine buys.

 

[procell]

The runners are also sepele or mahogany. he has lots of others that are probably pine and some tulip. I was not going to use the sepele ones to make a rack, they will have better use being turned.

Accoya is right for the other pieces. Is it any good for turning?

Yes I will certainly be donating some pieces I make to the kind staff at the factory.

 

[woodiedonald]

I have no idea if accoya is any good for turning, supposedly it's denser than before the treatment, but I'd imagine the pine wasn't very dense beforehand anyway, so I have no idea really. One way to find out, try a bit and see what its like.

 

[Dalboy]

I have a friend that goes around repairing fire stations who brings me loads of sapele offcuts it is great when turned and finished has a nice shimmer to it

 

[winemaker]

Never get that on recycle here in Cornwall too many people have wood burners

 

[glen29]

Hi,

I have just turned my first bowl today and it was an Accoya off-cut that i used, and it turned quite well in my limited experience (3x lidded boxes and 1x pen holder)

Accoya is supposed to have a 50 year above ground and 25 year below ground guarantee so you could come up with some differnt uses?


Glen.

 

[JimB]

I don't know if it is still the case but businesses taking delivery of heavy machinery or the deliverers I suppose would end up with lengths of hardwood that were used to help prevent damage to the truck floor and slippage.