Trees !

[joesoap]

As there is such a lot of hard landscaping going on around my area , and others too I'm sure , I know I could acquire some trees. It's having just recently got my 14'' RP bandsaw that has trigerred this thought plus the thread on the astronomical price of wood .
Never having worked from a log not even for a birdhouse I wouldn'lt know where to start regards when to break out , seasoning , time factors etc . Is it worthwhile exercise and roughly what sort of timespan from felling to chippendale orrrrrrrrr birdhouse morelike . Some thoughts on this would be nice and handy and appreciated . Cheers !

 

[Mattty]

As there is such a lot of hard landscaping going on around my area , and others too I'm sure , I know I could acquire some trees. It's having just recently got my 14'' RP bandsaw that has trigerred this thought plus the thread on the astronomical price of wood .
Never having worked from a log not even for a birdhouse I wouldn'lt know where to start regards when to break out , seasoning , time factors etc . Is it worthwhile exercise and roughly what sort of timespan from felling to chippendale orrrrrrrrr birdhouse morelike . Some thoughts on this would be nice and handy and appreciated . Cheers !

Traditionally freshly sawn logs are air dried for one year per inch if thickness (a very general rule). So for planks cut at 2" thick. 2 years air drying.

There then is the drying techniques to explore- ie sticking the timber, how its covered during this period, end sealing, end rearing, etc, etc, and this is just to bring the moisture content down to around 15-20%. After that the timber will require either kiln drying or a good period of aclimatisation in a warmer drier enviroment if it is to be used for furniture.

Search more on here and i'm sure you'll find more advice, also finewoodworking has some great articles on timber mills and drying timber.

Hope this helps.

 

[joesoap]

Thanks for that Matty but disappointing to hear it being so complicated and a long and drawn out process . Having been in the trade and thinking that kiln dried was the answer I've deluded myself in to thinking that an amateur set up was possible for my needs .
Oh well never mind there's nowt ado with the ole MDF an chipboard . an CLS
, I won't be going in to forestry after all . Cheers !

 

[Pete W]

disappointing to hear it being so complicated and a long and drawn out process .

If you have the space you could look into a DIY kiln to speed up the process.

Lots of info on home-built kilns on the web - try here for starters.

 

[cerdeira]

It's not that difficult. I've processed small logs, about 18 cm diameter and 150cm long, I've ripped them by hand with a framesaw into 40mm thick boards. Then sealed the ends with some enamel paint and left them stacked outdoors on a shed for 1 1/2 years.

I've tried that with oak and ash. they've dried well with virtually no cracks developing even around the pith, but oak boards warped a bit.

If you're into cabinetmaking you can get along with relatively small boards for most of the projects, so your bandsaw seems capable. If I had a bandsaw and easy access to logs, I wouldn't think twice.[/quote]

 

[ByronBlack]

There's an excellent article on 'air-drying timber' on the finewoodworking website that I can highly recommend, it goes into some detail on how to achive this.

 

[joesoap]

As there is such a lot of hard landscaping going on around my area , and others too I'm sure , I know I could acquire some trees. It's having just recently got my 14'' RP bandsaw that has trigerred this thought plus the thread on the astronomical price of wood .
Never having worked from a log not even for a birdhouse I wouldn'lt know where to start regards when to break out , seasoning , time factors etc . Is it worthwhile exercise and roughly what sort of timespan from felling to chippendale orrrrrrrrr birdhouse morelike . Some thoughts on this would be nice and handy and appreciated . Cheers !

Hey this is quite encouraging lads and well worth looking into . I'll have a good peruse and give the alternatives some thought . Interesting , not a lot of space required so quite feasible too for my needs . Ta for now .

 

[Wanlock Dod]

Hi Joesoap,

I've sucessfully cut small logs into boards on my 14 inch Record bandsaw. Obviously it makes for pretty small boards, about 8 inches wide and up to 2.5 feet long are about as big as I've managed. I usually take to the log with a hand held power planer to make a flatish surface to rest on the table. I've managed logs up to about a foot diameter by planing the top down until it is low enough to go under the bandsaw guides.

I just tend to leave the wood lying around to dry for a while.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[joesoap]

Hi Joesoap,

I've sucessfully cut small logs into boards on my 14 inch Record bandsaw. Obviously it makes for pretty small boards, about 8 inches wide and up to 2.5 feet long are about as big as I've managed. I usually take to the log with a hand held power planer to make a flatish surface to rest on the table. I've managed logs up to about a foot diameter by planing the top down until it is low enough to go under the bandsaw guides.

I just tend to leave the wood lying around to dry for a while.

Cheers,
HI Dod
As Mary Poppins trilled , A very good place to start and that will be my first effort whilst organising one of the more sophisticated setups . Space is of a premium as I was looking to expand my shed way beyond council regs but who dares wins .............. well some o the time . Thanks for that and to all responses plenty Food for thought , or should that be 'Wood' !Cheers !
Dod

 

[joesoap]

Hi lads
I'm back in here to say that I have been offered a tree from a neighbour . It's still standing but has been lopped clean back to the trunk . Now it's a silver birch @ about 18' - 20' . Whether it will be worthwhile or not for the taking I don't know so seeking advice as there has been no word of birch on the thread so far . As I asked for the tree I am now committed to it's removal . No problem there , I need the experience .
More promising is word of Beech from a small wood which has some fallen deadwood at various stages of rot . Have still to see this so is it a matter of cuttng to say...........four feet logs , as much as I could handle , strength and shed space wise , painting the ends and storiing them out of the rain and coming back in here on Xmas 2011 for advice on step two ??? Opinions welcomed . Cheers !

 

[PowerTool]

Silver birch is okay for turning - a little soft,but I've had some nice spalted stuff.Never seen it used for furniture.
Beech,again,seems to spalt quite easily,and is likely if you are at the fallen deadwood stage.
Will depend on the degree of rot present if it's worth doing anything with at all (sometimes,even if it looks nice,you have to accept it can be more effort than it's worth ) but the idea of cutting to largest length you can manage,painting the ends,and storing dry is a good plan.
Depends on what you want to use it for,but anything over about 6" diameter,I would try to split it through the pith to reduce the tension and likelihood of splitting;less than that in size I tend to leave in the round.

Andrew

 

[ciscoeuk]

hi all

just to let you a friend of mine gets trees givinr to him very offten

hess just been given a cherry tree 24" dia

i uses a change saw rig to plank the wood, into boards

to make them good for handeling he cuts them to 6 ft to 8 ft lengths depending on the tree given

he was given a 42" beech which he had to get milled profstionall as it was to ig to hadle and he 3 m 2" boards out of that!

 

[joesoap]

Silver birch is okay for turning - a little soft,but I've had some nice spalted stuff.Never seen it used for furniture.
Beech,again,seems to spalt quite easily,and is likely if you are at the fallen deadwood stage.
Will depend on the degree of rot present if it's worth doing anything with at all (sometimes,even if it looks nice,you have to accept it can be more effort than it's worth ) but the idea of cutting to largest length you can manage,painting the ends,and storing dry is a good plan.
Depends on what you want to use it for,but anything over about 6" diameter,I would try to split it through the pith to reduce the tension and likelihood of splitting;less than that in size I tend to leave in the round.

Andrew

Thanks for that Andrew . I'm happy with your assessment and yes as you say , it's down to health /coditiion once they're ready for carting off . Whatever is workable will be worked it will be used one way or another as I will have no qualms about having a go with it . Cheers !
Joe.

 

[joesoap]

hi all

just to let you a friend of mine gets trees givinr to him very offten

hess just been given a cherry tree 24" dia

i uses a change saw rig to plank the wood, into boards

to make them good for handeling he cuts them to 6 ft to 8 ft lengths depending on the tree given

he was given a 42" beech which he had to get milled profstionall as it was to ig to hadle and he 3 m 2" boards out of that!

Gracias ! Ciscoeuk
Your friends a lucky guy indeed and much more advanced than I am when it comes to trees . I'm a silver surfer greenhorn , ole timer , to you . Still I may advance to working what your friends doing , who knows , one can't but try . Cheers !

 

[Out int shed]

on the way to work one monday there was a load of traffic due to an old oak falling in the road. The council chopped up the tree to move it off the road then piled up the slices on the curb. On may way home from work the same night the slices were still there so I pulled up and grabbed em. They've been drying in my back yard for nearly a year now but they're about 2' in dia and about 1' thick so I don't expect to have use for them for a long time.

 

[ciscoeuk]

nice

u lucky begger

i wish that would happen around my way