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Raw Material

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Raw Material

Postby GarF » 19 Oct 2021, 21:35

Or rather how to obtain it?

I've just finished reading Richard Raffan's book on bowl turning. I'd highly recommend it as as it's very readable and I think helped me finally get my head around several concepts that I've been struggling with. The most significant take away for me was that the way forward for me is to find a source of cheap green wood- I'll learn a lot more from turning a hundred quids worth of logs than I would from the equivalent value in prepared blanks.

Trouble is I don't own any woodland, so I assume I'm limited to whatever I find lying around where there's no certainty of either ownership or absence of metal, or else canvassing the local tree surgeons. So my next question is what does one offer for the wood, and what can I expect in return?

I assume the going rate is based on them having the option of chipping stuff on site or splitting for firewood to sell? To minimise the amount of work I'd be asking from them I would hope to get lengths of a multiple of 14 inches at whatever diameter (to split into suitable sections) since 12 inches is the most I can fit over the bed for centre support.

Any guidance would be appreciated before I broach the subject as I'd sooner not get mugged, or inadvertently cause any offence.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby Chris152 » 20 Oct 2021, 08:52

You could try approaching them as they dismantle a tree that looks useful to you, but I'd say to wait til they've done the more dangerous work, while they're loading up the truck, and ask if they mind if you take a few logs for turning. You may be able to get a relationship going that way, but obviously it depends on many things! The truth is, most tree surgeons in my experience know the value of the wood they have.
Probably easier is to just give them a call and ask if they'd be prepared to sell to you logs that would otherwise go as firewood. You may even be able to persuade them to split/ cut them for you, if you can be there to draw a line where you want the cut.
And maybe a metal detector isn't a bad idea - you do get the odd embedded nail etc. Milling a log the other day, we hit a nail - the total cost of a blade and time was probably around £200 for that little encounter.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby Andyp » 20 Oct 2021, 09:05

Hi G and welcome to the Woodhaven.

If you find recently cut logs do you have the equipment to cut them into reasonably sized bowl blanks? Do you have the patience required to wait for the blanks to season (dry out) before turning. Partially turning wet blanks is fun but very messy.
You haven’t given us any indication where you are. There are woodturning supplies shops all over the country most will offer preprepared blanks. Stiles and Bates outside Dover in Kent have an excellent selection.
https://www.stilesandbates.co.uk/

Have a look locally to see if there are woodturning clubs, join one. As well as meeting like minded people you will learn a lot about tools, equipment and where to source the raw materials.
I do not think therefore I do not am.

cheers
Andy
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Re: Raw Material

Postby GarF » 20 Oct 2021, 18:51

Essentially I'm hoping I can persuade someone to tip me off when they're going to be dealing with a suitable tree and chainsaw (some of) it down into sections I can then manage myself with wedges, maul and froe. As I said, the swing over the bed of my lathe is a smidge over 12 inches, so lengthways any section may as well be a maximum of 14 inches or a multiple.
Larger diameter sections would yield a greater variety of grain/design options depending how they're split- another chance to learn by experimentation. As I said, my goal with this is to complete as many bowls as cost effectively as possible without having to worry about the odd one feeding the woodburner.

We're in Durham, so there's an Axminster just up the A1. But the university has acres of wooded areas so there's tree work going on fairly frequently. Up to now I've found rough turned bowls a bit more practical to store than unseasoned wood as there isn't a really ideal spot in the garden to stack it up. My ideal scenario is a regular source of a car bootful at a time that I can then spend a full day a roughing out every so often (with a big clean up at the end of the day). Then be able to take down a dry bowl for finishing off whenever the urge to create strikes.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby CHJ » 20 Oct 2021, 22:02

A couple of links you might find useful from my site:-

Handling Green timber for turning

Log to turned object
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Re: Raw Material

Postby GarF » 20 Oct 2021, 22:48

Those are exactly the options I want to try out, and decisions that have already been made in a prepared blank. Thanks for the links.

Last winter I liberated about half a dozen assorted pieces of what I think was sycamore and oak up to a foot in diameter. Two at a time in the bike trailer I used to use for the school run, and probably about similar mass! These were split in half lengthways and sealed at the ends with paraffin wax and a heat gun as it was unclear when I'd get round to using them, with one thing and another. It ended up being sooner than I'd expected- they were getting in the way of other things in the garage, and once roughed down I could stack them under the lathe in a box of shavings.

The wax seemed like it made a better seal on the endgrain, but the application was a lot more labour than slopping cheap PVA on with a brush. At some point I might get round to doing a side by side comparison to see which yields better results.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby CHJ » 21 Oct 2021, 09:52

The bulk of any end sealing I do is with heated wax in a wide pan on an electric hot plate.
Any old wax goes in, paraffin, old candle stubs, cheese wraps etc. (need to put the message out you collect the stuff)
Wax is heated to just under fuming level and green wood dipped in for a few seconds until steam bubbles from expelled (boiled) surface moisture is seen. This gets a good bond as the hot wax gets sucked into the end grain as it cools.

Anything too big to get dipped I use up leftover gloss paint remnants. Has advantage of colour coding batches.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby Lurker » 21 Oct 2021, 10:42

I imagine all turners go through the same phases.
At first you have no wood and buying it seems to be the only option and you soon find its expensive.
Then you find other sources and the word gets round you want stuff.
Eventually you end up with so much you are building sheds to house it all !!!


If you have a source of freshly felled wood, I can recommend this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/186 ... bl_vppi_i1
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Re: Raw Material

Postby CHJ » 21 Oct 2021, 14:05

Yes, beware how energetic you trawl for wood, when JCB's dump logs on the drive that were too big to lift into the back of the Land Rover they can prove a bit of a headache.
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Re: Raw Material

Postby Dalboy » 22 Oct 2021, 15:44

You will soon find that pieces appear on the door step like the other day two large pieces of cherry found its way onto mine(Cherry can be a pain to dry luckily this had been down for at least two year and it does not mean it will not split)

Expect to loose some through drying you will soon know what wood is best and easiest to convert.

Lurker wrote:Eventually you end up with so much you are building sheds to house it all !!!


How true that is this is only partly filled as I need to put the rest back in during my garden renovation and new workshop build. And this is the second wood shed the other is so packed with flat wood for other projects.

Back in the store.JPG
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