Offcuts

[ucoulddoit]

What do you do with your offcuts?

 

Been sorting through my pile of offcuts as the midges on the West coast of Scotland have almost gone for another year so we can enjoy getting the firepit out again.

 

Each year, as I decide what it’s time to let go, my wife has a look through the firewood pile and puts to one side a few pieces she has had her eye on. Pieces worth keeping, as she is better than I am at seeing what has potential to be a bit different, a nice shape, aesthetic, good colour, etc. So here are a couple of bits of ‘scrap’ she liked this year, which were shaped, sanded and had a first coat of oil yesterday, and will soon be hung on our outside walls. The rest was sawn into short bits, and enjoyed on the firepit last weekend, on a starry night, bringing back memories of where and from whom the trees were bought, who milled them, the furniture made with the rest of it, etc.

 

First piece of ‘scrap’ is yew, a thin slice just 15mm thick by 1.8m long, cut off a thick plank with my chainsaw mill as it was just too thick for a table top I made a few years back. My wife has had her eye on this piece for years.

 

 

Next one is burr oak from a piece of scrap about 1.1m long by 0.45m wide and wedge shaped, varying in thickness across it’s width from 50mm down to 5mm. It was destined for the firepit as it was hard to see it being much use for anything as it was so thin on one side, had a large hole / ingrowing bark and was more or less flat on one side.

 

 

But it did have potential which is why it’s been in the wood store for about 10 years. I decided to experiment and see if I could deep rip thin pieces off the thicker half. So, after cutting it lengthwise in half, flattening one face and an edge on the planer, it was sawn on the bandsaw into two thin book matched planks. Final thickness after planning was 9mm. After gluing them together, they were glued to a piece of 9mm ply to give a bit of extra strength.

 

 

This one will go on the wall outside my workshop, under cover and sheltered from the rain. So pleased we kept this bit of scrap!

 

Andrew

[Conor Wright]

Nice offcuts! I rarely get bits that good as waste, plenty of long slips of spruce and poplar here at the moment. All going for kindling to sell in bulk or logs for our own use. 

Kindling is slow, boring and badly paid work but there's always a few winter days where it beats being outside in the wind and rain.

[Bunzena]

That last offcut would grace the wall of a top London art gallery.  It's beautiful.

[Woodworks]

You have some beautiful pieces of wood there. 

 

Never found a way to use the really short stuff but I designed a guitar stand to use relatively small/thin pieces of exotics. Made a few of these over the years but was slack on the marketing side so never really dented the offcuts pile haha

 

This one was rosewood and maple

[ucoulddoit]

4 hours ago, Bunzena said:

That last offcut would grace the wall of a top London art gallery.  It's beautiful.

I have to admit the inspiration for it was a piece at the Cheltenham furniture show, maybe 12 to 15 years ago. Can’t remember the price on it though!

 

Andrew

[ucoulddoit]

Came across these pics while looking for something else. An offcut of spalted beech, about 1.3m long, made at least 15 years ago. Not sure though if I can claim to have made it, as it’s a natural sculpture and stands on the floor without any support. This was the first piece sawn off an odd shaped log with twisted grain, probably a leaning tree as the pith was way off centre. A good example of a log to reject when looking for timber suitable for milling, according to the books and experts …… 

 

 

 

When my wife saw it she pointed out , ‘that looks good!’ It’s been standing in a corner of our sitting room for a long time now.

 

Bought this log almost 20 years ago from a firewood merchant, together with several other bits of ‘firewood’, maybe a couple of tons, all for £100 including lifting it into the truck I’d hired to deliver it to the local mill with a woodmizer. An experiment in my early days of milling and drying different types of timber when I was reluctant to invest a lot, buying prime logs, until I knew how to do it successfully. And it was a success! A few years on I had a pile of air dried burr elm, spalted beech, sycamore, cherry, cedar and larch which was all quite different to what you might find in the average timber merchants. Which inspired me to start buying some larger, proper milling logs.

 

Back then, when I was daydreaming of turning a hobby into a business of designing and making furniture, milling timber and traditional timber framing, I often wondered about trying to sell stuff like these ‘sculptures’. But the daydream stayed a dream, as work took an unexpected turn for the better, and happy now I’m retired to pass on these photos in case anyone out there has the marketing skills to turn stuff like this into actual money……..

 

Andrew

[ucoulddoit]

Bowl blank jig

 

It's the time of year again when I sort through my timber store looking for forgotten ‘treasure’!

 

Decided to be ruthless this year as I’d noticed a few worm holes have appeared on planks I’ve had for 10 to 20 years. Fortunately nothing too serious, but I was keen to stop it spreading. Also, I recently milled a decent sized elm log which I wanted to go in the woodstore, at the bottom of the stacks of timber, and space was running out.

 

So, I spent a few days shifting a few tons of planks, chain sawing off any infected timber, removing sapwood from some nice oak, deciding which planks I might use one day and what will now be firewood for the stove. Then brushed preservative on all the vulnerable species of planks I’m keeping which will hopefully make them less tasty.

 

Created lots of offcuts and decided to make a bowl blank jig for my bandsaw so that some of the better bits, free of worm holes and defects such as splits, might be of use to others someday.

 

 

Picture below shows the first attempts, up to 600mm diameter, using ash, burr oak, sycamore, burr laburnum, yew, spalted beech and spalted birch. After air drying in a well ventilated shed for so long they are typically about 12% to 14% moisture content apart from the thick burr oak which even after about 12 years is around 20%. Have painted PVA around the sides, will paint them with preservative in due course and possibly store them in my workshop which has a dehumidifier, to reduce the moisture content further. Still need to look at the apple, plum, horse chestnut, cherry, spalted holly, and other ‘special’ species, although no need to hurry as they have been in a very dry store for years and look fine.

 

 

Not doing this to sell the blanks although I guess the bigger pieces especially are worth a bit? I know a few turners who might be keen to acquire some large pieces of dry ‘firewood’ and I’m keen to see how the timbers I used in early experiments milling and drying all those years ago have turned out. Useful to be able to see from the blanks what looks most promising to me, and will perhaps choose one or two of the larger blanks and follow through to a commission.

 

To be honest, it’s a bit of a faff making the blanks although the jig is very quick and accurate to use. Would be interested to hear what others think about the following for future reference if I decide to make more of the larger offcuts into bowl blanks:

1. Is the small hole for the pivot pin in the jig an issue. It’s 8mm diameter by around 10mm deep?
2. Might it be worthwhile making the blanks slightly larger diameter and include some of the waney edge?
3. Should one of the faces be flat and perpendicular to the edge? I’m limited to 250mm width on my planer, so the faces of the larger blanks still have some drying distortion.
4. Do woodturners in general prefer a rough shaped offcut which they can decide how to size, etc. i.e. no need to prepare a circular blank? Although I guess if aiming to sell the offcuts, circular blanks might have more potential buyers?

Picture below are some of the offcuts from the blanks, offcuts from offcuts, and now wondering if the larger pieces would also be of use?

 

 

Andrew