Is Eucalyptus a good wood to work with?

[dannytreacy]

Hi all,

 

I'm making lamps using cross sections of tree trunks as a base.

 

I've been using deciduous wood such as oak, beech and hornbeam. I've been using these woods as they are heavy when seasoned so make good bases for my lamps.

 

I have the option of felling a eucalyptus so I wondered if anyone knew of its properties in terms of would it be a heavy wood once seasoned such as the woods mentioned above?

 

Thanks.

 

Danny.

[skyhuck]

I think it will split badly as it drys.

[stoff101]

I'll second that, I have a lot of cut eucalyptus and it has ALL split when dried.

[dannytreacy]

Ok thanks for the replies.

 

Think I will just use it for firewood then.

 

Cheers.

[Lignaterrae]

Yeah, eucalyptus is a terrible dryer. Exhibits just about all the drying defects there are - splitting, shrinkage, distortion, washboarding, honeycombing, ring shakes. In other words, the works!

[se7enthdevil]

if your'e going to use it for fire wood then cut it into log size you are going to put on the fire straight away as you cant split that stuff...

 

to use for your purposes you can wait for he whole log to semi season (takes a few years) and then get it milled. see this thread to see what i mean.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/milling-forum/45162-anybody-milled-eucalyptus.html

 

what sort of sizes are these bases?

[MattyF]

It will split unlike any thing you have seen!! Half inch diamonds across the rays approx 3" apart .. Also the worst wood to try and split dry but ok wet.