se7enthdevil

mark, for the 48" x 9"sq porch posts in my avatar i charged £90 for the timber and £200 for turning them. for big architectural one i'd expect to pay a fair bit more.

i might be selling one. give me a call.

love the columns, one day a customer will ask me to make some that size and it will give me an excuse to buy a second bed for my jet 3520b.

the vb 36 is back. WOOD LATHE vb 3 6 master | eBay

what's the point of gluing it marte? it will pull itself apart as it warps. you could use glue to fill the gaps in a couple of years but if you do it now it's a waste glue in my opinion. the frame i made for the skittles is only held together with the threaded rod as it gives me the option of replacing the seperate parts just by undoing it with no need to knock glue joints apart.

pity you are in south wales mate or i'd have it off you. i recommend you seal the ends with thick pva.

i used an electric drill geared to a slow speed that had lots of torque. i braced the drill and flexed my muscles to hold it straight. that may tire you out if there are lots to do.

some sort of diamond file would do fine to sharpen the bottom cutting edge in my book. i used a pillar drill to go into the newel post so if possible stick the post in a vice at an angle and once you've started drilling use your bodyweight to help with the drilling. that may have been why your previous forstener bit was spinning as they are not self feeders (some are) and if it was a bit blunt it would definitely spin rather than drill. forstener drill bits are used all the time by us turners to go into all sorts of grain including endgrain when drilling out the centre of vase blanks to about 10" and wander is not a problem i've had before. try to keep the cutting edge cool so it keeps its edge longer.

i used to use my cheap china made forsteners to go in the endgrain of 5" newel posts. granted that was dry timber but they did not wander and we were going 4-5" in. forsteners would be the best option in my opinion but you have to keep them sharp and you can buy extensions to go in deep also if you want to prevent the possibility of wander then i can turn you a split collar to go over the shank to keep it in line over the course ofthe depth.

this is the best approach as i already suggested in my first post on this thread. self feeding auger bits munch through green timber. i would not use worktop connectors as they are too weedy for this job. also i would be inclined to go for thicker rod as M10 on 4" slabs won't be that strong in the end. i'd go for M20 if that were my bench.

i'm surprised you say that was a joist, it's a bit of cherry...

i have a pillar drill which you are welcome to use if you want. in my opinion you don't need it. i did a job a few years ago that required the very same process and found it very simple to do. http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/woodcraft-forum/60100-all-my-woodwork-so-far-4.html my boards were only 8" wide and 3" thick but i used the same process as you are discussing with alec. the maple top was 2" thick. i slightly disagree with alec with regard to drilling from both sides, you can do this as long as you are accurate as this is how i did mine and then just pushed my long auger bit which is about 16" right through the middle and they all lined up perfectly. i think i used 15mm galvanised rod. one tip i have is to use a can of wd40 to lubricate the cut. i was going through oily iroko which clogged up drilling maple was problematic too so squirt plenty on whilst you drill. it also cools the drill keeping it straight. another tip would be to mark out each side so you know exactly where to drill and you can also make yourself a starter block. this is just a chunky block that already has a perfectly drilled hole to align the drill perfectly perpendicular to the edge before you proceed.

the other bit is a pine species not hawthorn.

that sleeper looks like it was an old bit of greenheart so well done for turning it mate.

i've just looked up kinetic splitter and they look great. 2-3 seconds of split time over 20-30 for a ram would win any day.

not bad for try's 2 and 4. got any better pics?

surely if he were to gather the bottom 3-4m of each butt and mill those before making kindling out of the rest he would have a better return. yes it means getting a mill in but £400 for the day and a dozen butts or more to mill must make sense over turning the whole lot into firewood?

i have seen blistered beech like that on pics on the net. also seen redwood burr look like that too.

there is a listing on woodlots from someone offering £250 per cubic foot of pure white holly timber. here is part of the advert. Holly, Clean White Dry Boards Wanted £250 a cubic foot paid for dry, white Holly boards. All thicknesses considered. Must be white, white, white! Lymington, Hampshire look on this page for the advert listed on 21/6/15 WoodLots

they are monsters for holly. i'd get that milled and get it to a kiln asap to preserve the colour. if the base is a 3' long and wide then i'd offer it to a luthier. try not to waste holly that size.

hornbeam will be useless for exterior projects as it's in the birch family and lasts about 5 minutes outdoors. if you want to keep oak rings for bird tables then drill out the middle (1" will do) and re-plug once dry. you can seal with paint or wax but to be fair i would expect to lose a fair few. for the house name plates i would go for diagonal cut birch cut at about 55 degrees perpendicular to the bole.

judging by the picture, really small ones:001_tt2:

i'll take it...

still looking for unusual species so feel free to email me a list of what you might be felling in the near future as i can tell you if there is anything i might want.

as per title, just wanted to know if it's any good. i know it's near blenheim palace and has steam engines and a sawmill there so want to go but was curious to know if anyone has been?