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the early bird gets the wood...
saturday was our monthly woodturner's club meeting. i got there a little early, and that turned out to be a good thing.
as i was walking into the building, i noticed a few members surveying some logs piled in a trailer that was attached to a pick-up.
i walked over and asked what was going on.
one guy said, "doc fired up his sawmill and brought some wood. it's free for the taking. anything that doesn't get turned, get's burned."
WHAT?!?!
the trailer was brimming with slabs of walnut, maple, ash and cherry.
i wanted to get something, but i kept picturing my jet mini-lathe.
how am i going to cut and mount these pieces?
after a while it became evident that more people were passing up the wood, than were taking it.
so... i grabbed two of the smallest (10" diameter) cherry logs that i could find and threw them into the bed of my truck. i figured that i could cut them with my bow saw, if nothing else.
i went back to the trailer and just watched to see what was going on. i wanted to get more wood, but i didn't want to be greedy.
once it became obviuos that there weren't a whole lot of takers, i started hauling.
i snagged two hunks of ash (stacked on one another), i hunk of maple (complete with spalting and moss) and a hunk of box elder (nice pink inside and covered with wax to prevent drying). i would have grabbed some of the walnut, but the pieces were 18"-24" in diameter and about 24" long. i knew i would have a helluva time handling them, so i figured i'd pass.
all in all, i probably netted about 300lbs. of free hard wood.
when i got home, i went next door to ask my neighbor if i could borrow his chainsaw. he said the blade was broken. so, he handed me a 10lb. sledge hammer and splitting wedge and said, "good luck".
d-oh!
oh well, i got it all split down the middle.
and with a lot of elbow grease, i was able to cut the smaller cherry log into pieces that would fit on the mini.
the first piece roughed out without much fuss.
the second piece was waaaaay out balance, and it had the mini hopping acrosss the floor ( i started out on the bench, but i was worried the lathe would fall off).
i should have videod the antics. it would have made a good "things not to do on your lathe" demo. i may have even qualified as a runner-up for the darwin award.
after much wrestling and restraining, i got the second bowl roughed out.
290lbs. to go.....
