Huge maple bowl blanks. How to ship?

[Al Wasser]

Find a turning club near you and arrange to sell at the meeting

[dirk martin]

I'm really liking the idea of roughing them out.
Something like:

1. Rough them out, leaving walls 1.5 - 2" thick.
2. Soak in a big tub of alcohol for 2 or 3 days.
3. Put my moisture meter on them, and watch the moisture drop.
4. As soon as I see the moisture drop to 15% or so, sell 'em.

This way I get to have a little fun with them, too. Afterall, I will admit my favorite part of turning bowls, is roughing them out.

I'll either do that, or chainsaw them down, to fit tight in a 12" x 12" priority box, at 6" thick (high).....and sell them wet.

[John K Jordan]

A freight company is about the only choice, a little cheaper if you can take the items to them rather than schedule a pickup. Unfortunately it is not cheap - I've paid $250+ to have a 300 lb pallate with equipment shipped across the country. Some people do make money selling big wood long distance but that is mostly for burls and big slabs of spectacular wood.

Worse than that, as others mentioned the market for green maple is likely to be slim anywhere closer to where it grows. (Wood is free in Tennessee!) You might make a killing if you prepared a truckload of quality blanks and drove them out west where hardwood is scarce. I once had a visitor from the southwest who bought every hardwood chunk and slab from my sawmill that would fit in the vehicle, bottoming out the springs, and drove it home. This wood, cherry and walnut and the like, was simply unavailable in that area and pretty valuable.

Note that if you cut the chunks into pieces they get more valuable if dry and the more they are processed. I have blanks that have been drying since 2003 and earlier. What I generally do is section the chunks roughly with my larger bandsaw, anchor seal the end grain, and put them up to air dry. After some years I recut them, removing any end grain cracks and squaring up the sides. This allows close examination of the quality and figure so what you get is likely closer to what you see. If I see exceptional color or figure I may even sand and oil or paste wax a side or two to give an idea of the final look. (I mark any remaining visible defects with a red sharpie to minimize surprises whle turning!) These blanks have been very popular at our monthly wood raffles, auctions, and as gifts to woodturners. Most are spindle blanks between 1.5 and 5" square with some bowl or vessel blanks. I prepare all of my own blanks like this, domestics and sometimes exotics, and currently have a couple of lifetimes of turning wood! Every woodturning visitor goes home with wood. :-)

Another idea: if you are a woodturning club member you might prepare a number of green blanks and challenge your club members to turning a bunch of bowls or something to donate to people who will appreciate them very much. Assisted living places, nursing homes, hospitals, and school teachers are a few that come to mind.

JKJ

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

I cut up/process a fair number of trees the last few years.

I try to cut the majority of blanks small enough that they can be turned on a mini-lathe (8-10" length, x 3-4" thickness). Even in a club of our size - most members have smaller lathes and want smaller blanks. I'll reserve some of the larger trunk pieces for larger pieces (or my personal stash - though my stash has now grown beyond manageable proportions, LOL)

anyway - I'll take a load of wood to the meeting, and sell it. Let the buyer name the price. It works out pretty well for me, (cover gas and expenses) and the buyers are happy.

lately, I've been selling wood and all the proceeds go towards a scholarship fund that the club has. That works well too.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Another point to consider.
Just about every state has some kind of restriction about shipping "raw" wood across their border.
At the very least, they want the bark removed.
Some simply ban everything but commercial processed wood.

They are concerned about the movement of non-native insects and diseases.

[allen thunem]

thats a lot of alcohol to soak that much wood in
how far from st louis are you??
drop me a pm

I'm really liking the idea of roughing them out.
Something like:

1. Rough them out, leaving walls 1.5 - 2" thick.
2. Soak in a big tub of alcohol for 2 or 3 days.
3. Put my moisture meter on them, and watch the moisture drop.
4. As soon as I see the moisture drop to 15% or so, sell 'em.

This way I get to have a little fun with them, too. Afterall, I will admit my favorite part of turning bowls, is roughing them out.

I'll either do that, or chainsaw them down, to fit tight in a 12" x 12" priority box, at 6" thick (high).....and sell them wet.