Steve Wurster
07-20-2014, 9:37 AM
I have the opportunity to get a log of (apparently) red maple for free from some friends of ours. The tree was hit by lightning and the arborist that helped take away the tree said this piece was the best (i.e. wasn't just good for firewood). The piece is about 45 inches long and about 25 inches in diameter; I assume that measurement includes the bark. A local mill will turn it into boards for me and dry it in their kiln at what seemed like a decent rate per hour.
So my question is, what could I do with this? It's not long enough to build anything big with it (e.g. I have some quilt racks to build but they'll be 5+ feet tall). I don't turn, so making bowls or anything like that is not an option. I figured I could always make maybe a small console table out of it, possibly with a live edge (the mill will cut it that way if I want), but I would want to know that ahead of time in order to get them to cut some boards at 8/4 for the legs and maybe 6/4 for the top. Does anyone have any other ideas for what to do with this short but fairly wide piece?
I've also never worked with red maple. Is there anything special I should know about this species?
Thanks,
Steve
So my question is, what could I do with this? It's not long enough to build anything big with it (e.g. I have some quilt racks to build but they'll be 5+ feet tall). I don't turn, so making bowls or anything like that is not an option. I figured I could always make maybe a small console table out of it, possibly with a live edge (the mill will cut it that way if I want), but I would want to know that ahead of time in order to get them to cut some boards at 8/4 for the legs and maybe 6/4 for the top. Does anyone have any other ideas for what to do with this short but fairly wide piece?
I've also never worked with red maple. Is there anything special I should know about this species?
Thanks,
Steve