Huge maple bowl blanks. How to ship?

[dirk martin]

As you can see in the photo, I've got some huge bowl blanks.
I just won't have the time to turn them. The big boys are maple, and weight in at about 170 pounds each. I want to put them up for sale, but not sure how I can ship them.

Anyone have some ideas on that? They are well beyond USPS limits. Is my only option to chainsaw them down, smaller, before I sell them?

311650

[Bill Clifton]

I am trying to ship a table and lamp. They are in a 40" x 40" x40" box made so a forklift can get under it. I said the box weighs 250# - probably less. I called a couple of trucking companies here locally. I got prices in the $500 - $600 range. I did require local delivery at the far end. Maybe this added $100. The cheapest I found was UPS at $400. The point is that you and I cannot afford to ship an item.

You will end up with a local sale. Perhaps contact some clubs in your area.

[Tim Rinehart]

Won't do much for your really big pieces, but worth looking into FedEx OneRate for some pieces like 12" cubes and such. Pretty reasonable, similar to USPS Priority Flatrate, but some bigger sizes.

[dirk martin]

Bummer.
Maybe I'll just chainsaw them down into smaller vase blanks....

[Jack Mincey]

I would think if you cut them into round blanks that they would be reduced in weight enough to be much easier to manage or ship. You can either wax or seal up with plastic wrap to prevent checking until the recipient is able to turn them. I prefer plastic wrap or a large plastic bag since I dislike the wax getting on my floor and making it slick when I turn the wax off of blanks.
Jack

[Michelle Rich]

I think it would be easier to sell smaller pieces, and ship them too.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

The thing about wood is you just can't tell what is inside a bowl blank. That makes paying for shipping a real crap shoot. Besides, unless you coat the blanks with wax, they will degrade quickly into firewood. Two thoughts, try Craig's List for local pick up or maybe you want to become a hero to your local turners club and give them away. I guarantee you'll make a lot of friends.By the way, nice parallel cuts on those blanks.

[William Bachtel]

Most turners who turn big wood, have means of getting it local. They also don't want to pay for the shipping. Now if that was burl, we wood be talking a different story. Good Luck on the shipping.

[Reed Gray]

Probably difficult to sell for anything other than fire wood. The one on the tailgate looks like it has a big crack coming off the pith down through most of the piece. The problem with using a bandsaw mill to cut them up it that you can't selectively cut each round. They are bigger than most people want.

robo hippy

[Olaf Vogel]

If you have one buyer who will take the lot, then toss em on a skid and freight the whole thing.
but even that will run $300+, so most people wont pay that and might not be worth your time & effort.

I've played with that idea before, but concluded that it has be to pretty valuable wood, available real cheap to make the shipping worth while.
So then I'd receive 1000# of wood, turn it into 100# of finished product. sigh...

Unfortunately, you're about 9 hrs away, or I might volunteer to pick them up with my trailer
Oh wait, I still have a few 1000 lbs of maple blanks that are thawing out. :)

Its a shame to let it go to waste though..

[dirk martin]

I won't let it go to waste.
I've already got them all Anchorsealed.
I'm leaning towards chainsawing them down, to fit in 12" x 12" x 8" boxes.

[Prashun Patel]

I'd rough out and sell the rough outs. You'll save on shipping, and can charge a little more premium.

I think UPS has a 150lb limit also.

LTL will cost you a lot too.

I'd do Craigslist for local pickup or rough them out.

[Olaf Vogel]

From the left side of my brain...

Now about turning legs, sticking them on the bottom and making them into end tables / coffee tables.
Similar to this: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0010/0852/products/Rustic_Reclaimed_Log_Bench_grande.jpg?4481

You might be able to sell them for a lot more $$$

[Glen Blanchard]

I purchase 99% of my blanks - the vast majority online. Most of them are 12x12x4 and sometimes 12x12x5. I cut them in quarters and tum hollow forms that wind up being about 5.5" in diameter, which I think is a popular size. The folks from which I have purchased, advertise free shipping. They merely put the blanks in a USPS flat rate box. I buy mostly cherry and ambrosia maple. A 12x12x5 blank of cherry sells for $50. Perhaps that pricing will help you gauge the profitability of doing it in this manner.

[Ryan Mooney]

palletize and send via freight if you can find a buyer.

Fastenal has reasonably price third party logistics:
https://www.fastenal.com/en/22/third-party-logistics-%283pl%29

[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.