Clint Baxter
08-03-2016, 12:46 PM
Had to take down a huge box elder after it dropped one of it's limbs in the backyard. Was lucky when the limb came down between the house and the garage, harming nothing other than the one trash can it landed squarely atop of. The limb was over 20" in diameter where it connected to the main trunk. There were two similar limbs on the tree, one aimed at the house, and the other overhanging the power to the house and garage. The main trunk was rotted in the center and it would have been just a matter of time before one or both of the other limbs let loose as well.
I've been eyeing this tree ever since we bought the place, as the trunk and limbs have burls all over it. I was just afraid that the center would be all rotted out and there wouldn't be any good chunks for turning. Upon dropping the main trunk, found that there was a large section on the outside that was all sound and a separate inner section that was also solid. Needless to say, there was a lot of wood for turning. Even the outer sections alone had to be cut down to fit on my Nova DVR which has a 16" capacity.
As for the wood, the trunk is loaded with some extremely nice figure. It has curl, burl eyes and is loaded with flame figure. Throw in some bark exclusions and you've all the makings for some interesting turnings. The trunk was over four foot in diameter at the base which made it interesting to cut through, especially when using a 20" bar. 341885 I cut out a couple rings for some eventual table making. 341876
A close friend ended up putting down Buddy, his hunting dog, on the 2nd of July and asked me to turn an urn for his cremains. Seeing as he didn't have any special request for what wood to turn the urn from, I figured I should be able to come up with a nice piece from one of the blanks.
Threw some pieces on the lathe around July 4th, and green turned them. The wood was very wet and the pieces were thrown into the microwave on a semi-frequent basis to try to dry them down to where I could finish turn them. After three weeks on on-again, off-again microwave sessions, the blanks were pretty much at equilibrium with our ambient moisture here.
Back onto the lathe for some finish turning and this is what I ended up with for Buddy's urn.
341879341880341873341878
Probably could have done something more elaborate for the top, but he wanted to have a place to laser engrave Buddy's name and details.
Clint
I've been eyeing this tree ever since we bought the place, as the trunk and limbs have burls all over it. I was just afraid that the center would be all rotted out and there wouldn't be any good chunks for turning. Upon dropping the main trunk, found that there was a large section on the outside that was all sound and a separate inner section that was also solid. Needless to say, there was a lot of wood for turning. Even the outer sections alone had to be cut down to fit on my Nova DVR which has a 16" capacity.
As for the wood, the trunk is loaded with some extremely nice figure. It has curl, burl eyes and is loaded with flame figure. Throw in some bark exclusions and you've all the makings for some interesting turnings. The trunk was over four foot in diameter at the base which made it interesting to cut through, especially when using a 20" bar. 341885 I cut out a couple rings for some eventual table making. 341876
A close friend ended up putting down Buddy, his hunting dog, on the 2nd of July and asked me to turn an urn for his cremains. Seeing as he didn't have any special request for what wood to turn the urn from, I figured I should be able to come up with a nice piece from one of the blanks.
Threw some pieces on the lathe around July 4th, and green turned them. The wood was very wet and the pieces were thrown into the microwave on a semi-frequent basis to try to dry them down to where I could finish turn them. After three weeks on on-again, off-again microwave sessions, the blanks were pretty much at equilibrium with our ambient moisture here.
Back onto the lathe for some finish turning and this is what I ended up with for Buddy's urn.
341879341880341873341878
Probably could have done something more elaborate for the top, but he wanted to have a place to laser engrave Buddy's name and details.
Clint