Curlius Gloatus

[Bill Grumbine]

Greetings all

I don't often post gloats on wood, but this is one I could not resist. I was up at my local sawmill yesterday to buy some figured white oak to rebuild the lathe stand for my mini Vicmarc. The old stand never got beyond the prototype stages, so I had a combination of dovetailed red oak and drywall screwed lauan plywood. It was never pretty, and it had suffered much abuse over the years with travel, students, etc. I have some demonstrating coming up where it will be required, and it gets some decent use here in the shop too, so I resolved to do it up right this time. But they were fresh out of the boards I had hoped to find.

While lamenting this fact with the yard boss, he asked me if I would be interested in some curly hard maple. I had already specified that I wanted a figured, but durable wood for all the knocking around this thing sees. They hardly ever get this stuff, and it had come in with a batch of straight grained stuff. So we went over to the planing building where the stuff was stashed. It did not take me long to decide, let me tell you! I told him the hard part was going to be using it for a lathe stand. I should still have enough left over for some smaller projects, or one more medium sized piece. I walked out with 35 bdf of this stuff. One board is 12" wide, one is 10" wide, and the rest are smaller like these two. They are all curled like these two. :D

I didn't know whether to post this here or on the turning forum. It is flat work, but to hold a spinny thing. What would you have done?

Bill

[Bill Webber]

So who/where is the "local saw mill"? Or is it a secret :rolleyes:

Bill... just collecting data points for PA.

[Jim Becker]

Good find, Bill! And there is nothing wrong with using figured stock for your traveling lathe stand...in fact, I think it's a great idea!

[Dennis Hatchett]

One board is 12" wide, one is 10" wide, and the rest are smaller like these two. They are all curled like these two. :D

Those sound like the perfect boards for a luthier. Wide figured boards ready for resaw. You could get quite a few guitar backs and sides out of those. Ready for a new Hobby?:o

[Mark Valsi]

OK,

I'll be the rude one and ask what's on everyone's mind.

What's the cost ????

[Dennis Peacock]

Don't know about PA, but I can get curly maple here for $3.50 BDFT, kiln dried.

[Dennis Peacock]

Hey Bill,

I'd have to agree with Jim B. That beautiful curly maple would be a nice "touch" for the lathe support/stand. :D
Show that stuff off....it's too pretty to hide. ;)

[lou sansone]

real nice bill
it would look nice on the lathe stand
lou

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi guys!

Bill, the sawmill is Bailey's Wood Products in Kempton PA. I led a tour of Five Barns attendees a few years ago, and they all accused me of a deceptive course to preserve the secrecy, but the roads are somewhat windy. :D They are working on a website and hope to ship wood eventually, but I don't know when you will see stuff like this. They don't get much of it, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Dennis, I hate to disappoint, but these will not likely see a guitar, or anything more musical than the whirring of spinning wood on the lathe.

Mark, I paid $7.00/bdf for the wide boards and $6.00/bdf for the skinny. This is hard maple, not soft, and so more expensive than what I normally pay for curly stuff. In fact, they get so little of this they had to extrapolate the price from their soft maple offerings. Given the figure and the quality of the wood, I am not complaining at all.

I appreciate all the comments, and I will be sure to post pictures of the stand when it is finished.

Bill

[Jason Tuinstra]

Bill, very nice maple! I look forward to seeing the stand when it's done.

[Chris Padilla]

Mmmm, curly maple.....

[Sam Chambers]

Man, I'm jealous of you guys up north. You get all the pretty curly stuff.

(I know..."Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's stash of curly maple...)

[Peter Dougenik]

that's some sweet looking curly maple Bill! man, you trip over the best stuff :cool:


BTW - you're a stop and a half underexposed...tsk tsk:p

[John Shuk]

Well a professional turner showed me a handle he had made out of about $75.00 of snakewood. His thought was that if he hoped to make beautiful things then he would surround himself with beautiful thing. So enjoy using a beautiful lathe stand.

[Jerry Ingraham]

I, too, wish to place a request for pic's of the completed stand as I need to build one for my Mini Rikon. Nice score Bill!

[Bill Grumbine]

BTW - you're a stop and a half underexposed...tsk tsk:p

I had some better exposures - somebody's big fat hand got in the way of the flash on this one - but I was going for color saturation to show the grain a little better. How's this one? ;)

Bill

[Peter Dougenik]

more better ;)

now we can see the nice white tone of the wood, man is that gonna like nice when it's got some finish on it...or should I say nicer when it's got finish on it, looks dang nice already :)

[Bill Grumbine]

Thanks Peter. I plan to dye it with some Homestead antique maple dye to pop the grain and make it look older. I'll be sure to get some pics of it for everyone to see, assuming of course, that if comes out properly. :D

Bill

[Jason Roehl]

Bill, just don't let the syrup out of those--they're suh-weet!

[Peter Dougenik]

Thanks Peter. I plan to dye it with some Homestead antique maple dye to pop the grain and make it look older. I'll be sure to get some pics of it for everyone to see, assuming of course, that if comes out properly. :D

Bill

I just did a set of mills (salt n pepper grinders) out of curly maple and hit em with some TransTint antique maple, gave them the perfect "old tiger highboy look". gave it some extra zing by doing a diluted coat of dye and then sanding it down again after it dried before doing a full strength coat as per the formula I read in a magazine that talks about fine woodworking.

come to think of it, they came out looking a lot like a certain bowl gouge I've seen and briefly used ;)

can't wait to see the finished stand!