No such thing as free wood!

[Mike Vickery]

I have to say their is no such thing as free wood, it is just a matter of how you pay for it. I got 5 log sections last week that were all about 14 inches for "free" 2 mesquite and three that I think are carob. Tuesday is chainsaw day since the wife and kids are gone when I get home from work. I have been cutting for the last hour and 1/2 and am exhausted. It is a warm day today in the desert and it is getting close to the end of turning season since my garage will be 100 degrees at night in another month or so need to get these roughed and drying before it gets to hot.

61690

[Neal Addy]

Nice haul! Think of it as a labor of love. :D

Glad to see someone else has a "turning season". I'm a wimp when it comes to Texas heat. Sweat and sawdust don't go together in my book.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

I thought for a moment that I would feel sorry for you but then my visits to Phoenix in 114 degree temps reminded me that you got it better than Houston. While we only hover in the high 90's to 100's most of the summer(April to October) we generally have 90 to 100% humidity on top of it. My garage has no air conditioning and the thermometer in my shop is at 105+ on the majority of days.

So Mr. Vickery, Where's your Commitment;:eek: you're Stamina;:eek: your Drive;:eek: your Determination?:eek: Where's Your I want to TURN or DIE Attitude??:eek: :eek: Get with it guy!:p This is no time to quit! Think of your garage as a Sauna. and all the weight you'll sweat off. Oh, I know, you aren't like the most of us you don't need to loose those unsightly pounds, right.

Did I just say all those things? Hmmm, must be the meds.:) :D :D

[Nancy Laird]

Why don't you guys just air-condition your shops? :rolleyes: :p Ours is, with a swamp cooler, and sometimes in the summer it gets chilly in there. No need to let a little heat keep you from a lathe. ;)

Nancy

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Nice haul! Think of it as a labor of love. :D

Glad to see someone else has a "turning season". I'm a wimp when it comes to Texas heat. Sweat and sawdust don't go together in my book.Addy, this is no time to wimp out!! Your a TEXAN Boy!! Born. or your choice doesn't matter! You're here now!!:D :cool:

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Why don't you guys just air-condition your shops? :rolleyes: :p Ours is, with a swamp cooler, and sometimes in the summer it gets chilly in there. No need to let a little heat keep you from a lathe. ;)

Nancy Ah..ah, gona let the girls beat us guys? Thanks for chiming in Nancy.:)

[Robert McGowen]

For a guy that can't stand up very well right now, that Hartley is on a roll.....:D


I figure by prisoner pay, at 16 cents per hour, that wood cost you less than a dollar. It's all relative...... :)

[Christopher Zona]

We're still expecting snow....

[Christopher K. Hartley]

We're still expecting snow....Wise Guy!! He, he, he!!:D

[John Chandler]

Why don't you guys just air-condition your shops? :rolleyes: :p Ours is, with a swamp cooler, and sometimes in the summer it gets chilly in there. No need to let a little heat keep you from a lathe. ;)

Nancy

The swamp coolers don't do very well in higher humidity. I am planning on my next (and last) house to have a workshop with ac/heat, fridge, running water, the whole works. Until then, I'll turn less in the summer.

[Neal Addy]

Nancy... I'm going to do that someday. It's on the list. No, really! :D

Mr. Hartley... yep, I'm a full-blooded Texan. Proud of his state and his air conditioner! Seriously, I don't know how you cope with your humidity in the summer. I spent a year in Houston once. I think it was on a Thursday.

Mr. Zona... snow? I envy you.

[Bill Boehme]

It is a warm day today in the desert and it is getting close to the end of turning season since my garage will be 100 degrees at night in another month or so need to get these roughed and drying before it gets to hot........
I agree with Chris Hartley -- I grew up in Houston and now live in the DFW area. I have also been in Phoenix in the summer when the temperature has been around 114 degrees -- I'll take the desert temperature over the Gulf Coast humidity ever time. It seems like a typical summer day in Houston is about 98 degrees and 98 percent RH and sweat is pouring off like rain -- that is before you start doing any work! When I grew up in Houston, we didn't have air conditioning and I didn't know that it was hot until after I had been in the Army for two years and then returned back to Houston. I was no longer acclimated to the humidity and it took a long time to get used to it again (what am I saying -- you never do)!

As far as a swamp cooler is concerned -- they don't work if you live in or near a swamp! We bought one when I was a kid before finally getting air conditioning after I graduated from high school (which also was not air conditioned) and the swamp cooler was less effective than an ordinary box window fan -- water in the swamp cooler never did evaporate -- if anything, there was more water in the reservoir after running it for a while.

Chris, good luck with your upcoming surgery and I hope that you have a very good and speedy recovery. I went through back surgery (L4-L5 fusion) back in November.

Bill

[Chip Sutherland]

I'm in the DFW area and my garage isn't cooled. I use a fan and when the LOML isn't home, I leave the door open to the house...except when I'm sanding. I've consider turning commando style but figured 'stupid is what stupid does'. Is a swamp cooler where you store your beer when listening to swamp music?

PS..I've watched condensation evaporate from a soda can in Phoenix in during a couple of weeks in August.

[Nancy Laird]

For those of you out of the know, a swamp cooler is a different type of air conditioner used in the southwest where the humidity is very low. It has a pump which pumps water over some fiber (paper or aspen) pads and when the air blows across the pads, it is cooled and humidity is introduced into the house--very helpful in places where the relative humidity hovers around 25% or less in the summer. It is THE cooler of choice here in the southwest, but when it rains and the humidity goes up, it isn't very effective at all. The biggest downside is that is does sometimes become infused with mold, which is not at all good for those allergic.

Refrigerated air works in humid areas by removing moisture from the air - witness the dripping from a window A/C onto the rose bushes below the window.

Nancy

[Jonathon Spafford]

Way to go with the wood... I don't think I would survive in Texas! I am sure I would shrivel in the heat... like the Washington weather ;)

[Jonathon Spafford]

I thought for a moment that I would feel sorry for you but then my visits to Phoenix in 114 degree temps reminded me that you got it better than Houston. While we only hover in the high 90's to 100's most of the summer(April to October) we generally have 90 to 100% humidity on top of it. My garage has no air conditioning and the thermometer in my shop is at 105+ on the majority of days.

So Mr. Vickery, Where's your Commitment;:eek: you're Stamina;:eek: your Drive;:eek: your Determination?:eek: Where's Your I want to TURN or DIE Attitude??:eek: :eek: Get with it guy!:p This is no time to quit! Think of your garage as a Sauna. and all the weight you'll sweat off. Oh, I know, you aren't like the most of us you don't need to loose those unsightly pounds, right.

Did I just say all those things? Hmmm, must be the meds.:) :D
That was a touching speech... especially in this cool weather I am enjoying now ;)

[David Walser]

Mike,

I just can't tell you how badly I feel for you. I tell you I'm crying buckets of tears just thinking of you working your fingers to the bone cutting up all that wood into turning blanks. All in a race against the summer sun. Oh, the humanity of it all! I hope your lovely bride has removed razor blades and other sharp objects from your home, or you'd be apt to take the easy way out and just end it all. I just don't understand how you can turn without any sharp objects...

Me? (Glad you asked.) I've got no such problems. By day, I'm a tax accountant. So, my "turning season" doesn't start until after April and lasts until the end of August (when the "real" tax busy season starts). Fortunately, while my shop is not air conditioned, I don't live in Gilbert, Arizona where it's too hot to turn in the Summer. I live in Mesa, Arizona, which is immediately north of Gilbert. Those few miles between our residence makes it possible for me to turn in the middle of July -- as long as it's very early in the morning or very late at night!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....Congrats on the haul! Quit your whining and get on with the cutting, sealing and rough turning!:eek: :rolleyes: :D

Just for the record for you weather freaks...Lewiston Idaho ain't no picnic in the summer! I've seen 120 degrees in the summer. We sit in the bottom of the Snake River Canyon. The elevation on main street is 650' above sea level. The surrounding area is 3600'. Our average annual moisture is 12". We start watering our lawns in May or they go dormant by late June. We have low humidity. Luckily the real hot stuff only lasts for about a 4 week period from the last week of July through the middle of August.

A swamp cooler would work here.

[Dario Octaviano]

You are much better than I am. The ones I collected a year ago (some are 2 years) are still in log form...some already cracked/checked :(

Good job slabbing the logs!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow Mike! Congrats on the wood score! Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of it!

[Jim Becker]

The good news is that mesquite is pretty stable stuff no matter what the moisture content, so that should take off some of the pressure to perform! (Congrats on a very nice haul!)

[Mike Vickery]

You guys are to much. I do not completely stop turning in the summer but I definately go out their a lot less and do not stay out as long. Dont worry though I still have a while till I get chased out of the garage by the heat. What can I say I am from Michigan and even after 10 years have not completely got used to the heat in AZ.

[Martin Braun]

Since the heat exchanger for the a/c is in my garage, it actually is about 10 degrees cooler than the outside. The other thing that helps, is I put insultation in the garage door. If you haven't done so already Mike, you can either pick up the kit from the big box, or just get the 1.5"x4'x8' panels and cut it yourself (a bit cheaper). It particularly helps with my garage, because it's East facing. Thus the sun doesn't heat up the garage as much in the morning.

Your other option is get one of those huge industrial fans, it will keep you cool *and* blow all the dust out of the garage ;). You'll be your own swamp cooler.

[Burt Alcantara]

Mike,
I'm curious what you will do with the slab on top of the large pile. Will you be making an end grain platter?

I have a number of similar slabs and I'm not sure what to do with them.

Thanks,
Burt

[Mike Vickery]

Mike,
I'm curious what you will do with the slab on top of the large pile. Will you be making an end grain platter?

I have a number of similar slabs and I'm not sure what to do with them.

Thanks,
Burt

Yep end grain platter is what I am planning for that one. Other wise those kind of piece get turned into bottle stopper blanks.

[TYLER WOOD]

I spent a year and a half in Phoenix while going to school. We played tennis in the hottest of hot days. I think the temp one day had gotten to about 119. I remember them saying it was one of the hottest days since it got to 122 in 1990.

Get over it and get turning on that lumber!!!:p

I think I am lucky living in west Texas. It only gets to about 105-110 on the really hot days, but there is no humidity. I stay in that garage all times of the summer.

But you won't catch me in there during the winter. My body dosn't like temperature lower than 55. Makes my joints ache.

[Neal Addy]

I think I am lucky living in west Texas.
There's something you don't hear every day! :D

[Kevin McPeek]

Well I don't know about all you tuff guys, but when I get home from work and roll into my garage, which faces west and my house is dark brown, the last thing I'm doing is trying to cool it off with a swamp cooler. Something about a knife in a gunfight comes to mind. It is probably 125+ in there and I ain't turning. I have tried, I'll do a pen here and there but nothing that takes any time. If I start early in the morning and get the cooler going I can turn most of the day, unfortunately most of my weekend mornings are filled with mowing the lawn and washing my car.
BTW Nice haul neighbor.

[Bill Wyko]

AAAAAHHHHYES arizona.....30 miles from water......3 feet from hell.:eek: It was 90 or so today here in Tucson. Hey Christopher did you get my e-mail?

[Christopher Zona]

Mr. Zona... snow? I envy you.
Yes, even this late in the year we are known to have one last spring snow. Shouldn't be too much, just a dusting. Just check the weather for the Greater Toronto Area. Probably some time between tonight and Saturday.

Ugh! I'm ready to be done with this.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

AAAAAHHHHYES arizona.....30 miles from water......3 feet from hell.:eek: It was 90 or so today here in Tucson. Hey Christopher did you get my e-mail?Yes, sorry I was going to get to it this morning and just forgot. Let me see if I can do better tomorrow. I am interested. Thanks.:)