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First project using my sycamore

Started by PC-Urban-Sawyer, April 27, 2010, 09:34:43 PM

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PC-Urban-Sawyer

Back in early March I finally got Woodbowl to mill my cypress and sycamore logs.  (See this topic: https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,42628.0.html) The cypress is all still pretty wet (25 - 40 per cent moisture) but as Olen mentioned to me at the time, the sycamore, most of which is spalted, seemed quite a bit dryer. So I got a moisture meter and sure enough, much of it is below 10 percent...

So I decided to make my first project using some of the sycamore. One of our daughters, Amanda, recently sent us a great picture of four of the grandkids. She took the pictue and had it printed in black and white on canvas and it's a wonderful photo. I haven't hung it yet because it needs a nice picture frame. So thats going to be my first project using a little bit of the sycamore.

I pulled a thick 2x from the stack and cut out four pieces to make the frame.

Here's a couple of pictures of the rough cut pieces.



Rough cut pieces sitting on new WorkMate top.



Dampend with mineral spirits to bring out the color...


I don't have a joiner or thickness planer, so I'm improvising ways to smooth and true up the pieces using a small electric hand plane.



Jig to make it easer to plane the pieces flat and smooth.



Planer runs at an angle on the runners.



First side planed (will be back of frame...)

Herb

pigman

Looking good. 8)   
QuoteI don't have a joiner or thickness planer, so I'm improvising ways to smooth and true up the pieces using a small electric hand plane.
Where there is a will there is a way. ;)
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

fishpharmer

PC, you have been busy lately.  Glad the hand is well.  I understand Woodbowl can find the very best boards hiding in a log.  Glad to see you put them to use. 
Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

ljmathias

Neat stuff: that spalting looks like what I've been finding in the yellow poplar that (accidently) spalted in the log.  Makes beautiful furniture and shelving.

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

metalspinner

Spalted sycamore has become my favorate wood.  Your sample there is the reason why. :)

I can't wait to see your progress...
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

ely

great job. i love the sycamore too.

WDH

I just sawed a whack of sycamore, but it was a recently felled tree, so no spalt.

When are your new jointer and planer arriving  ???.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: WDH on April 28, 2010, 10:35:59 AM
I just sawed a whack of sycamore, but it was a recently felled tree, so no spalt.

When are your new jointer and planer arriving  ???.

May be a while. I just checked the weather report for H*LL and it's just a little over 900* F there today. My wife says that location will have to cool off a lot (can you say freezing?) before we can spend that kind of money...

Herb


LeeB

Real purty stuff. Watch out for knots. They make sicky more do funny stuff in a picture frame once you bring it inside and it finishes drying.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: LeeB on April 28, 2010, 04:16:44 PM
Real purty stuff. Watch out for knots. They make sicky more do funny stuff in a picture frame once you bring it inside and it finishes drying.

Lee

I cut these pieces so they are clear of knots. Hopefully the movement when finished and in the house will be minimal. These pieces are below 10 percent moisture content now...

Herb

WDH

Sell some of the cypress to finance a planer and jointer.  You can find some good deals on Craigslist.  You could find a used 12" planer and a 6" jointer for under $500 for the pair.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

PC-Urban-Sawyer

This afternoon I worked on finishing up planing the frame pieces to thickness and width.



Duck tape to hold the pieces togeather. Arrow points to line scribed showing how much to plane off this side.



Using small piece of wood to gauge when scribed line is aligned with the planer guide surface. 




Four pieces sized and ready to be routed and rabbited.

Maybe I should sell a bit of the sycamore. How about that WDH? Could I interest you in a little bit of spalted sycamore? Not much, just enough to finance a planer and joiner... Shouldn't be more than a couple of boards! :D

Herb

WDH

I am flush with sycamore at the moment  :D. 

Hard as that stuff is to dry, it will probably spalt in the air drying stack with our high humidity  :).

Bring the wood up here and I will plane and joint it for you.  We could also rout the profiles and do the glue-ups ;D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: WDH on April 29, 2010, 10:41:44 AM
Bring the wood up here and I will plane and joint it for you.  We could also rout the profiles and do the glue-ups ;D.

WDH

Thanks for the offer. Actually I've got a couple of local options to provide access to a planer. I just got impatient and decided to do this project the hard way.  ::)

You never know, I might get up your way one of these days. I'd be pleased to meet you and see what youi've got going.

Herb

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Yesterday I used my router and tablesaw to mill the profile on the frame pieces. Then I used my miter saw to cut them the right length (I hope, measured four times before cutting...) with miters on the end.



Profile, after end has been mitered.

The profile consists of a bead on the front outer edge, a 1/4" round over on the front inner edge and a deep rabbit to fit the photo.



One corner clamped up in a jig I made, waiting for glue to dry.



First two assembled pieces showing how it's going to look on the picture.



Closer shot of the first corner, showing the nice spalting pattern.

I'm pleased with how things are turning out so far. If the last two joints work out as well as the first two I'll be happy.

Herb

Left Coast Chris

Very nice work.  Spectacular spalting.  How long did the log take to spalt and what finish will you use?
Home built cantilever head, 24 HP honda mill, Case 580D, MF 135 and one Squirel Dog Jack Russel Mix -- Crickett

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: Left Coast Chris on April 30, 2010, 10:54:58 PM
Very nice work.  Spectacular spalting.  How long did the log take to spalt and what finish will you use?

Chris,

Thanks, it's actually working out better than I expected based on the conditions I'm working in.

The spalting was unplanned. After I acquired the logs and moved them to my back yard I basically ignored them for a long time due to being busy with other matters. The logs spent about two years on the ground in a heavily shaded area of my back yard. There was plenty of humidity but not much direct moisture except for rain. I moved them up off the ground onto a staging rack about a year or so ago. Here's a picture of the logs on the stage before Woodbowl came to mill them:



I'm not sure about the finish yet. I'm leaning towards using shellac but don't know for sure. I'll do a couple of samples with different finishes and decide which I like best.

Herb

metalspinner

PC,
You're going to find that that soft splated area will soak up finish like a sponge.  After building some cabinets with similar wood to yours, I ended up using flooring polyurethane because it was thick enough to not soak in and it build up a finish near the surface.  It sounds drastic, but, after that flooring finish dried, it gave the wood a good base onto which I could apply the real finish.

Next time, I will try a clear pore filler to see if I can build up a base coat faster than with the fooring stuff.
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

LeeB

I wonder if a gell finish would help.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Left Coast Chris

Thanks Herb,

The reason I asked, is that I have never cut Sycamore but a tree service just gave me two good sized logs.   I painted the ends and am waiting for my blades to come back from resharp.  It looks like it spalts pretty uniform and all the way through.  My problem is that it gets so hot with low humidity here in the summer the logs are likely to get big splits if I don't saw now.

As for the finish, it might be interesting to try either watco or verithane natural oil finish to see if it pops the grain and how it diferentiates the spalt then go over that with satin rub on poly.   Just a thought.  It could make it too dark but it may really pop the grain also.
Home built cantilever head, 24 HP honda mill, Case 580D, MF 135 and one Squirel Dog Jack Russel Mix -- Crickett

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Chris,

You're welcome.

I'm no expert on spalting. But I do know that the conditions that promote the formation of spalting require high moisture and are temperature sensative, both to low and high temps.

If I was in your situation, I think I'd go ahead and saw the logs now without trying to get them to spalt. If the logs are large enough to make it worthwhile, try to quartersaw as much as you can. The ray fleck can be truly awesome if you can catch it but you really have to be close to 90* vertical grain to get it.

The spalting is NOT uniform thoroughout the logs. The heaviest spalting is in the outer few inches both around the log and working in from the ends.

Herb

PC-Urban-Sawyer

I decided to install splines across the mitered corners to reinforce the joints.



Frame in jig to cut slot for spline.



Slot in corner to accept reinforcing spline.



Slot and spline ready to go.




All four spliness installed.



Corner showing rough trimmed spline.



Yes, it does fit.

Well, now all's left is sanding and finishing...

Herb

Ianab

Was going to suggest some splines like that for the corner, thats what I like to do for little jewelry boxes etc that I build sometimes. Gives you a bit of actual usefull glue area in the joint. A contrasting spline works good too, like a piece of walnut.

But looking good so far  :)

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: Ianab on May 01, 2010, 07:40:25 PM
Was going to suggest some splines like that for the corner, thats what I like to do for little jewelry boxes etc that I build sometimes. Gives you a bit of actual usefull glue area in the joint. A contrasting spline works good too, like a piece of walnut.

But looking good so far  :)

Ian

Thanks Ian.

Yes, "simple" miter joints don't offer strength. I didn't have any walnut or any other wood that would have contrasted greatly with the sycamore, so I just used scrap from the board the frame pieces were cut from.

Herb

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: Ianab on May 01, 2010, 07:40:25 PM
Was going to suggest some splines like that for the corner, thats what I like to do for little jewelry boxes etc that I build sometimes. Gives you a bit of actual usefull glue area in the joint. A contrasting spline works good too, like a piece of walnut.

But looking good so far  :)

Ian

Ian.

BTW, I see you're a Kiwi. My half-sister is from New Zealand. She's from Christchurch. My dad was stationed there in the Navy during the last part of WWII. It's beautiful there according to what I've seen. I'd like to visit but that's a long way to travel...

Herb

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