Big Timeline Table

[WDH]

 either maple or "oak" stump, who can tell!!! 

Maple, likely silver maple.

[doc henderson]

@YellowHammer it works but may be more work than you want.  that hand power planer worked fine even across the grain.  they make a resin for marine application to stabilize dry rot that might fill in.  the thick stuff on top may pop off in chunks if the wood is still shrinking.  yes is a maple @WDH I am trying to not live down my maple/oak debacle that @Southside likes to bring up along with chickens all the time.  Mine was very flat @Old Greenhorn for a living room piece, but for kids outside, I think you planer will work fine, I just kept doing a criss cross pattern, then sanded starting at 40 grit with a larger ROS on a angle grinder frame.  porter cable.  this was the bottom of the tree so had some flare and lots of character.  I did some boiled linseed oil then gloss spar poly, the min-wax.  brushed on the first few coats, light sanded 120 grit, then sprayed a few mirror coats. it got flat after about 5 1/4 inch passed but for the one root flare pointing at 4 o:clock.  had to take it down another 3 passes to get that.  had a tone of wood shavings when done.



 


ps.  I was born in 1960 if you want to add me to your timeline. :D :D :D.  I did hollow out the back to make it lighter and relieve stress (not my own)  and in hopes it would dry faster.  It has old looking metal 4 inch casters and rolls on our floors with the push of one finger.
pss.  I primarily use satin, but read that the rays in maple are brighter with a gloss finish.

[Don P]

I also can't see spending a fortune on Pentacryl.

It was mentioned above that someone soaks that in a kiddy pool of Pentacryl! That must take financing terms to accomplish. I swear by the stuff, but WHEW....it'll bust the bank, for sure! I need to reverse engineer the stuff and crack the code.

Yellow, I'd also wrap it in plastic after you've applied the pentacryl. (several time). This will slow it down and you can remove it on SAT's to thrill and awe onlookers! 8)

Out of my league, I think it is from this :P
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methacrylate

Uh, the base chemicals can catch fire and blow if handled wrong. There was a time when that added to the appeal :D

[doc henderson]

 I have used denatured alcohol for cookies and it seemed to help.  it displaces the water but does not fill in the gap.  less cracking and cheaper.  5 gallons for 32 bucks at menards.  I have not tried a big stump.  it only soaks for hours/days not months.  also flammable.     bon_fire    I soaked my 12 inch cookies stacked in a 30 gallon barrel with a lid.  

[YellowHammer]

I tried the Pentarcrly thing, it's a good idea, but....,I bought $80 of it, poured it on when the cutoff was fresh and it didn't even begin to cover it, much less soak in. :

It was like washing a car :D with a water pik.  But I tried.  

One of my friends who does flooring as said he'd loan me his big flooring sander, but that seems a little fraught with "Opps" moments.  I keep thinking there is some strategy I could use the front end loader or my forklift so I don't even have to break a sweat.   :D

Oh, well. I'll keep on cogitating on it.  I still have a little time.  

I have no plan.  This will be fun.  

[doc henderson]

the belt type are hard to handle, but they made a square buff that is more like and oscillating sander.  it would be easier. used to be able to rent them.  they made money on the sandpaper I think they were 12 x 18 ".

[Don P]

Hmm, the denatured alcohol isn't "bulking" the cell when the moisture goes away, is it just making the drying rate throughout the piece more uniform?

Wandering around looking at resins that might be able to bulk a cell cheaply. I know styrene has been tried in the past. Styrene was first made from the volatiles from the resin of liquidamber, sweet gum trees. The resin is known as storax. I don't know what else they did to it, on exposure it becomes hard and rubbery. You'd have to squeeze a lot of sweet gum to cover a big cookie.

That resin also has some interesting medicinal and anti fungal properties, even white and brown rot resistance @doc henderson;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441155/

[doc henderson]

I do not have a scientific explanation for the alcohol, but the "practical" explanation was it displaced the water, and alcohol did not cause the swelling and therefore less shrinking.  however the swelling is already there form the water.  I still tended to let them air dry some and finish in a box to slow the drying.  all I know is I have far less sapwood splitting in the soaked and slow dried cookies then left in the shop.



 



 



 

the heartwood split here, this is also a larger cookie.

[alan gage]

I've never looked at a stump grinder up close but is there any chance that with a level surface and good operator they could at least get it close to make the final cleanup a little more manageable?

Alan

[DPatton]

Not with any stump grinder I've seen or been around.

[Just Right]

YH,  you could wait till Jake gets a Slab Mizer and let him surface it for you.  Or if you can't wait there is a guy over this way that has a Wood Whizz.  And he only charges 10.00 a square ft.  Just a thought.  Here is a pic of a slab he let me flatten

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