Hope not a dumb question

Julio Navarro

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281
Location
Tampa
Has to do with them christmas trees we throw away.

I have a nice about 6" dia doug fir just waiting to be stripped and cut up, Its about dried up nice.

Is DF good for turning, I was wondering if after it is below a certain moisture content can the trunk be used for small turnings? Maybe cut into, say, 24" sections and make candle holders or something.

Thanks.
 
Julio,

I know nothing about turning except that it makes me dizzy if I do it too much!

However, how about turning a few ornaments from each year's tree to hang on the future trees? How cool to have the product of past trees to use as decoration for those to come!
 
Hi ya Julio!

Love that Avatar! :thumb:

I agree with the others, burn it, it will just make a mess, but then again, you could save the last 18" or so, cut it into 6" pieces and leave them on your shelf for a while (Seal the ends or they will crack) and they give it a whirl, if they are full of sap, like we think, then you will have some cool looking firewood, if they turn nice, you can prove us all wrong :D

Cheers!
 
I did keep a couple of ends that the tree place cut off when we bought the tree. I saved them just to see how much sap it would bleed. They have since dried a bit and I havent seen any sap. I may try and turn those and see if they turn any good.

How about palm trees? We a have a ton of em down here in Florida. Ive never seen what a palm tree trunk looks like not even sure if they are any good for wood working but if they are I can get a truck load for free.

(thanks for the compliment Stu, I ve been trying to sell that thing and get a nice Unisaw with the proceeds)
 
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Hey Julio,

I haven't done any turning so I probably can't help much, but I think palms are actually a member of the grass family like bamboo. If I recall correctly the trunks are very porous. I don't know if they could damage a lathe in any way, but if not why not give it a try? You may have something unique!
 
Is that a no?

Yes, NO in a big way. Lousy stuff to turn.
There is a place along the highway about halfway from where I live and Little Rock, Arkansas that puts cut-offs from pine that they make products from. There is usually a mountain of the stuff with a sign encouraging taking for free. Most probably is used for fireplace kindling. I took some hunks to turn. Ended up in scrap pile real quick. Stringy, doesn't behave, just flat lousy to turn. Good kindling though.
 
Julio, I don't know about the different palm species you have available, but black palm is difficult to turn but results in nice stuff. There are a few pics of a black palm screwdriver I made a while back in this thread.

On the spruce, like Stu suggested, you can always try it and if it's too sappy or stringy, you've got a fancy piece of firewood. ;)
 
Vaughn, those are really cool! I somehow missed your original post. One of these days I'll have to see if I can get the old lathe my dad gave me running and try some of the spinny stuff.
 
I did keep a couple of ends that the tree place cut off when we bought the tree. I saved them just to see how much sap it would bleed. They have since dried a bit and I havent seen any sap. I may try and turn those and see if they turn any good.

How about palm trees? We a have a ton of em down here in Florida. Ive never seen what a palm tree trunk looks like not even sure if they are any good for wood working but if they are I can get a truck load for free.

(thanks for the compliment Stu, I ve been trying to sell that thing and get a nice Unisaw with the proceeds)

Palm is another critter altogether. Some love to turn, some hate. I'm one of the haters. I bought some that was just labeled "palm" so I don't know if it was red, black or what. It was so hard, I was on the sharpening wheel after about three seconds of turning (yes, SECONDS). Finally gave up the project. Later did a trade with a friend and sent the large blanks to him. He loved.
I dunno. :dunno: Go figger.
Now, if you come across some Noway pine, that's another story. Turnable and knockout beautiful figure.
 
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