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A friend of a friend had to take down a big oak tree yesterday, so the Ranger and I went to pay him a visit this afternoon. I’m guessing the smallest piece is a little under 100 pounds, since I could lift it a little way off the ground (briefly). The others were strictly roll or moving dolly material. The lift gate brings a smile to my face every time I use it.
Here’s the load. I failed to get a good side shot of the truck, but it was pretty hunched down on the springs. I could tell it was loaded when I was driving it, but I only had a couple of miles to travel. (I had the color balance set wrong on my camera for the first couple of pictures, hence the green truck):
And a couple shots of it all unloaded…the yellow-looking stuff on the side is some eucalyptus that’s probably the worst wood I’ve ever tried to turn. Very acidic (it reeked of hydrochloric acid and it rusted my lathe beds within minutes of contact), but it also cracks at the mere though of drying. I’m going to cut it up small enough for the green bin and throw it away:
This big trunk slab is only about 8” to 12” thick, so it won’t yield any real big pieces, but it may have some interesting bark inclusions and stains in the finished piece. (Or it may be total junk once I get inside of it.)
And here’s one of the perils of working with “yard” wood. This one’s not bad since it’s pretty visible…
…but this one could sneak up on you pretty easily if it weren’t for the wire sticking out:
This is my first experience with oak on the hoof. I'm not sure what type of oak it is. The fresh cut ends are red (as you can see in the pics), but I'm wondering if it could be one of the other oaks we have in California. The leaves most closely matched the blue oak example shown here:
http://hastings.berkeley.edu/OakStory/TreeOaks.html
Any ideas?
Here’s the load. I failed to get a good side shot of the truck, but it was pretty hunched down on the springs. I could tell it was loaded when I was driving it, but I only had a couple of miles to travel. (I had the color balance set wrong on my camera for the first couple of pictures, hence the green truck):
And a couple shots of it all unloaded…the yellow-looking stuff on the side is some eucalyptus that’s probably the worst wood I’ve ever tried to turn. Very acidic (it reeked of hydrochloric acid and it rusted my lathe beds within minutes of contact), but it also cracks at the mere though of drying. I’m going to cut it up small enough for the green bin and throw it away:
This big trunk slab is only about 8” to 12” thick, so it won’t yield any real big pieces, but it may have some interesting bark inclusions and stains in the finished piece. (Or it may be total junk once I get inside of it.)
And here’s one of the perils of working with “yard” wood. This one’s not bad since it’s pretty visible…
…but this one could sneak up on you pretty easily if it weren’t for the wire sticking out:
This is my first experience with oak on the hoof. I'm not sure what type of oak it is. The fresh cut ends are red (as you can see in the pics), but I'm wondering if it could be one of the other oaks we have in California. The leaves most closely matched the blue oak example shown here:
http://hastings.berkeley.edu/OakStory/TreeOaks.html
Any ideas?