I saw this branch lying on the ground near Crows Nest National Park. (CNNP) The cross section caught my eye as a interesting Drink Coaster
so I brought it back home and with my bandsaw I cut it into useable billets.
then cut one of the most interesting sections into about 16mm thickness slices
my next intention was to produce an even thickness slabs to make drink coasters.
I made a thicknessing base and screwed a piece on and fed it into my thicknesser I fed it in and slowly lowered the blades to try and thickness them. All went well for a few passes then it disintegrated on me. so I tried again this time using hot melt glue to retain the piece, again all went well for a few passes and I though I was getting somewhere. However again it disintegrated.
I decided to give up on the process as t was not working well. So I stopped to reassess the whole process.
a couple of questions to the brains trust if I may. 1. How would you do it. 2. In your opinion do you think its a achievable or am I wasting my time. 3. Or just completely crazy, and i should just turn the tools off and walk away. Oh and almost forgot is it actually sheoak or something different.
Hi Steve, Thanks for the reply and suggestion, it makes you wonder as you get older just how much you seem to stop thinking. I actually doubted my idea would work in the first place but failed to consider other options,. I have all the tools you mention however didnt think to consider them so thanks.
I will power p the disc sander tomorrow and continue on. Thanks again
I would just simply let you do it and grant you the luxury of all the hassles and failures...
2. In your opinion do you think its a achievable or am I wasting my time.
That's 2 questions, but the long answer is...
No
Yes
3. Or just completely crazy, and i should just turn the tools off and walk away.
BTDT... Thicknesser is not reserved for Queenslanders' mentality.
I'm no engineer... the closest I got was to catch these red rattlers in Victoria during the 70's, However, (back to your stump) at the early passes there was enough "meat" to support the sides, but as it gets thinner, it will shred like pulled pork (preferably cooked... saves the blood).
May I suggest you abandon your quest for that wallet and buy a new one... then use that to amass your shekels to buy a replacement sander, as Amelia will never flash yours again.
Looking at the gnarled wood, I would suggest stabilising... flood it with CA or soak it in Earl's before maybe 1/2 thicknesser passes and then go sanding. Maybe seal the surface and you could use some vac clamps to hold the odd shapes for sanding... ROTEX... don't get blindsided by pottzy'sBos¢h.
Failing that, start drinking out of casks... they don't need bloody coasters. Fire up Treasures of Nadia... it'll give you inspiration, or at least take your mind off your troubles.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I use a router sled to thickness end grain Rob. Then I use a low angle plane to finish the faces. On something that small though, I’d probably just sand it.
Thinking about it more Rob, with that many to do, I'd set up a router sled. Just stick them to a flat surface with some carpet tape and rig up something like this. Flatten one side, flip them over and finish to thickness then sand the tool marks out. That way you get uniform thicknesses and perfect flatness. If it was just one or two, I'd use a belt sander but for that many, this will be faster and give more consistent results.
Hi Rob. When I make coasters out of a rough branches, I put the piece in a V block and then use a miter gage to feed the piece in the block through the band saw. I index it the thickness wanted and then make another cut and the piece is parallel. I have to put a wedge under the end of the piece that is sticking out to support the cut. The same thing can be done on a miter saw, but any movement in that V block and you could have a disaster because of the power of the tip of that blade...........................Cheers, ,Jim
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
If you've determined what thickness you want these to be, I'd try taking a piece of plywood and thickness it to desired height. Then get a pencil, mark around your cross section and cut it out with a jigsaw. Clamp down your plywood, Get some double sided carpet tape, tape the cross section down in the hole in the plywood and then level it witha plane and finish with a sander.
Thereby may be your issue... what the hell is CNNP... Google brought up a swag of "China National N...". Maybe their flaky products are not reserved for machinery.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I would glue the pieces on plywood. Normally with carpet tape (I never make holes) or a glue stick. Carpet tape is faster. Than I would sand it on a drumsander.
