# Odds and Ends



## Horatio (Apr 4, 2012)

As I mentioned in my intro post, one of the things that has pushed me to take up wood working is my access to raw materials, namely, 825 acres of scub cedar, live oak, and assorted other bits and pieces. I'm not one of cutting down living trees when I don't need to or have the skill yet to turn them into something useful and artistic. 

As such, in all that space, there's plenty of material laying about, ready to be converted into...well, hopefully something interesting. Aside from trees that succumb to disease or get pushed over by the other owners, there's still items washed up from floods in the creek bed. 

So armed with my freshly serviced Stihl 260, I set out to do some scouting and bring a few pieces home. 

First up was this gnarly old cedar trunk that had been part of a fence at some point. On the upside, it has ALOT of character. Unfortunately, perhaps too much in that its shape will make it difficult to get solid slabs out of it. I got two cool looking ones out of it and cut a big section out I had intended to split but the shape of the trunk makes that a little far fetched. I'll probably go back and squeeze a few more slabs out of this one.


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## Dominick (May 2, 2011)

Those cookies will make great cocktail tables for sure. Nice catch


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## Horatio (Apr 4, 2012)

Evidently, the website doesn't like pics that came off the good camera. Meh, oh well, just some gnarly old dead trees laying about. 

Here's some mequite I cut off a branch taken down from a storm in my front yard:

















The most interesting or promising thing I found was a few live oaks that apparently died of some disease and are still standing. Fortunately, they are isolated and don't seem to have effected anything around them. And, they are easy to get too. The bad news is that they just don't grow straight so if one were to get their hands on a mill, it would still be difficult to get any length of boards out of them. Still, I can think of a million things to do with them. 

Just cutting up the cedar burned 3 tanks of gas in the saw so all I got was the two slabs and seperating the big trunk section out....and no way to get it home in the Jeep with the kids. 

Anyhow any ideas on what to do with any of this would be welcome. The slabs might become table tops for decorative end tables or some such.


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## Dominick (May 2, 2011)

Oh lord the possibilities are endless. Post pics when your done cutting, to better see what you have.


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## Horatio (Apr 4, 2012)

I cleaned up one of the cookies a bit , did some sanding and waxing on it but it needs alot more finish. The old metal bits are a possibility for the leg. I've got some other gears and sprockets and the like. 

I dunno. I'm going to sift through the junk in my FIL's basement Friday and see if there's anthing else I could use. I might just go with a cedar leg and a more uniform cookie or a block as the base. We'll see.


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

what became of this


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## Horatio (Apr 4, 2012)

MidGAOutdoor said:


> what became of this


Still looking for one more piece for the leg but it shouldn't be too hard to find something to work. The hard part is done. I hope to have it finished along with some other stuff in the next few days.


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## aardvark (Sep 29, 2011)

LOVE IT!
But you better get a glass top sized for it, or you'll lose your drink when you get a tad inebriated , and sit it down on one of those open areas, when seeing double.
.


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## Horatio (Apr 4, 2012)

aardvark said:


> LOVE IT!
> But you better get a glass top sized for it, or you'll lose your drink when you get a tad inebriated , and sit it down on one of those open areas, when seeing double.
> .


 
Hadn't thought about that but my wife does work in a frame shop so.....She could probably get a piece of glass fairly cheap. 

Struck out looking through one junk pile today so back to the construction yard. That's the downside of building stuff from scrap, its sometimes finding just the right piece(s) to fit.


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## aardvark (Sep 29, 2011)

Tempered Glass.
Something that size should be ~ $40.oo, but it won't shard and cut when you slam it.
You can get little clear neoprene like rubber pads with adhesive backing at Home Depot, for $2.00 so the glass never contacts the wood (standoffs), and it keeps the glass from slipping off.

I use em a fair bit.


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