Last Saturday Paul arranged a field trip for BAWA to visit Aborica, a wood supply company promoting wood stewardship.
Aborica has a gigantic lumber yard in a remote area of Marin west of Novato.
We were shown around and told about their advanced wood conservatory efforts.
The outing had one of the largest turnouts of any BAWA outing I remember.
Slabs
Saws
Chain saw
Band saw
Drying
The Drying Shed
Wall of Marin Oak aging
In the drying shed Aborica are developing ways to increases the yield and efficiency of drying wood
It starts with having a very flat, smooth, concrete floor to stack the wood on.
To minimize warping, the stacks of wood are sometimes topped with a heavy, flat, concrete slab
(see the grey slab of concrete sticking into the right hand edge of the picture
and another big slab near the top of the second stack)
Keeping the stacks flat and under pressure discourages the wood from bending and buckling.
Better use of wood
In one corner of the yard is an experimental area:
In the middle, a traditional log cut from a tree trunk to make a seat.
In the foreground; the same functional seat but cut in a way that it is less likly to split and rot.
If you look under the seat you can see that it has been hollowed out to leave a much thinner section of wood to dry.
An old Wadkin pattern maker, once used for making the wooden forms that are pushed into sand to form the molds for casting metal, now used for turning out the center of tree trunk seats.
The Future
Aborica have been building this very large workshop in preperation for their next machine
which will occupy this whole space and allow them to slice and flatten sections of tree trunks much larger than now.
Scott started by showing a travelling work/tool box that he has been designing and tuning through use.
It holds measuring instruments, Japanese saws, and other tools in a very useful, neat and compact box.
Scott is planning to hold a class in the future for people who would like to build a similar tool box.
Scott then talked talked about the 6 dining room chairs he was commissioned to design and build.
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Scott's talk included full-sized line drawings, pictures of the work in progress, and videos of him shaping the individual pieces of the chairs. The client wanted the chairs to swivel and tilt, so he bought steel mechanisms to do that. He made a mock-up of the chair design and sent it to the client, who wanted the chair to be an inch or two wider. Scott modified the chair accordingly. He purchased 100 board feet of Tan Oak from Arborica. The wood he bought had been drying for over 20 years, so it was nice and stable. It was 3 and 4 inches thick with lots of splitting.
Initial milled blanks
The Spalted Tan Oak
Complex jigging
Frames
Shaping on the backs
Curved stapled arms
Scott made full size drawings and made patterns from plastic sheet stock. He used Japanese pull saws and the table saw to make much of the joinery. He used Japanese planes, rasps, and scrapers to shape the curved chair arms. Scott made bent laminations for the curved chair backs. After the glue dried on the laminated chair backs, he put them into his shave horse so he could scrape the excess glue off and finalize the shape.
He finished the chairs with Tung Oil and Awesome Wood Finish.
Tom Gaston mentioned that Tung Oil will only dry properly if applied in very thin coats.
Laura Rhodes suggested woodbywright.com is a good starting place to look for antique and used tools.
Harry brought in a floor lamp with a Redwood Root base,
3/4" copper pipe vertical riser and a purchased copper lamp shade.
Note: Harry's lamp was vertical, the photographer was not.
Laura Rhodes
Laura showed the 3 legged stool she made in Poplar.
The legs and cross pieces were turned on the lathe that she restored.
She plans to paint it with milk paint.
Bruce Powell
Bruce showed his curved front door mold
and sample laminated door front.
He wishes to donate it to the silent auction.
Tom Gaston
An end-grain cutting block made from
Black Acacia, Walnut and one other wood.
Tom also showed pictures of his Walnut coffee table
For the first time in many months we ran a Silent Auction
Lloyd Worthington-Levy brought in a number of tools to auction off, including a height gauge, marking gauge, skew chisels for 1/2 blind dovetails and a chamfer cutting spokeshave.
There are also a couple of unused Rockler guides to help install drawers that will offered in next months Silent Auction.
It is the first time we have had a Silent Auction at a Hybrid Meeting.
We will create a procedure by the next meeting which will allow Zoom attendees to participate better.
The production involved Jon Kaplan coordinating our in-person slides
Bruce Powell transmitting the meeting to Zoom
Paul Krenitsky was our official camera operator
The production also involved several assistants moving Silent Auction items
and much more
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