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A Portrait of the Workshop in April

jackbaumgartner — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:18:31 +0000

The provision for me in my shop this past week: cutting dovetails in black walnut for a chest, some goat-milk and lime paint for the butcher block legs, and finishing up the milling of the mighty locust.

Oak, Iron, Copper, Pine, and Walnut

jackbaumgartner — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:50:34 +0000

Sawing Locust

jackbaumgartner — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:12:40 +0000

My 5 year old son Obediah helped me document the sawing of a hefty locust log yesterday. The creative shot above is one of his.

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Beautiful Burl

prwashburn — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:13:49 +0000

As woodworkers we love wood. As a medium it seems to have an infinite diversity in what you can achieve with the right piece. Every piece looks a little different, has different figure or color, and can do unique things when worked in various ways.

We all know how we felt when we first saw a beautiful piece of highly figured wood. It invokes in us something which is hard to put words to. The video I want to link to today is one I stumbled upon that reveals the unique process of getting the beautiful grain to show up in a board. This video was made by Wood Treks. I highly recommend this site as a place to find great videos on wood and woodworking.

I have found it so important as a woodworker to learn about how sawmills cut the wood that I work. I can learn so much about the wood by understanding the process, which informs the decisions I make when working with it. So enjoy this video about how a sawyer gets the beautiful grain to show up in a board.

Jig for Flattening Slabs

jackbaumgartner — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:09:29 +0000

I read about this method for flattening large slabs in a publication (Woodwork I think) a year or two ago. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the article in order to reference it. As I work with irregular slabs, too large for my machines, I expect it to be a reasonable and effective method for flattening large slabs, in this case, eastern red cedar.

The router is mounted to a 4′ sled which rides across two parallel fences (jointed 2×4′s smoothed and waxed). The router has an 1-1/4″ straight cut bit, and mounted on the sled can cover the entire face of the slab, removing about 1/32″ of material per pass.

a couple of turned walnut handles help to steer

the whole endeavor sits on my table saw

Milling Lumber

jackbaumgartner — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:36:36 +0000

We milled a large quantity of black walnut, red cedar, and green ash with a neighbor and his band-saw mill earlier this summer. Below are a few photos of our operation.

Some of the logs piled in the field.

Slabbing off a decent quality and sized black walnut log…

some of the boards 25″ wide…

some lead slugs from deep in one of the 100 plus year old red-cedars…

the slugs, still in the tree…

A hay loft full of lumber, almost everything was plain-sawn into boards and slabs from 4/4 up to a few 6″ slabs, all with natural edges remaining.

Green Ash Slabs

jackbaumgartner — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:27:40 +0000

Milled a large Green Ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, log last week, which was recovered near Fall River, Kansas a little over a year ago.

Five 2.5″ slabs and two 1.25″.

Me holding one of the boards. The grain, although hard to see in the pictures is very nice.

Air Drying Quarter Sawn Red Oak

jackbaumgartner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:49:20 +0000

Below is a stack of mostly quarter sawn red oak Quercus rubra for air drying. There is some green ash under that pile too.

a detail of some of the “ray flecking” on one of the boards.

The stack under cover.

Milling Ash With a New Set-up

jackbaumgartner — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:29:02 +0000

A carpenter ant infested green ash crotch being milled using a piece of heavy aluminum C-channel on sawhorses as a guide for the first cut. Also the standard 20 inch bar on the Stihl 039 has been replaced with a 24 inch bar and a rip-cut milled chain. The extra four inches and a new bar make a big difference in getting good true and flat cuts.

It would have been better had it not been filled with a colony of carpenter ants, but still nice wood.

A little better towards the edge, just not as interesting.

Milled Ash

jackbaumgartner — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:12:51 +0000

A section of one of the many Ash logs in my yard waiting to be milled.

Milling A Walnut Stump

jackbaumgartner — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:54:18 +0000

Here are a few photographs as I cut up a walnut stump. The stump was all that was left of a city tree.

A black walnut stump, cut in half and then one of the halves cut into quarters.

Sawing 5/4″ boards from one of the quarters.

A good stack of boards- ranging from 4″ thick to 4/4″ thick. A few spots of rot, but much usable wood.

Rowdy spectators.