Hardwood flooring

[badwin]

Just received some hardwood flooring samples and cutoffs from my friend who owns a flooring store. Ash, Maple, Birch, Alder and Red Oak. All 3/4 of an inch thick and has a finished surface. Think I will run it through my planer to get rid of the finished side and the bottom side which has grooves. If that works out okay I think I will try and laminate some of it together to turn some bowls and plates and of course maybe a couple of pens. Any other ideas would be appreciated.
Brian

http://www3.telus.net/public/goodwinp

 

[byounghusband]

I got a book called "Master Turners" from my turning club library and it had some bowls turned by Rude Osolnik that were laminated birch plywood and they cme out looking REALLY cool and unusual. I have also see 2x6 laminated together and turned into a bowl. It was probably an "End-grain Nightmare" but is looked good.

Also check the Winter '05 issue of Woodturning Design magazine for an article on segmented bowls made out of Pen Blanks.
http://www.woodturningdesign.com/issues/winter05.shtml

 

[woodwish]

I'm not sure it was worth the trouble but I took some of the wood when they replaced our hurricane-damaged gym floor from the school where I teach. Affter a lot of planing, cutting, and gluing I made a segmented bowl that is in the trophy case at school now with a plaque talking about where it came from. It was one of my first (and very few so far) segmented pieces and really not my best work, but was kind of neat to do. Wish I had kept a bunch more of it but I was busy with my own hurricane problems to worry about it at the time.

 

[tipusnr]

I've made pen blanks from the stuff cutting between the bottom groves and not worrying about the finish as it is turned off early in the process. Just my two cents worth.

 

[AirportFF]

I use to hit lumber liquidators quite a bit and raid their scrap bins. I went out of there with a milk crate full of purpleheart, redheart, maple, cypress, cherry, mahogany, etc for about $10.

 

[jdavis]

the finish will turn off without any problems. Maple bottle stoppers are neat.