robutacion
Member
Hi everyone,
A couple of years ago, someone living nearby have dumped a trailer full of stuff, on the back of my house where is an open paddock of about 3 acres or so. Mostly was cut off's from some bushes and some roots from various types of plants, trees, bushes that have obviously been dug-out from someone backyard, either to built a big she or put a swimming pool down, not sure.
Anyway, I had a look and saw 3 roots that I could use, the problem was that, still attached were the trunks and the roots were covered with wet silky mud with plenty of stones on it.
Got the chainsaw with some old chains, cut it all up and took them home where I spend a considerable amount of water and time to wash it all out with a water pressure gun...!
The only species that I could recognise was the Grevillea, 2 of the 3 bushes/roots were it but the other, I couldn't recognise but I kept anyway...!
Yesterday afternoon, I need to store some wood and this strange root was precisely where I needed to put the other wood so, I got the root out.
Looking at it on the ground, I got "itchy" pretty bad, not because I was having an allergy reaction to the root wood but because, I started to wonder what I could do with it, instead of finding some other place to put it...!
I put it on top of my bandsaw table, got the camera and took some pics, as I knew that I had a fair a bit to cut/clean on it, before I would have any place where to mount it on the lathe. Even tough fairly clean, after the first couple of cuts on the bandsaw, the blade was blunt. The amount of sparks coming out of it, surprised me as I thought that didn't have that much sand inside/in it.
Bandsaw down, was time to introduce the small chainsaw that after a few cuts here and there, got a place where to put a flat plate and a hollowed centre (spade bit) to put the tails stock against.
Low speed and carbide tools, had a hard time to cut through that wood, that thing was like cutting trough stone...!
Needing so much to remove on 2 sides, I decided to used the chainsaw again to trim the excess wood while mounted on the lathe and when then when I started to thing of the shape, after I saw what I would have to deal with from that point on...!
After I got the outside shaped as I wanted, I started to mark and cut the inside (hollowing) while the tail stock was still assisting but about less that 1" in, I realise that, going any further, I would be loosing the piece as the way the wood was entangled, it all would full apart.
Being late (nearly 11:00pm) I though that would be great it I could fill all those spaces with resin and let it dry overnight, the problem was that, by this time the piece was nearly round (ball) and the crevasses were all around so I tough that, If I would do half each time, it would be OK...!
I got the epoxy tubes (2 of them) half a dozen of hot glue tubes/sticks, some Pearlex powder that I wanted to use on the resin and started to fill the deeper holes with the melted hot glue, as that would all come out with the hollowing, and mix some epoxy with the Pearlex to match the resin colours as I was going to fill the edges of the cracks so that the resin would leak out on that first half...!
I really though that the hot melted glue has sealed all those gaps inside the root to stop the resin to escape to the other side as I knew, I only could do one half each day.
Mixed 1 litre of resin, poured it slowly, seem t hold OK so, I pour the rest when, all of a certain, resin started to leak from the bottom...!
It was cold so, the resin would take a good 45 minutes before it would start to gel so, I was in troubles...!
Grabbed a plastic container (4 litre ice cream container) and put the whole thing in it so that I wouldn't loose any more resin, the bandsaw table was covered with newspaper but the resin was starting to run everywhere...!
Stick hands, sticky everything, is not a fun thing so, I though that unless I would thing of something fast, I would loose the whole litre of resin...!
Went looking for a plastic bag that was just the right fit, the idea was to insert the ball in there pour the resin back in, plus some more that I needed to mix as this time I had to replace the resin that I lost of the floor but also, the fact that, I was going to try to fill all the wholes in that root, while I was putting it in a plastic bag.
The right size bag was never found so I grabbed a normal grocery bag that looked to have no holes on it, put the ball in there and start to tape (masking tape) the bottom part of the bag, trying to mold the plastic to the root shape so that I would waste too much resin to fill the bag right to the top.
When I had that done (with great difficulty due to the sticky hands...!) I pour the spilled resin from the ice cream container into this plastic bag, and started to mix another litre of resin, as that was all I though I would need. By the time I comeback with some resin mixed, the damn think was leaking badly from within the masking tape so, I grabbed another bag, and started tapping it all over again.
I used a full roll of tape on this second attempt as I need it to seal as the more I squeezed the bags into the wood with the tape, the more pressure I would create, forcing the resin to find tinny holes to come out from...!
I was fighting pretty much a loosing battle, as the first lot of resin was starting to set and the other litre needed to be used so, I kept at it, using every swear word in the world, in the process...!:redface:
By then, nearly 1:00am and I was starting to get tired and my hands were hard to open and close from the resin so, I persisted to the end, pouring the other litre in and tapping the whole thing, around, and around and around, once more. Put it inside of another plastic bag so that if leaked would mess my pot inside. Yes, that's right, I was happy to leave it like that and let it set by its own, I decided to put it in the pot at 100PSI, hoping that the outer pressure would keep everything together...!
Now, what do you thing has happened this morning, when I went down the shed to get that ball from the pot and put it outside in the sun...????? (was sunny then, not more though...!)
To be continued...!
I will leave you with the 4 pics I took of the root, just before I started working on it...!
Cheers
George
A couple of years ago, someone living nearby have dumped a trailer full of stuff, on the back of my house where is an open paddock of about 3 acres or so. Mostly was cut off's from some bushes and some roots from various types of plants, trees, bushes that have obviously been dug-out from someone backyard, either to built a big she or put a swimming pool down, not sure.
Anyway, I had a look and saw 3 roots that I could use, the problem was that, still attached were the trunks and the roots were covered with wet silky mud with plenty of stones on it.
Got the chainsaw with some old chains, cut it all up and took them home where I spend a considerable amount of water and time to wash it all out with a water pressure gun...!
The only species that I could recognise was the Grevillea, 2 of the 3 bushes/roots were it but the other, I couldn't recognise but I kept anyway...!
Yesterday afternoon, I need to store some wood and this strange root was precisely where I needed to put the other wood so, I got the root out.
Looking at it on the ground, I got "itchy" pretty bad, not because I was having an allergy reaction to the root wood but because, I started to wonder what I could do with it, instead of finding some other place to put it...!
I put it on top of my bandsaw table, got the camera and took some pics, as I knew that I had a fair a bit to cut/clean on it, before I would have any place where to mount it on the lathe. Even tough fairly clean, after the first couple of cuts on the bandsaw, the blade was blunt. The amount of sparks coming out of it, surprised me as I thought that didn't have that much sand inside/in it.
Bandsaw down, was time to introduce the small chainsaw that after a few cuts here and there, got a place where to put a flat plate and a hollowed centre (spade bit) to put the tails stock against.
Low speed and carbide tools, had a hard time to cut through that wood, that thing was like cutting trough stone...!
Needing so much to remove on 2 sides, I decided to used the chainsaw again to trim the excess wood while mounted on the lathe and when then when I started to thing of the shape, after I saw what I would have to deal with from that point on...!
After I got the outside shaped as I wanted, I started to mark and cut the inside (hollowing) while the tail stock was still assisting but about less that 1" in, I realise that, going any further, I would be loosing the piece as the way the wood was entangled, it all would full apart.
Being late (nearly 11:00pm) I though that would be great it I could fill all those spaces with resin and let it dry overnight, the problem was that, by this time the piece was nearly round (ball) and the crevasses were all around so I tough that, If I would do half each time, it would be OK...!
I got the epoxy tubes (2 of them) half a dozen of hot glue tubes/sticks, some Pearlex powder that I wanted to use on the resin and started to fill the deeper holes with the melted hot glue, as that would all come out with the hollowing, and mix some epoxy with the Pearlex to match the resin colours as I was going to fill the edges of the cracks so that the resin would leak out on that first half...!
I really though that the hot melted glue has sealed all those gaps inside the root to stop the resin to escape to the other side as I knew, I only could do one half each day.
Mixed 1 litre of resin, poured it slowly, seem t hold OK so, I pour the rest when, all of a certain, resin started to leak from the bottom...!
It was cold so, the resin would take a good 45 minutes before it would start to gel so, I was in troubles...!
Grabbed a plastic container (4 litre ice cream container) and put the whole thing in it so that I wouldn't loose any more resin, the bandsaw table was covered with newspaper but the resin was starting to run everywhere...!
Stick hands, sticky everything, is not a fun thing so, I though that unless I would thing of something fast, I would loose the whole litre of resin...!
Went looking for a plastic bag that was just the right fit, the idea was to insert the ball in there pour the resin back in, plus some more that I needed to mix as this time I had to replace the resin that I lost of the floor but also, the fact that, I was going to try to fill all the wholes in that root, while I was putting it in a plastic bag.
The right size bag was never found so I grabbed a normal grocery bag that looked to have no holes on it, put the ball in there and start to tape (masking tape) the bottom part of the bag, trying to mold the plastic to the root shape so that I would waste too much resin to fill the bag right to the top.
When I had that done (with great difficulty due to the sticky hands...!) I pour the spilled resin from the ice cream container into this plastic bag, and started to mix another litre of resin, as that was all I though I would need. By the time I comeback with some resin mixed, the damn think was leaking badly from within the masking tape so, I grabbed another bag, and started tapping it all over again.
I used a full roll of tape on this second attempt as I need it to seal as the more I squeezed the bags into the wood with the tape, the more pressure I would create, forcing the resin to find tinny holes to come out from...!
I was fighting pretty much a loosing battle, as the first lot of resin was starting to set and the other litre needed to be used so, I kept at it, using every swear word in the world, in the process...!:redface:
By then, nearly 1:00am and I was starting to get tired and my hands were hard to open and close from the resin so, I persisted to the end, pouring the other litre in and tapping the whole thing, around, and around and around, once more. Put it inside of another plastic bag so that if leaked would mess my pot inside. Yes, that's right, I was happy to leave it like that and let it set by its own, I decided to put it in the pot at 100PSI, hoping that the outer pressure would keep everything together...!
Now, what do you thing has happened this morning, when I went down the shed to get that ball from the pot and put it outside in the sun...????? (was sunny then, not more though...!)
To be continued...!
I will leave you with the 4 pics I took of the root, just before I started working on it...!
Cheers
George
