Help me find a good sawmill

[silent ben]

Been to 1 timber merchants, and called 3 places trying to find a log for a table/bench thing i want to make. You're all gonna go when you hear the dimensions.

200 cm (6'6) wide
60 cm (2') deep
15 cm (6") high

yes people thats a huge piece of wood, but i am yet to find a sawmill/timber merchants that can find a tree that large . If anyone in the trade knows of anywhere in the south east (berkshire/north hampshire area preferably) where i could find someone crazy enough to help me,

Cheers

Ben

[Angus]

that's houge

have you tried phoning around any local joiners/carpenters ask where they get their stuff from.

It's not the sort of thing you're likely to pick up from B&Q/Homebase/Wickes.

Yell comes up with this one in Berkshire.. Yell

More likely though you're going to have to travel a bit. Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) kicks up a few results

[silent ben]

cheers angus, just called that place in berkshire, they said i could get it done, but it wont be seasoned so will crack and twist. I suppose i could season it myself (if i knew how) but on a piece of wood that large i'm not sure how long that would take. Does anyone have any idea???

Ben

[silent ben]

you think this will work?

When we got it home, I learnt how to season wood in a hurry: a trench was dug, a good fire made in it, and after a time the ashes swept out; then water was poured in, which steamed the hot earth; lastly, the wood was placed in the trench, covered up, and left to lie for a day.

[turkster]

No i'm afraid seasoning after it was cut to shape would be out of the question for two reasons. It would take ages, probably over a year, to season properly and it needs to be seasoned before it is cut to shape. If you cut it and then seasoned it you would mostly likely end up with a rather twisted and probably badly cracked table .

What kind of wood are you looking for anyway? Is it meant to be dead flat and planed smooth?

Do you need to use just one plank as it would be a lot easier if you made it up with three or four seperate planks.

[TeePee]

Theres a sawmill on Brook street in the centre of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire which I have always found to be excellent. They always have a few offcuts and are happy to spend time discussing larger requirements.

[Flibb]

thers ment to be a coule of places in kent that do speciality wood, can try and get numbers if you want, or is that to far? Dad has some contacts in the trade. Couple of question soft or hard, seasoned or fresh cut? If you want fresh then you are going to need to let it dry, think it takes a few years if done naturally. Also woud need to be oversized to allow it to be worked when seasoned. There should still be some mature oak arond from 1987 storms. But wil probably cost a fortune now.

Anyway thast not big wood. Biggest we delt with was around 1.5m diameter, 80ft high and there were 6 trees. All in the middle of a town garden, first quote was for a craine to be on site for 2 days. In the end a company came in and dropped them in sections, think it took 4 days. We then went in and logged all the wood, most nackering work I have done in my life.

[daz_uk30]

if all else fails you could always get a couple of old railway sleepers......i know there are companies that buy old ones & recycle em .......but im not sure of their names

[silent ben]

i wanta make a copy of this:


Just maybe a darker colour, and not hanging (yet). I'm a complete idiot when it comes to types of wood, but i'm guessing its gonna need to be hard, but still workable. I dont really wanta go down the sandwiched planks route because its not gonna look as good i dont think (my carpentry skills aren't the best )

Ben

[Angus]

Oooh.

All becomes clear

Why do you want a log though??

Surely it's just a big plank you'll be wanting??

[silent ben]

Surely it's just a big plank you'll be wanting??

Nope, a plank isn't 15 cm thick, the wood has to have holes cut out of it, but still have enough support in the structure. A piece of wood 200x60x15cm is gonna weigh 180 kilos before any material is removed, and then you have decks, a mixer, and some records to be placed on it. The mixer i have stands at 10 cm high, a plank is not gonna be that thick, unless you know somewhere called "crazy plank INC"

Ben

[Angus]

My grandparents get wood for their open fire from a place that makes conservatories (not cheap pvc ones - proper bad-boy sepila/mahogony/oak ones), and other similar stuff.

They get offcuts of sepila that are about 10cm in thickness; I can't see why you shouldn't be able to get what you want - you might have to phone around a lot though.

The table in the picture has been made like a box though - definitely a cheaper way of doing it, and if you're not that good at carpentry don't even think about hollowing out a great chunk of hardwood (I made some vac form moulds for GCSE; decided to use hardwood and then found it took ten times as long to work it).

Just my 2 cents worth.

[silent ben]

well if anyone wants to PM me some numbers, i'll call round and see what the score is. You never know, i might get lucky.

Ben

[Stoo]

TBH if your skills aren't up to building one up normally (several bits of wood) I doubt you'd be able to pull off a job like that on a solid lump, looks easy, but *really* isn't.

If the wood isn't *really* well prepared it'll warp and split all over the shop, especially if it's going in a club environment (hot and sweaty), and as Angus mentioned, if it's going to be hardwood (best for avoiding the warping/splitting issues) it's *very* hard to work with unless you have all the special tools..

Good Luck though

[silent ben]

This thing isn't gonna leave my room, i dont think i'd be able to lift it . When i say not good, it means i havn't had any practice except the 5 years I did at secondary school. I guess soft wood is needed, and when i make it i'll be extra careful because i dont wanta damage something i've spent quite a bit of money on. I'll do the research once I start calling some places, and i'll go visit the carpenters place in the nearby country park.

ben

[turkster]

Well thats cool but it doesnt look like its solid though.
It looks like it was made up and covered with veneer/veneered MDF/ply although its difficult to say without a better look.

Personally I would think using a solid block would not be the best approach to something like this. Cutting all the recesses in a solid block would be quite tricky (depending on what tools you have). I would get a couple of 8'x4' sheets of 3/4" or 1" ply, cut them all to shape with a jigsaw and laminate them all together one on top of the other. Using 8'x4' sheets would allow two laminations per sheet so you would only need three or four sheets to make up 6 inches. If you want it nice and solid use WBP (water boil proof) or marine grade ply. I'd use PVA as glue or possibly Cascamite. That would make it virtually indestructable and a lot stronger than a solid piece of wood once you'd cut out the recesses for the decks etc. The advantage of this is that you can cut each sheet to the right shape prior to laminating it so it is a lot easier to make the recesses etc. Also the plywood should be a lot easier to source than a solid lump that big.

Finishing would be slightly more tricky though . You would probably have to veneer it. The problem with that is that the finish would have to be quite good before you could apply the veneer because the veneer is very thin so all surfaces would have to be flat first. I would mainly be the edges of the table that would be the problem though but a bit of work with as jack plane or a hand power plane should be able to sort that out. If you were using good marine grade or WBP ply you may not have to veneer the top and bottom of the table. This kind of ply often has a very nice finish with very few imperfections (if you want no imperfections get aircraft grade ) and usually comes up nicely when sanded and polished. Of course you'd then have to match the veneer to the ply although if you want it dark your probably going to have to stain it anyway.