Saved some Crepe Myrtle logs from yard cleanup this past week. Took a 6″ diameter this morning and turned it down to 5″.
First, the stuff cuts like butter. And, it’s much heaver than I anticipated. I calculated 50.5 lbs/cu ft., green. Sands to a fine grain finish but pretty fuzzy at least when green. Center is pretty pithy.
Now, what is it like when it drys? People turn stuff out of this?
If I turn stuff out of it, how should it be prepared?
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
Replies
hey Mike U lucky boy, Think you are pretty far down in Texas (Katie?) but I have never had the chance to turn any up here in Northern OK about the largest I have ever seen it here is 2" dia. and was a living good shrub/ tree
Last year while in LA I saw one that the trunk must have been 16 inch dia. and is must have been several hundred years old and looked awesome! So don't have any exp with the drying rate on it but would take it slow and easy, as long as you have it turned the same thickness throughout you should be fairly safe. What color of wood is it when it get's large or is it still whitish like the smaller limbs?
Have fun....Marsh Aha...Sounds like one of my Hooter friends is right out in the tree starting to Hoot some this eve!
Edited 3/2/2004 11:24:06 PM ET by koikid
Marsh -
Yeah, in Katy Texas. Town was named after the Katy RR.
They get pretty big down here. This one was 15 years old and I just cut down one part coming out of a larger stump. I have them turned down past the sap wood and have put parrafin on the ends. Got them stored in the shed. Might be ready by the fall.
What part of OK? I have a 60 acre place on Spring Creek south of Locust Grove.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood
Mike Know of the area, grew up in Tulsa and Have lived in Ponca City area last 30 years. Myself I would turn while green and then control the drying, I turn anything I can green just to cut down on the dust. But depending on how much you have. Exterminating on the drying careerists of a new wood some times you loose some also. Have fun with it.
If I'm not mistaken Katy is suburb of Houston..... you have 60 acres in N.E. Okla and live down there? What's wrong with this picture? Oh, Guess you need to make a living where there are some jobs! Ha!
Marsh
I bought the place up there when we lived in Tulsa. Shortly afterwards my company announced that my department was being transferred to Houston. Having 25 years invested with them I could not afford to stay behind.
I've had the place rented the entire time (has a house too) and total rental payments have payed for it. It has about 12,000 bf of standing walnut on it. Plus lots of other species. I get up there occasionally to play around on the place. Brought back some cherry logs last time I was up.
I'm retired now and do the Planewood thing to retain my sanity!
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood
Edited 3/3/2004 9:21:01 AM ET by PlaneWood
Sanity...You mean you still have some left living down there! Think I would be moving back to Locus Grove and not letting the door hit me in the rear on the way out of there if I was retired! I would sure like to retire in about 5 years but the way things are going and with them trying to hijack our pension and as good as loose our health insurance could be tough to do. The way things are going my service area keeps getting bigger and bigger and my body is protesting to me about all the windshield time. They may work me to death first and the wife have to auction my shop off!!
You must have worked for one of the Oil Co. in Tulsa, a good part of Conoco here moved stuff to Houston or just out source most the jobs here in Ponca, there is a hole lot of empty buildings out there now, except for the Refinery.
Marsh
Amoco. Retired when BP bought them out. I had 35 years with them and got full retirement. Since BP let 1500 of us go, we also got severance and unemployment. I got 18 months severance. I took my 1st two unemployment checks to the casinos!
We'll move when the wife retires if I have my way. But, we have 2 kids here and a grandkid, so mama might overrule me. I already have my ideal workshop designed. It contains a bed, a potty, a shower, a fridge, a TV, and a stereo system. And, a few tools. Oh yeah, and hidden doors for my Rigid Calendars.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood
Sounds like you did OK then, I was down to Amoco in Tulsa a couple years ago helping pull a couple large tape libraries out after replacing them with some newer ones. Our problem with the wife's 2 girls are, one is on the East coast and one on the West coast! The one in N.C. has our only grandson and her husband got transfered to another town and are moving soon but just within N.C. So it's not a cheap thing to go visit them, and I refuse to drive since I do it all week long.
But hey you can get some cheep tickets on South West to go back down to see the kids from Tulsa.
Edited 3/4/2004 4:27:02 PM ET by koikid
Living in a large metropolitan area definitely has some disadvantages, but there also are lots of advantages. Tulsa is a culinary wasteland compared to Houston. Good resturants are the rule here and relatively cheap. Also access to machinery, tools, etc is great. Now that I'm retired there is really no traffic that I have to put up with. Don't really know anyone in Tulsa anymore. Most of our friends are here. Real estate taxes is one thing that might cause us to move.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood
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