At 10:25 AM 7/19/01 -0400, esther.heller@k... wrote:

>From: Esther Heller
>
>Marc asked:
>
> >Unrelated to this timber-harvesting my current projects are a couple of
> >boxes - This-end-up type toy box and a storage box for Sam's Thomas the
> >Tank Engine set.  Come to think of it, does anyone know how to make a
> >storage box that expands?  He's not finished collecting the set and Brio
> >keeps introducing new pieces . . .    ;-)
>
>
>When you figure out the expanding box problem, publish it!!!
>Plenty of adult galoots have exactly the same problem..  ;-)

Hey, I resemble that.  I'm just a kid at heart.  

Seriously, those train sets are a PITA.  Found a site that has a recipe for 
woodworking look-alikes, includind dimensions, but it's all Normite directions.

SWMBO sorta commissioned the projects - if I don't produce 'em by Christmas 
they'll be purchased . . . on our sole joint credit card, for which I'm 
responsible.  Tole' ya I'm a bottom-feeder @ heart.

>The timber harvesting might be helped if you knew what you
>wanted to make out of it (how thick).

Mmmm.  The cherry might yield a couple of pieces of structural lumber, but 
that's hardly worthwhile, izzit?  More like 
half-to-three-quarters.  Quarter-inch, possibly.

>   Commercial bandsaws do
>a nice job (I think Woodmiser is the best known, and they
>supposedly have some sort of referral system to find a local
>operator)

I've pretty much priced all the powered stuff and can't really justify it 
(there's this 80 ft oak in the back yard whose first branch is around 35 ft 
up . . .) unless I go into the business myself, P-T (pension due in 11 
years, yay).  As for the referral system I tried and it appears that the 
closest one is in E-B-F, WV (apologies to WV-ites, I think the state is 
very nice and the people the same as anywhere else).

>   Of course their squirrels get lashed pretty hard to
>run it, but the waste isn't much and they can go through an awful
>lot of wood in an hour.  I watched a local galoot getting some
>trees downed in a huge storm at his mom's sawn, went pretty fast.

Here in Arlington, VA, you don't KNOW the number of times I've driven down 
the street and seen huge oaks, hickories, whatever, being cut into 3-ft 
lengths and placed by the curb, shortly followed by a handmade sign reading 
"Free Firewood".  Urghhhh . . .  malicious thoughts . . .

>Smaller parts of the trees make perfectly fine turning stock,
>be sure to at least split them in half and coat the ends ASAP
>after you drop them so they don't check.

Roger that.  A fella mailed me off-list and offered some dire warnings 
about the speed with both species check.  I'm not a turner and he is, so 
when I drop 'em (probably this winter based on his advise) he's got dibs on 
any parts I don't have a use for.  Anything he doesn't want I'll give to 
the first taker.  Rather do that than burn 'em for firewood.

>Welcome!

Glad to be here.

Marc