Seen bamboo veneer boards, and the weaves, but has anyone done a solid(or chambered)bamboo board? Think it would be pretty heavy. I’m asking cuz i just finished laying my floors and have 40 plus sq.ft., in a little over 6 ft pieces, and thought it could be a project. sorry for not posting pics, but my cameras been lifted.
I’ve been eyeballing that stuff too. I think it has real potential as stringer material.
damn it!@ sshhh…
\r
try some peel test for adhesion first
you will need to rough it up for a good bond methinks
I was thinking of milling, because one side has a “finish” and the other side has countour for glueing down. there is a lot of work, but i dont want to let this stuff go to waste. I have plans for shaping stands too.
I have spare if you want to get ahold of some for experimenting.
Hey, I’m interested if you’ve got a little to spare… and I have a finish planer in my garage if you want to thin them down a bit, we could do the whole batch at once even.
solid bamboo is very heavy
strong as hell though
like bill said might be neat to try as stringer material
these folks below sell them here milled for floor molding for those floor panels you have
http://www.bamboohawaii.com/index-.html
but again still a heavy wood compared ot redwood or balsa and hard to work with
I hear they tend to dull saw blades quickly
none the less it is a very neat material
there’s a company here that has local permits to fabricate entire houses out of bamboo…
Sounds good, i’d love to knock a bunch out.
If you can find someone to mill the boards to workable ‘thin’ sheets, that would be my go. Im sure milling them wouldnt be cheap tho cuz the stuff is hell hard. Maybe narrow boards cut on a table saw. Any way you slice it, its gonna be lotsa work.
What about as a fin material? Just foiled and sealed - maybe with a single layer of glass
I resawed some bamboo flooring ,it was 31/2 x 3/4 x 6’, I split it in half and then planed down to 1/8" . It held up just fine. Was going to use it for a skin material for a hwb. Decided it was a little to heavy for the board im making now. It is kinda porous and a little heavy but it looks really great under glass . I will use it somewhere someday somehow. A chambered board would be very,very heavy but would probably last several life times?? This stuff is tuff
I’ve installed a bit of the pre-finished ¾” t&g bamboo flooring. What I used was actually 3 plys of ¼” solid bamboo (look at the side of the material and you can see this.). It’s heavy, so I don’t understand why you would want it as a stringer, especially since you have to scarf it to get the length you need. It would be better to use the flooring for another application around your house. It’s great using sustainable yield material though. But hey, if weight isn’t an issue, and it’s a show board, go for it.
If you are not going to go for it, pass the wood on to me ; )
I’ll get to it after I finshed with my current HWS project, my upcoming HWS project, my chambered pine project, and my Agave project.
Cheers.
\r
and when clark foam tossed, and oil futures looked… rough, I was like… attempting to design lashed bamboo hulls, veneer wrapped, stained with epoxy… there’s got to be something there no? bamboo that is… my first thought was ‘this is what eps/epoxy boards need, a touch of earth’ equalise buoyancy/weight feel… for those that would care that is.
Aloha Pinhead,
Good call on using bamboo for smaller items such as fins. I’ve experimented a bit with it and also palm wood. I’ve been asked to do a small run of skegs made of bamboo, palm, mango, and koa (very Hawaiiana). As I have related here on Sway in the past, I have a hard time seeing woodworkers “waste” large amounts of scarce woods. Replentishable woods like balsa, bamboo, and palm are great, as the wood is cut from mature or dead trees. The koa is now very regulated and the milling operations are “governed” pretty firmly. I get my small inventories of koa directly from a source at a mill over on the big isle. Over the years I have migrated toward making smaller and smaller items of Koa and reserving it for only the finest work. It doesn’t seem to make much difference, however, considering large Japanese and American companies purchase hundreds of thousands of feet every month. It still makes me feel better about what I do to revere and protect the Hawaiian Koa. Koa grows naturally nowhere in the world but in Hawaii, so it is important to have reverence for it!
I could go on and on about that, but I’ll get back to subject…I secured some palm wood in 9ft. lengths and have considered doing some inlaid stringers. Inlaying bamboo as stringers might also be a valid option instead of using what would likely be 6" to 8" widths for enough to cut solid stringers with the thickness necessary for rocker in a longboard. Bamboo could be used for nose and tail blocks as well, perhaps combined with other woods…better get back to the shop!
Enjoy the Ride!
Richard McCormick
fins are definitely not out of the question, thanks for the input. peace.
Rhino,
still in contemplation mode, need to do some laying out and figuring. How is the agave coming along?
easternpacific,
bamboo floor throughout, minus the bathroom. was thinking of doing book shelfs but think it’ll be more fun to get this stuff wet. it is some beautiful stuff, heavy, but beautiful.
The Agave is going well thus far, I just need to get my hands on a 10" table saw to finish it up.
Cheers.