Cant find balsa… well only 4’ long and 4"x2" glueing and joining it wont leave much room for straiting!! But anyway theres a good supply of clear pine… far north nz, so the density is lower and cheap!! Has anyone used pine?? chambering would be a must… any input would be most welcome!! I have made a hollow outa ply but hollow’s dont have enough flexablity to shape a hot curl… I’ve found.
Howzit mate I’m down in the middle of the North Island (Mount/Putaruru) and have built a hollow board out of pine, an 11’9" one of my most well used boards, its plank on frame, Ive got a lot of Pine in my latest 13’9" too. It’s really tough and stringy, takes a lot of punishment.
As Ralph Sewell used to say, "there’s nothing wrong with a bit of good clean Pine for boatbuilding ! "
Plenty of redwood available very cheaply down this way too, much lighte than pine, I can point you in several directions (Mount, Rotorua mainly) to get some if you like.
BTW It’s Monterey Pine we are talking about
PS Greetings Swaylockians
Pine… there is shaped board hanging on the wall at taco shop in Carlsbad Ca. that was made out of pressure treated lumber…
Where is Roy? Paging Roy Stewart… Hello! this would be good one for Mr. Stewart.
"PS Greetings Swaylockians "
…he’s here !
he’s already posted twice today, Ben .
[see if you can guess …he has a fairly clever new name, too !]
ben
Howzit Tom Bloke, sounds like this might be a board you’d be interested in:
Beautiful craftsmanship. Ought to post it on SwayBay too.
Welcome back to Swaylocks.
I saw a picture of that spoon board. Beautiful. It’s interesting you can get redwood and Monterey Pines in New Zealand. Both of those species are native to my area. Redwood is going up in price all the time. Supply and demand. We don’t use Monterey Pine for construction. Just plant them in the ground away from your house if you live in a wild fire zone. Both are protected species. Mike
Hi Mike, NZ has the biggest ‘man made’ forest in the world and it is mostly Monterey Pine! Our redwood is all plantation grown too, very fast growing here and light
BTW I dropped the 61 from my handle
Haha your back Roy… yeah redwood sounds interesting where are you getting it??? how much are you paying for it? Up here theres not a lot of timber suppliers… just building suppliers and everything is H3 after that leaky home buisness! been talking to one of the local mills who are doing stuff for furniture. Whats the density spec’s on it? it’d be a great contrast with pine anyway!
Most of our redwood comes from the Budget Timber Mill in Mount Maunganui, it costs about NZ $6 to $7 per metre for a 6" x 1" which is about as cheap as it gets. There are also seconds of T and G which vary in price depending upon whether you talk to Bill or Marian. Some days Bill will say there is none available because it’s all earmarked for houses he has frequent “changes of heart” about his redwood. The trick is to find his wife Marian because she will sell you seconds for $2 per metre or $20 for a big pile of seconds (nothing wrong with this, mostly ex 6" x 1" T G&V with some damage or a knot hole somewhere in the board). There are several old jumbled stacks of redwood in odd sizes, all grey and weathered and tricky to sort from all the Douglas Fir mixed up with it (except by weight). . . these pieces can be nabbed cheaply but only if Bill is feeling good.
I could probably get you a fair pile of redwood with $50 next time I raid the place if you like, but can’t guarantee full length clears. . . . sometimes I can get them if a good clear log comes or I am given permission to take down a whole fillet stacked packet, sort through it and re stack it!
Pine is a different story, I go to Emilios timber in the Mount, they mill nothing but clear pine strips, 40mm wide and 10 mm thick, it’s about $40 for a bundle of about 300 metres. Lots of other places too.
Density wise the redwood is light, not sure exactly but maybe half the weight of pine. Because it is not as dense as pine thicker planks etc are needed so with care a pine board can be nearly as light as a redwood one because less timber is used.
Hey Roy you’ve been a little experimental ever done anything finless?
I’d love to see a man made redwood or Monterey Pine forest. Our trees are cut from forest(not Monterey Pines) and the resource is managed. I’m not sure how well it is managed. Redwood is beautiful wood and rot resistant. Redwood forest are magnificent in their natural condition. Very primeval. Both trees live in cool coastal areas with summer fog. Prime real estate so I doubt they will be farmed on the coast of California. Mike
I think radiata pine is the most common over here… most native trees here are protected too after 4’ high. You need a licence to mill them! Long ago they use to pull out the mighty kauri float them out through damed up rivers, lovely wood few hundred feet tall. But pine plantations are masive down where roy is takes hours to drive threw!! It’d be great to see nicely managed natural forests they do it in france with oak! beautiful barrels they make too!!!
How about Paulownia? It’s grown here and is quite a bit lighter than pine. I’ve vacuumed it over EPS foam on a few boards.
Where are you? There is a guy in Kerikeri who is milling it. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll send you the details.
The only finless boards I made were Paipos my cousin and I made when we were grommets, nothing lately.
Paulownia… I’ve read about it ment to be very light. I’m only bout an hour from kerikeri, so yeah well interested if you know of someone milling it!
The place is Dundee Lumber on Kerikeri road across from the chocolate factory. Phone : 09 407 9767 Ask for Murray. (Hope that doesn’t violate Swaylocks anti comercialism policy) I haven’t bought any for a while but am running low and looking at a couple of other sources. If they pan out I’ll let you know. It wasn’t that cheap - more than pine, but less than balsa, I don’t remember exactly. To me it should be really cheap. It grows to a millable height in 7 years or less according to what I’ve read. You might see some around they’re blooming right now - big tree with bright purple flowers. I’m planting a couple in my garden.
When I bought it I just took what was on top of the pile. They were all 3+ meter lengths and mostly clear.
Just called murrey it’s not that bad a cost at all! $12.50 per meter for 4x2 and the weight is going to work out really light too 5kg for 10’ board! off to get some this afternoon… whats it plane like any tips on working Paulownia at all?? has anyone else used it?
Wow thanks for posting that info I have ben looking for a Paulownia source for a while now, I got a big slab from Mike Murden a couple of years ago and it was really nice to use, a bit lighter than redwood and much harder than balsa. At that price it’s about 50% moe than redwoood but still good value.
How did you figure out 5kg for a ten footer (just interested) ?
I just worked out the cubic metres i’d be useing 0.144 x the density of the wood 280kg/m3 gives me woops 40kg! sorry got that wrong before haha but after chambering shaping etc I think it’d be half that or I’ll be getting sore sholders haha.