Sawmill and prep, miniature style
It seems everywhere in the Internet community there are people starting projects by showing a big pile of wood. Most often, this is a preface to “I’m going to build a workbench and got a great deal on….” Maybe it’s a woodworker gene or something but I just love following these build threads and looking at other people’s workbenches. I hope to replace my workbench sometime during the upcoming year.
But yesterday I got the urge to build a miniature workbench. Then I started thinking about the Quebec-style armoire I’ve wanted to build. These projects require maple – lots of maple. This is a good thing because maple is readily available here in Quebec and so I have a hundred board feet or so of the stuff in my shop most of the time. I thought I’d play “sawmill” and make some maple boards for my miniature lumber yard.
Rather than starting with a tree, however, I started with a couple pieces of maple from my scrap box. This is the result:
These boards are about 8-feet long (1/12 scale) and 10-12″ wide. From left to right are 4/4, 8/4, and 10/4 stock or at least they were prior to planing. This pile of wood represents about 300 board feet of maple in 1/12 scale. Those in the know will notice that it’s all quarter-sawn and there’s not a knot in sight. This comes from knowing the sawmill operator really well (grin).
You might also notice that all of these boards are planed and ready for use. While it’s common to do such milling using a lunchbox planer, my way is much more quiet and better suited to creating wood for a miniature lumber yard. Here’s a photo of my planing station.
I just clamp a board to the bench and then, using the scraper in handle you see, I scrape both sides, measuring occasionally measuring the thickness. I built the handle (maple & bloodwood knobs) to hold a very stiff scraper. This is ideal for creating baby-butt smooth boards while also fine-tuning the board thickness. Those shavings are very thin so you have a lot of control over the work.
Cheers — Larry
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Larry,
I want to shop at your sawmill. Where else could I get so many board feet of quality quartersawn lumber. I have been thinking about making a miniature Roubo in 1/12th scale that I could put on my desk at work. Either that or a small trebuchet to throw things at my colleagues.
Yeah, the guy that runs it really treats me right. Rough calculation suggests that I paid about 3 cents a board foot
I’m thinking of building a couple workbenches, maybe a Ruobo and a Nicholson. I’ve got to master miniature wood screws first but I think they’ll be easier in miniature than in full size. As for the trebuchet idea, I have a beautiful paper model that would be easily converted to a wooden trebuchet. I think it’s in 1/25 scale and throws marbles.
For anyone reading this who doesn’t know Shannon, he’s the author/actor/brains of one of the best podcasts on the Internet, the Renaissance Woodworker (http://www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog/). Check it out as its fantastic.
Cheers — Larry