Getting timber

The group occasionally get together for wood collecting outings on properties in the area - Texas chainsaw massacre doesn't hold a candle to the activity on those days!

And of course, ya gotta have supervisors!

And there's no point getting all those logs if you can't cut them up into something useable! Michael generously allows the club to use his Lucas mill to deal with the logs that appear mysteriously from time to time.

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2010 - Barcaldine trip

The club took a trip to the Barcaldine area this winter with a couple of properties lined up to visit. The weather forecast was not good and proved to be extremely accurate, dumping some heavy rain not long after we got there that almost had us stuck there for the night - but with a 4 ton trailer, truck and ute to fill, we weren't turning back now!

There was plenty of wildlife to greet us - the locust plague was quite a sight....

... and the little bearded dragon was relocated out of harms way.

A good sized Gidgee got things started.

Still haven't worked out if Tony was protecting this one, measuring it, or claiming it for himself!!!

Even the youngest member of the club chipped in to help.

Might as well look after the turners in the group too.

Sampling a bit of Boonaree.

Time for lunch and a chat after the rain had passed.

He'd walk miles for a bit of Bootlace Oak!

The main target of the day - Dead-Finish up to about 400mm diameter and lots of it.

Well and truly loaded for the trip home after an overnight stop at Barcaldine. Great weekend was had by all and now the club has enough Dead-Finish to last quite a while.

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2012 - Another journey west...

This year we headed off a bit light-handed due to some last minute cancellations but a bit of pig-headed determination can make up for anything! The properties we had access to this year were well spread out so we did a round trip from Emerald to Jericho, then through some of the properties loading up logs until it got too dark, landing in Barcaldine for the night. Next morning it was off to Aramac to pick up some properties on the road from there back to Jericho. It was another very full-on day of running around the bush but well worth it - we even got to play tourists, stopping for a break at GrayRock, the site of an old coach-stop with names carved in the rock dating back to the late 1800's.

The fleet.

Who could resist a Yellowjacket full of Mistletoe. The Mistletoe will kill it in a very short time anyway!

First log for the trip!. . .

and this pile of Mistletoe burls should keep the turners happy for a while.

Next order of the day was to fill the orders that pay for the trip.

Note: That's not real sweat - He just dribbles a lot!

It's all hands on deck to cut, seal and pack this much Dead-Finish 

Job done!

No time for smoko so it was eat whatever you could find on the run!

A freshly cut slice of Qld Myrtle shows why we do this - beautiful figure in every piece!

The stations around here have been having a hell of a hard time with wild dogs - several hundred shot this year alone. Makes for interesting Xmas decorations!!!

Snigging the last log for the day - a nice big Silver Oak.

Dead-Finish at dusk and off to Barcy for the night.

Off to Aramac next morning and on to the Jericho road for the next property.

All the ends of the logs are sealed as they are loaded but the red-dust sticking to it all made it damned hard to identify things once we got home!

After getting started cutting the burls off this Coolibah, it was decided it would be easier to just take the whole tree, scorpions included, and carve it up at home!

Nearly full now!

Last tree stop for the day turned out to be a patch of acacia dietrichiana. Only found from here to a little further north and easily mistaken for Yarran. A great little addition to the collection.

Last stop for the day was the old Gray Rock coach-stop where visitors have been carving their names in the gray sandstone for over a hundred years.

The facilities leave a lot to be desired though!

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2016 Milling our logs...

The club has the use of two mills which allows us to make the most of the logs we find.

For the bigger logs we use Michael's 'Lucas mill' to produce boards to whatever dimensions we need. It's fast and easy enough to use although the large size of the saw-kerf means we create nearly as much sawdust as we do timber.

The 'Lucas mill' also has the chainsaw slabbing attachment which is great for those big logs that won't produce much in the way of straight-grained boards.

For all the smaller logs and special timbers we use Jon's home-made bandsaw mill. It looks a bit rough and ready and it was only ever meant to be a prototype, but it has milled an awful lot of timber for a 'test rig'!!

Always a joy to see something unexpected in the logs we mill, like the black streaks in the Cadaghi at left, or the beautiful colour and figure in the Buloke log on the right.

... and there always seems to be an audience!

The club finally acquired it's very own forklift so we did a reshuffle , destickering and cleanup of our stash at Kingower. We now have easy access to our slabs and boards - more than we'll ever use so we sell to the public as well. Get in touch if you looking for some timber for a project!

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