The use of Applewood in modelling?

[jud]

With good insulation, a 40 or maybe even a 20 watt bulb with ventilation you can adjust should be enough heat, want to dry it not burn it. 

jud

Edited October 19, 2014 by jud

[Nirvana]

Hmm, this apple debate has got me going .... well in two ways, I have some outside dried apple branches (got them last year) still with their bark on.

Recently became friend with the owner of the local WoodCraft store.

I have bought things from him before and he is now willing to help me for a low fee having my apple "cut/trimmed and planned"

At the same time I am an avid BBQ cook, where apple, alder, pear and many more of the woods enhances the flavor of the meat, so what is left is going for the cooking. WIN -WIN situation ??!!

[Jaager]

I varied between 200 and 300 W.   The temp did not get above 120 F  and was mostly 90-100 F.  I mounted the box inside a shelf in my unheated garage.  The temp in the box was something like 20-30 degrees higher than the temp in the garage. The foam sheets were not a tight fit, the air leakage was needed, and the foam only 1 inch thick.  This is nothing like as aggressive as a commercial kiln,  but it does produce an effective movement of water out of the wood that was a lot faster than air drying.  I think it is not so much the temp as the relative humidity that counts.  I was drying Holly so it was a race with the blue mold. I also wanted a temp that was higher than the mold liked.  It worked.   The exhaust fan - being a computer fan is DC - needed an AC power adapter - it seems that an adapter that is equal to or greater than the fan rating is OK. One with a lower output will burn out the fan.

[TBlack]

I've used apple in various applications with great success. It handles like the other fruit tree wood: pear or cherry. It can have some blond streaks through it that you have to work around. Here are a couple more examples of applewood:

 

 

Tom

 

 

[Jaager]

If you can find someone with a large enough and powerful enough band saw.

 

No matter what, a 10 inch x 18 inch log of green Apple is going to be heavy and ackward to handle.

 

Thinking about getting the log out of the round,  if your band saw has enough cutting height ( with the 6 inch extension a 14" Grizzly can do 12" )  and you have a table extension,   the log can be cut with most of it outside of the blade.   A leaf would be added and attached to extend the carrier board to the fence (on the inside).  The leaf would be cut along with the section of log.  I would take off as much as practical on the first cut.  Now there is a flat plane to ride on the carrier, but you probably still need to make at least one perpendular cut with the log on the outside.  After this you can probably move the fence to the outside and remove the table extension.  The Grizzly has a 13 inch throat  so the log could probably be cut from there without a table extension.  There would be no room for the fence on the inside, so you would still need the sacrifice carrier board extension to ride against the fence.  You should still do 1-2 inch thick billets while the wood is green.  As it dries, there may be twist and bowing.  You may have to do some planer work on the dry stock.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

here in canada we can rent portative saw mill to cut planks, easy job to do

[ScottRC]

I have some interest in this thread as well, I was given a nice 8" DIA x 12" piece from a friend who makes furniture and am really wanting to mill it up for a project. 

[Jaager]

8 x 12  - if you are desperate, and don't mind the waste - almost never a two dimensional plane produced -  a froe or something like it - split the log in half. You will probably get something that rocks (as in rocking horse - not music).  Still,  a bandsaw is better  Through a club or something, find a bandsaw owner, buy him a blade and get it into 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch thick billets.   I say that because raw lumber from a saw mill often comes 4 x4  which means that there is extra thickness to be scraficed to a planer blade at a finishing mill.  At your stage, a standard quality ripping bandsaw blade would be adequate for rough billeting if the bandsaw is not yours.

At any rate, paint the end cuts now unless it is already dry.

[Nightquest1000]

Hi Nigel,

 

apple is a treat to work with, very similar to swiss pear. Good für planking, beams and even carving. It holds tiny edges as good as pear or boxwood.

The natural color of apple i very nice and can vary.

Another excellent wood for miniature carving is plum. It has the same characteristics as pear or apple, but has a much wider variaty of colours.

Very nice when doing carvings in 1/48. Especially if you don't want to guild or paint it, but leave it natural. It can flare up with nice surprises within one figurehead. Blue-ish grain areas, for instance. Very beautiful.

 

best

Tom

[bobcat]

Hi,

 

I have used apple and pear for over 40 years and both woods are the tops in my book. Here are some lessons I learned along the way.

 

Try and get pieces that have grown straight like trunks. Branches that have a big curve in them have unequal stresses on the top and bottom of the piece. Wood cut from those pieces will have a tendency to move when cut into billets.

 

I cut my logs in half and seal the ends. I then let them air dry in the garage for a year. When ready, I cut my half logs again into quarters with a chain saw. The most stable wood you can get has been quarter sawn. you also have an easier piece to work on a band saw.

 

Don't be in a hurry to stain apple wood. Like all fruit woods it develops a natural patina over time. Bees wax thinned with good mineral spirits makes a grat finish and allows the wood to patina with age.

 

I let my billets adjust to the temperature and humidity of the shop before working on them.

 

 

Sometimes crab apple wood is much lighter than regular apple.  If you are lucky to find a crab apple log see if you have a differnt color.

 

Bob Friedman

[NMBROOK]

Thank you for your responses I have been given some 3 to 4" diameter apple 'logs'.Do I debark as well as cutting in half lengthways?

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[Jaager]

Pro:

Debarking will speed drying. 

You will discover any boring insects or remove any eggs if they have not hatched yet.

 

Con:

It is possible that it may dry too quickly and unevenly and check or split - I suspect this is mostly a problem with thick pieces of wood in log form.

[mtaylor]

Painting the cut ends will slow the drying a bit and also prevent checking.  

[reklein]

There's a Pizza restaurant in town that uses applewood in their pizza oven. Really makes a nice pizza.. Bill