Milling a log of boxwood.

[Tony Hunt]

Many years ago I acquired this nice big log of boxwood at a woodworking show (it was being sold as a woodturning piece) and it's been sitting in my wood collection ever since, so it's well and truly dry and seasoned. As you can see, it's a bit over a metre long (that's a bit over a yard to my American friends!) and has a few minor curves along its length, plus the stub of a decent-sized side branch at one end. I think it's time to mill it into model-making pieces, but I'm only going to get one go at this so I thought I'd take advantage of the collective wisdom before I put blade to bark!  I'll be using a 10" table saw fitted with a thin kerf planer blade, so hopefully I won't waste too much as sawdust.

 

My initial thought was to convert it into shorter and straighter lengths, crosscutting it at the red lines for example.  Then ripping it into thin boards.  I'd quite like to snip off a short piece first and "take a look inside", perhaps starting with one of the shorter pieces at the top and bottom, which might contain some interesting curved grain for use in parts such as the bilge sections of frames, or curved stems. 

 

Should I try to quarter-saw it?  Will it make much difference with something as close-grained as boxwood?

 

So many questions, and quite a bit of apprehensiveness! What do you think?  Thoughts and suggestions all welcome!

 

Cheers

 

Tony

 

 

Edited July 9 by Tony Hunt

[mnl]

Making shorter straighter sections will be a big help.

 

You will want to make a sled to hold it on the table saw. It must be clamped very securely before you try and feed it or it will go flying.

[Cathead]

Do you have access to a chainsaw? Arguably making a rough planar cut down one side of each section with a chainsaw would make it much easier to secure the rest of the section to a sled for further milling. Or you could do something similar with a bandsaw. Anything to get one planar edge that will sit flat (and could even be screwed to a sled from below) before you start running it through the table saw.

[Tony Hunt]

Thanks for your concern Cathead and mnl. I have a very healthy respect for the power of my tablesaw, that's for sure.  I do plan to use a sled to rip it (and crosscut it!), at least to put a planar surface onto it. I've also considered using my belt sander with a really coarse (40 grit) belt on it to do this, I might give both a try.  Good feedback, anyway, the voice of caution is always worth repeating!

[Tony Hunt]

16 hours ago, Cathead said:

Do you have access to a chainsaw? Arguably making a rough planar cut down one side of each section with a chainsaw would make it much easier to secure the rest of the section to a sled for further milling. Or you could do something similar with a bandsaw. Anything to get one planar edge that will sit flat (and could even be screwed to a sled from below) before you start running it through the table saw.

I do have a chainsaw but the kerf is quite large, so I'd lose a lot of valuable wood, and the log isn't all that large in cross-section, a bit over 4" x 2" along most of its length.  I only have a Proxxon hobby bandsaw; while it does have enough depth of cut I think it would struggle with something as dense as boxwood.  I don't want to kill the motor! 

[Cathead]

Tony, for what it's worth, over the last few years I've shifted toward milling my own wood for model projects (wood that I've harvested myself), and so far I've found myself astounded by how much model-scale lumber comes out of even a smaller log. My sense of scale is calibrated to firewood and construction-scale lumber (I normally build furniture, sheds, barns, etc. with the lumber I mill here on-farm) and even with lots of loss to milling kerf, I have more model wood than I could ever use just from a couple moderate-sized trees. Granted yours is smaller diameter than anything I've done but even a series of 1' long, 2"x2" blanks will produce quite a bit of thin wood. I guess it depends on what size and type of model projects you're contemplating using this for.

 

My personal take would be to not worry so much about the minor loss of running a flat edge along one side. You don't have to cut the log in half, just take off enough of one side for a flat stable edge for further milling, essentially what you'd have to take off anyway to get rid of the bark and outer edge. But you also know your equipment and skill set best, so I don't mean to tell you what to do.

[Tony Hunt]

Thanks Eric, I appreciate the feedback.  There's always more to learn.  I certainly need to get a flat edge somewhere to start from, and you're quite right, loss to kerf isn't really that much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. If I get some time today I'll make a few preliminary cuts and see how it goes.

[Cathead]

Tony, I realized that for clarity I should explain that I've never done precisely what you're proposing. I use a 30' bandsaw mill to reduce full-size logs down to lumber-scale planks (e.g., 3/4" thick and 4-6" wide by 6-10' long). Those that I don't use for full-scale use get cut down further with a chop saw, band saw, or other tools and then run through a Byrnes saw to make model-scale lumber. I've never pre-prepped a smaller-scale log the way you're proposing (direct to table saw), though I've read quite a few discussions about other people doing it and am drawing on that background as well as my own general woodworking/milling/logging experience to give advice. Just wanted to ensure the proper level of salt on my thoughts. I'm sure you'll come up with a great way that's comfortable to you and I'll look forward to learning from your experience!

[Tony Hunt]

Well, I took the plunge and cut a shortish piece off one end, then had a crack at milling it into model-sized lumber. It went surprisingly well, I'm happy (and relieved!) to say.  The thin piece was cut to ~3mm thick on the table saw, then brought down to 2.5mm using my little thickness sander. The boxwood seems to have a nice hard, tight grain, mostly the expected yellow colour but with a grey streak through it, quite pretty!  It has that unusual honey-like smell that boxwood seems to have when freshly cut. 

 

So far, so good! 

[Cathead]

Looks nice! What approach did you end up using to run it through the table saw?

[Mark P]

Good Evening Tony;

 

I would definitely attempt to quarter saw your logs, rather than just through and throughing it. Boxwood is like all other woods, and if the grain in your planks, when viewed in section, is dish-shaped, it will try to straighten the curve. The only difference is that being by now well-seasoned, this movement will take a considerable time; unless exposed to damp conditions.

 

I am surprised to see that your log does not appear to have radial cracking in it; perhaps because it is so long, or because the seasoning was very gradual. Were the cut ends of the log sealed to prevent rapid evaporation? If so, well done to whoever did this.

 

The dark streaks in the timber are actually a fungal infection, in my experience, and can lead to a fuzzy mould growing out of the cut surfaces if the air is at all damp and unventilated. However, yours may well have died off by now. When this occurred with some of my stock, I cleaned it off with a mild antiseptic wipe and let the strips dry, and increased the ventilation in the storage area. There has been no recurrence so far! 

 

On a last point, boxwood is fine grained, however, I have some which if I did not know, I would almost swear it was a high quality pine wood, as it appears to have the usual banded grain of pine. However, I know that it is box (I cut it from the tree myself) and it is still very fine grained, hard and heavy. It just does not look it!

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

Edited July 13 by Mark P

[Tony Hunt]

I didn't seal the ends, it was already dry when I got it and it's been kept dry ever since.  If it's a fungal stain I think it will be long dead by now, it doesn't seem to have softened the wood.  I'll certainly try to quarter saw as much as possible, it doesn't look like it will be a problem to do so.

 

I ended up gluing the block to an offcut of fibreboard, using Weldbond, which is pretty strong. This made it easy to run the block through the saw.  For the longer pieces, still to come, I'll use the same technique but I think I'll make a slightly heavier sled using thin ply as the base, and glue a hefty block of pine as a butt stop at the rear of the workpiece to give it more support going into the blade. 

 

 

[Ronald-V]

It's quite interesting to see how this process takes place....thanks for sharing this