Liquid amber milling sizes.

[JDarvall]

hi,

will 1" boards cup much ? ….

I don't know much about the stuff, but, after reading a few comments I get the impression it can crack up a fair bit, which kinda suggests to me that thick dimensions are risky.

Will 80x80 cross sections crack up much ? <- cause ideally thats what I'd like.

appreciate your thoughts on what dimensions are going to survive.

ta

Jake

( should this be in the milling section. does it matter ? )

[pommyphil]

This is my experience and only one tree, yours may be different !

I dropped one about 700 dia at the butt and cut it up for turning, not boards. I roughed out some big bowls and the movment was spectacular, most of the rest I cut into blocks and quartered them, again lots of distortion and little cracking.

If you want 80mm and have time I'd slab it to 90 or 100mm for initial drying, thin boards could move so much you lose the lot.

Good luck Phil

[JDarvall]

Thanks Phil. Did you remember cutting up any of the branches ? say 200 - 300mm diameter. I'm wondering how they will end up if I chop them up into 60x60 blanks (cutting out the pith) .

cheers
jake

[keenwoodworker]

In my experience milling a few small logs (500 diameter) you need to strip stack it carefully and put heaps of weight on top to hold it down and keep it flat, otherwise you will end up with a heap of corkscrews...it twists shockingly!

[JDarvall]

thanks.

that rings true with a board I milled at 20mm. Has me thinking not to bother with thin thicknesses at all with the stuff, even if weighted down.

The rest seemed to mill up fine though between 50 -80mm. Turning work.