well, picked up a couple pallets of wine barrel staves, a group i know here in phoenix, was ripping this to thin strips and making white oak flooring, but lost their lease here locally, so gonna move their operation to another local city. 

with that, they were offering a gaggle of stuff up for sale, i used to buy a lot of exotic lumber from them as they were importers, but missed out on their last sale, but yesterday managed to grab a few pallets of staves.

 

and have to say having only done one board and a large one at that 24x24 inche, by about 3.5 inch thick ,it turned out awesome and seems the ole gal wants to make more as here friends are all whining they want one,  

it is a lot of work to machine it down to be able to glue up a board, but recycling the stuff is neat, and the cutoffs we bag and sell or give away as smoking woods, 

lol, i spent a few hours unloading a couple pallets onto ground pallets outside shop as i have no room, i'll try and get some pics up later today once i get time to run out and get some shots and show the one board. 

 

she came up with a new project to make some fancy wood trivits, so was gluing up cherry blocks to begin the chore. lol. i ought maybe burn her magazines before she reads them. 

not really, 

anyways, happy sunday, great weather on the horizon and soon to be great days regardless, counting days before final shut down of biz, target date is (9-23-22) and won't be too soon.

Rj in az

 

 

the treats on work table are the boards she made from the ambrosia maple, and some oven squirrels she made for the oven, then the monster boards underneath, takes a couple young men to move, but seems its quite popular with the fancy kitchen folk, has maple round feet she found at lowes.

 

then the foggy picture of the two pallets of staves on trailer. whew that was chore to unload, stacking was a learning curve. 

rj

Edited September 18, 20223 yr by knockonit
added picture and misc.

I'm looking forward to seeing you work with these barrel staves RJ.  I'm wondering what the technique is to straighten a curved stave...

its a long process, by time i machine all to glue up panels to begin board, they are about 5/8 to 3/4 inch, have to run them thru jointer on one side to get it flat, then thru the planer, all of them for correct even sizing, glue up some panels after grain selection, then the usual process for end grain boards, the white oak which is what the staves are, is hard, and hard on blades, and sanding belts, but in end, is absolutely gorgeous, imo. 

 

average pallet has mixed sizes from 3/4 to 2-1/4 wide, can usually end up with two pcs about 12-16 inches pending type of barrel they came from. some ventors did use nails on exterior for blocking to keep barrels stacked, so have to use metal detector on some to find as much of the old square head pins and nails they used. Pallet has about 150 to 200 pcs depending a gain on what type and size of barrel. 

only done a couple, each time i learn a little more on how to improve the process.

 

and the biggie is there is no waste, cutoffs get bagged and we either sell or give away for smoking, its a hit for most cooks.  

its rare if we get a chardonay barrel (ie spelling) most are of red variety barrels. 

lotsa work, but hey whats a shop for. 

 

happy monday, five more days and i'm gonna be officially retired. 

rj in az

well now a new opportunity came up, so am going to pursue it a tad, boys and gals i purchased barrel staves from, who have quite a few along with other materials, gave a call and want to make a deal on balance left over, so, see what comes of that today, lol, just have to find a spot to stash it all, ugh, unloading is tough. but we will see. 

 

liberals who are visiting decided wanted to assist ole gal in making boards, so last couple days, been showing them the ropes, and educating use of power equipment, i gotta stand by as they use them, they seem to think my words or warning aren't meant for them, lol, figures, kali fornians, anyhows they have managed to stay at task and have built a whole lotta small boards from our scrap, so we will see. kinda nice to have a little free labor, give me old hands  a break from the orbital sanders. 

happy friday, nice weather has arrived, shop is open and airing out, and we will see how days goes

 

rj in az

 

the ole gal and he sister were busy, i was in charge of safety and direction, or they let me think i was. in any event, was surprised at SIL desire to learn how to make and finish boards and misc. 

 

 

between the two of them and me in between other tasks, they finished up about a dozen and half boards. and a half dozen more in clamps, whew, best part is they went thru scrap buckets and walla, no mas scrap left, found space in shop.

 

setting up work table on patio since weather is so nice to set a chop saw up and begin the process on the barrel staves, jeez, since i don't work anymore, lol i have a lotta time.

rj in az

That's some good production RJ!

yeah the gals managed to dwindle down the scrap pile, now they are eye balling the board stash, i had purchased a cabt, shops scrap a year or so ago, it was a couple years of their off fall, and it was a lot, see if i can get a pic of it, moved it to house end of last year as i sold old office and building. hehe, takes up a third of my house patio, but its slowly going away, anyhowz, gals are gonna sort some out today, they want to make bigger boards now, so, managed to teach the older sister table saw safety and use, i still hang out to ensure she doesn't go south on me. 

 

i have a platform to build to set the cnc on so i can move around, gonna accomplish that today if not anything else. pulled a chop saw out to set up a cut table near a pallet of the staves, might put one of them to work chopping staves, kinda like a song there. 

happy sunday, gonna go get'm some sugar to get'm going a nice dozen of fresh donuts, oughta get'm in the right mood

Rj in Az