Zane's Toddler Bed

[castingman]

Looks great,
I think the vortex would keep me up ! Like the snake in Jungle book I
Is that ambrosia maple i see ?
Michael

[dewey6800]

Great job!! I'm sure if Zane was older he would appreciate the great job you did.

[deemon328]

Ambrosia maple? That sounds expensive and Greek Here's what I can tell you:

On my parents farm, there was a fire from a railroad not far from Horseshoe Curve that decimated the forest on our side of the mountain very many decades ago. Until that time, the area was still uncut forest. There were 2 surviving maple trees just beyond the crest of the hill at the upper edge of our property. A few years back, wind blew one of them over. These trees were well more than 2 adults could wrap their arms around, quite impressive for Central Pennsylvania trees. I cut many 8' logs out of the tree. Even the branches were over 24" in diameter. The center of the tree was hollow, but all around the ring of wood that remained was various states of compression, creating some pretty tight and figured grain patterns.

When I got the stump log down to the mill, I spent hours cutting it into 4 sections so that we could fit it onto the band saw mill. My hands were numb from the chainsaw vibration. The band mill guys weren't impressed with the look of my efforts, but they didn't have the vision or care to appreciate what this tree could provide in it's fall. I would not accept anything but complete usage of this irreplaceable piece of history.

I had the sawmill guys quarter saw the sections in the stump log. Even with the hollow core, each section still produced many boards over 8" wide with combination of sapwood and some heartwood.

The second log was even more special. Freed from the hollow core of the stump log, we squared the log on the band mill and created several 22" wide flat sawn boards with the most interesting wavy grain pattern. Each cathedral grain line looked like it oscillated. Someday I'll use it for a special project, but never for an ordinary one.

Several more logs followed, limbs the size of most other standing trees in our forest. It took over a full day to saw the tree into the best boards that I could envision, the best respect that I could show for a tree that stood for hundreds of years.

[AskBud]

Here is a link that speaks to your Maple.
AskBud
http://www.haleydaniels.com/Woods.htm

[hotpop]

deemon328,

I really enjoyed your story of the Maple Tree. It almost brought a tear to my eye. I have a soft spot for trees and animals I guess.

Not a joke, thanks for sharing.

[deemon328]

I've never heard of ambrosia beetles before, but that's definitely what it looks like on the one leg of the headboard. I cut a lot of that coloration off when creating the legs because of the holes.

It was a fun event that I should always remember. The only thing I wished I had done differently was to buy my own little bandmill. It's really fun to open up a log and pick the most pleasing cuts.

[castingman]

I have some abrosia maple , I though thats what it was, I made a box out of most of it realy looked cool.

Your work is great!! I wish i had that talent.

Great job Michael

[bizbiki]

Zanes bed looks great, I love the vortex. Maybe you can tell us how you did it?

[deemon328]

I used a fractal imaging program to make the spiral, then jumped through the usual photoshop/PNG/import hoops. The original image was circular, so I stretched it to rectangular.

[mtylerfl]

I used a fractal imaging program to make the spiral, then jumped through the usual photoshop/PNG/import hoops. The original image was circular, so I stretched it to rectangular.

Hello Dustin,

I still own an old DOS-based fractal generator, but no longer use it.

What program are you using?