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nasty suprise

Got a nasty suprise last nite. I was cutting two necks out of an oak 1x4 when the wood split going thru the saw. The split was internal with no sign of it on the outsides of the board.The only indication that something was wrong was some rough grain on one side. That ruined my evening. I managed to salvage some small scraps.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on September 14, 2011 at 6:45am

Drats. Sometimes life hands you lemonade, sometimes it splits your wood. Eh. Good for ya to salvage what you could .

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 14, 2011 at 8:29am

Find another alternate color / variety of wood, and laminate!

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Permalink Reply by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on September 14, 2011 at 8:50am

If it makes you feel any better, years (and years and years) ago I used to make bows for stringed instruments (fiddle sticks if you like). I had worked a stick almost to completion, with silver face polished and everything, and was just doing the final papering which was done with linseed oil prior to waxing. Once the oil got into the wood I could see the very end of a thunder shake going diagonally across the stick. It didn't show up before the oil papering and didn't compromise the strength, but it still looked bad, so it was scrapped. That was several days work plus the price of the stick gone in an instant. That's the price we pay for using natural materials. Now, do you feel any better?

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 14, 2011 at 8:55am

William,

A hug from Maw makes everyone feel better ;-)

Go have a beer for me, talk nicely to those wood scraps...even better, write a song about it!:

"Pain In The Neck Blues"

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on September 14, 2011 at 9:04am

Wasn't enough left to laminate. The board was 36" long and I barely got four 4" pieces out of it. The split ran diagonally thru the board.

Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Find another alternate color / variety of wood, and laminate!

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 14, 2011 at 9:14am

Darn...definitely subject material for a song, though.

Wait: bridges!

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on September 14, 2011 at 9:49am

I'll find some use for the scrap, I don't throw wood away. I may reduce a log to chips doing a carving, but I never waste wood. Bridges, nuts, box braces, parts for toy trucks, the list goes on. I used scrap flooring to make wood plugs to fix oversized screw holes on a screen door instal for my son.

Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Darn...definitely subject material for a song, though.

Wait: bridges!

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Permalink Reply by Richard G Caudill on September 14, 2011 at 9:58am

I like the part about go have a beer !!! I had a box almost complete yesterday and "oopsed" a hole all way thru it in wrong place.. I didn't bust it ,,but did roughly throw it our my shop door!! Yes I did !!

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on September 14, 2011 at 10:04am

No way to glue and clamp back, then continue eh? Not to completely diminish the bit of bad luck, but it was oak. If it were ebony, bubinga, makore, or spalted maple -- well, we would been in need of a candle light vigil.

-WY

William McCauley said:

Wasn't enough left to laminate. The board was 36" long and I barely got four 4" pieces out of it. The split ran diagonally thru the board.

Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Find another alternate color / variety of wood, and laminate!

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on September 14, 2011 at 10:18am

If it was one of the species you listed then I would have been a lot more upset.

Wes "Moaning Mule" Yates said:

No way to glue and clamp back, then continue eh? Not to completely diminish the bit of bad luck, but it was oak. If it were ebony, bubinga, makore, or spalted maple -- well, we would been in need of a candle light vigil.

-WY

William McCauley said:

Wasn't enough left to laminate. The board was 36" long and I barely got four 4" pieces out of it. The split ran diagonally thru the board.

Oily "Strat-O'-Nine-Tales" Fool said:

Find another alternate color / variety of wood, and laminate!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by William McCauley on September 14, 2011 at 10:21am

I feel your pain, I dropped a finished dump truck I had made for a friend, busted the dump bed all to hell. The bed was

made up of six pieces if 1/4 and 1/2 inch oak and walnut, I was not happy.

Richard G Caudill said:

I like the part about go have a beer !!! I had a box almost complete yesterday and "oopsed" a hole all way thru it in wrong place.. I didn't bust it ,,but did roughly throw it our my shop door!! Yes I did !!