Solid Redwood Burl Stand

[Brian Underwood]

Fang - Nice little stand!

Smoke - Nope, not much burl in the guitar biz (at least not while I was there). The stuff I did end up finishing went fine with lacquer sealer and a few coats of semi-gloss lacquer. The burl was bone dry, about 3/8" thick, and I finished on pretty hot days so the lacquer dried almost instantly. So far, one year later they are all fine (pics below). These are buckeye and redwood. I did however try to dry some of the small ones in the oven to kill the bugs, they most definitely had the "Pringle" effect, bad idea. Do you have any pics of the Pinned slabs?

Woodguy - Thanks for all the advice. I had my last two BIG pieces flat under weight for about 6 months, so I hope they will be ok. I need to have them thickness sanded and then I will work on them this summer.

Would small ridges in the underside of the stand help keep the tension in the board and prevent warping? I'm thinking it will be similar to the bracing on the inside of a guitar, just routed in...

 

[Smoke]

Nice stands Smoke and Fangorn.

Al have you tried wetting the warped ones with a spray bottle and stacking them on a flat surface under weight? You'll want to seperate them slightly with some sort of sticker to allow air to get around them.

I have tried all those and then some. Even storing them overnight in a vacuum bag with weight. The tung oil seems to be the best way and they look good as well.

Smoke - Do you have any pics of the Pinned slabs?

Would small ridges in the underside of the stand help keep the tension in the board and prevent warping? I'm thinking it will be similar to the bracing on the inside of a guitar, just routed in...

Will get some photo's of the finished ones up soon. Two bonsai meetings tomorrow.

I don't think the grooves would do much good as the tension Wood talked about is so great. I have ripped an oak board and had the two splits just hang right and left turns right off the table saw.. Looked like a time lapse of one of those Chineese guys growing the long fingernails!

I made this small table from ribbon walnut. It's just five pieces of wood. The four sides are all one piece and the top is just glued into the top frame which had its rails cut out by table saw. The legs were made freehand by plunging onto a stationary router bit on a router table. Don't anyone get any ideas about that pot either...cause I ain't givin it up!

 

[Smoke]

That pot....ummmm umm good!

 

[woodguy]

Would small ridges in the underside of the stand help keep the tension in the board and prevent warping? I'm thinking it will be similar to the bracing on the inside of a guitar, just routed in...

Probably not. The bracing on a guitar is an added piece attached with glue. The glue and the fact that you are using very stable/straight grained wood both help to stabilize the top. Your best bet if you have slabs that are relatively flat and close to the thickness you want is to just remove enough to flatten them and clean up the faces. Try to remove the same amount form both faces. If you are reducing the thickness a lot do it in stages.

If you are going to shape one like the picture in your first post. I would cut it to rough size leaving it an 1/8th -3/8th oversized. Then I would hog out most of the material from the underside, again leaving it over sized. I would then let it sit for a week or so to allow it to stabilize. It should do most of it's warping right away but better to let it sit. After that you can come back and do you the final shaping. This is the process used for turning those large burl bowls you see.

 

[woodguy]

Smoke... very nice stand. And pot