Milling Burl

[Tenderfoot]

Does anyone have tips and tricks, in general? I have a pickup load of cherry burls sitting in the driveway now. I am trying to save as much as I can, so probably most will sit for now until I can spring for a bandsaw mill (anyone have any entry level recommendations? $3k budget). How do you 'read' the burl to maximize figure and yield? Or are those two tasks at odds and I get one or the other?

Im thinking of selling burl slabs, I can get a steady supply (pickup load a month) and there is regional demand for it. The plan is to seal the ends with tar or wax slow down the drying and try and reduce cracking. I may spring for some pentacryl.

 

[SeMoTony]

Does anyone have tips and tricks, in general? I have a pickup load of cherry burls sitting in the driveway now. I am trying to save as much as I can, so probably most will sit for now until I can spring for a bandsaw mill (anyone have any entry level recommendations? $3k budget). How do you 'read' the burl to maximize figure and yield? Or are those two tasks at odds and I get one or the other?

Im thinking of selling burl slabs, I can get a steady supply (pickup load a month) and there is regional demand for it. The plan is to seal the ends with tar or wax slow down the drying and try and reduce cracking. I may spring for some pentacryl.

Polyethylene glycol 1000 is used in a water solution to help prevent checking & cracking. Least expensive I found is at Rockler wood supplies. Have not used it on burls though. Sounds like you would be better served by the best for your use that you can afford, rather than limit yourself to less expensive units. With a relative continuous supply that you supply just less than meeting demand will hold price rather steady. When You choose better slabs for your own use the profit margin will increase more than the labor needed to make furniture of your design. Good used BSM's are offered online, as is better instruction than I can provide RE: PEG use on burl. May good fortune light your path

 

[Tenderfoot]

Thank you! But money is tight right now. I am going back to college and wont be working full time. I want to see if I can handle the market with a small time operation before dumping my life savings into it. I don't have a full year of living expenses saved up and cannot take a risk on it. I need to see if I can carve a place in the market before going hog wild. Never been much good at wood working, much rather sell the slabs. Less profit, but more fun.

 

[lumberjackchef]

you can usually get into a good used manual mill for around what you are budgeting..I see woodmizer lt-15's for less than 2k at least three or four times a year around here...... As for the burls, it's a learning experience. You really need to know the exact product that your buyer wants and and develop your cutting method to produce that specific desired result. I have seen many people do it differently.... when building with them I prefer the burls to be flat tangentially on the mill and cut plain sawn live edge slabs out of them. Thst to me has the most spectacular figure. most will look like Birdseye maple pattern on steroids........Many places with buy them to them and stabilize them with acrylic.. .....I know of one guy that was even selling ones that were punky and spalted. Happy hunting!!!!

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[009L]

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[kimosawboy]

You say there is a regional demand for cherry burl material.....
Why do you not just take one or two of the better more sizable burls to your local bandmill and have them sliced up....????
Then you have something to test the market with....
BUT...unless you have an in with a particular buyer or know something the rest of the millers in Connecticut do not, your not going to make much $$ if any at all, especially with some green burl slabs that have tar smooshed on them.
Work, Work, Work....yes you have the intial raw wood but that is just the start...
G Vavra

 

[Tenderfoot]

you can usually get into a good used manual mill for around what you are budgeting..I see woodmizer lt-15's for less than 2k at least three or four times a year around here...... As for the burls, it's a learning experience. You really need to know the exact product that your buyer wants and and develop your cutting method to produce that specific desired result. I have seen many people do it differently.... when building with them I prefer the burls to be flat tangentially on the mill and cut plain sawn live edge slabs out of them. Thst to me has the most spectacular figure. most will look like Birdseye maple pattern on steroids........Many places with buy them to them and stabilize them with acrylic.. .....I know of one guy that was even selling ones that were punky and spalted. Happy hunting!!!!

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Thats why I am asking. I know a LOT of wood turners locally, so turning stock and bowl blanks I belive will be my bread and butter.

I think what may work better is charge a nominal hourly rate for guys to bring wood to me they want milled. I wont make any money if I go to a mill. They charge far too much for custom work on this scale, plus an hr drive each way. Have to market and find the market.

You say there is a regional demand for cherry burl material.....
Why do you not just take one or two of the better more sizable burls to your local bandmill and have them sliced up....????
Then you have something to test the market with....
BUT...unless you have an in with a particular buyer or know something the rest of the millers in Connecticut do not, your not going to make much $$ if any at all, especially with some green burl slabs that have tar smooshed on them.
Work, Work, Work....yes you have the intial raw wood but that is just the start...
G Vavra

Thats Why I am asking. Trying to set things up for storage until I understand the market before I start hacking things up. I have an in with a full time furniture maker who does use burl, who also deals with wood workers a lot. BUT I do not know if there is any room for me.

 

[Tenderfoot]

My biggest thing with this is "can I get enough market share to justify the investment and can I handle the tasks to do so?" Asking questions is a good why so I can find out the specific questions I need to ask. Like Can I use PEG or Pentacryl to dry them and are there ways to speed drying with a kiln or similar without too much waste?

 

[kimosawboy]

A kiln is the way to go...but ...burls are probably the trickiest thing to dry....also depends on the end product....pencil blanks can be thrown in a microwave, bowl blanks, brown paper bag to slow drying(but might start spaulting). Air dry larger pcs then into a dehumidifier type kiln.....
You can make a small a small 4'x4'.8' kiln powered with just a heat lamp for under $100 easy, toss in a bowl of water for the first ten days or so to slow the initial drying....
Cut/anchor seal/air dry/ kln....and repeat

 

[Tenderfoot]

A kiln is the way to go...but ...burls are probably the trickiest thing to dry....also depends on the end product....pencil blanks can be thrown in a microwave, bowl blanks, brown paper bag to slow drying(but might start spaulting). Air dry larger pcs then into a dehumidifier type kiln.....
You can make a small a small 4'x4'.8' kiln powered with just a heat lamp for under $100 easy, toss in a bowl of water for the first ten days or so to slow the initial drying....
Cut/anchor seal/air dry/ kln....and repeat

Well I do know of one of those bigger woodmizer kiln units that is for sale. I may buy that instead of the sawmill. It looks like there are more kilns then sawmills out there right now, and more demand for kilns.

 

[SeMoTony]

Burls, crotches, mexican snakewood, and many others all have opposing internal tensions which contribute to splits, cracks & breaks while drying/shrinking. I've read that a company, who lathe turns bowls, deals with that type of tension.The recomendations from the Pres. of the company is boiling one hour per inch thickness. That is how that tension is relieved by them. They indicate no break-ups or explosions on the lathe if the blanks are boiled before drying. I'm collecting fire wood to place under a lidded (removable) 55 gal. bbl. to boil walnut or oak crotches for turning ball point pens, knife handles and so on. Report on results when I have some. Warning I'm old & slo

 

[Tenderfoot]

Burls, crotches, mexican snakewood, and many others all have opposing internal tensions which contribute to splits, cracks & breaks while drying/shrinking. I've read that a company, who lathe turns bowls, deals with that type of tension.The recomendations from the Pres. of the company is boiling one hour per inch thickness. That is how that tension is relieved by them. They indicate no break-ups or explosions on the lathe if the blanks are boiled before drying. I'm collecting fire wood to place under a lidded (removable) 55 gal. bbl. to boil walnut or oak crotches for turning ball point pens, knife handles and so on. Report on results when I have some. Warning I'm old & slo

Well, Im just slow, so we may have some issues.