Anyone ever work with douglas fir?

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Darios

Darios

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... no seriously. I've a request to take some of the material from beams used in Ray Bradbury's house and make it a pen, and there's just enough there that I only get one shot.
 
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Should be no trouble , unless your piece incorporates a large knot . Get another piece that looks similar to yours to practice upon . Won`t matter if it isn`t from Bradbury`s house .
 
Interesting.

I think I'd have a big bottle of thin CA to saturate as I went along.

Looking forward to see what you wind up with.
 
I'm assuming it's older growth fir than the stuff you get in the home improvement stores nowadays, so it should be a pretty solid wood. Do it justice, Bradbury is a wonderful author!
 
If you turn any doug fir from the local hardware and lumber stores/yards, make SURE you wear PPE. Even for the older stuff, probably, you should make sure you are protected. That kind of lumber for construction is usually treated, which contains a variety of chemicals that are dangerous. This is particularly true for ground contact or near ground contact treated woods, which even with construction you need to make sure your protected from. Deck wood is less toxic, but if you are gonna make dust out of it, then its still pretty nasty and you'll want to make sure you are protected.

In fact, in the past, wood treatments often included arsenic, so the older doug fir from Ray's house might in fact be more toxic than modern stuff.

Just thought I'd bring that up, in the even you pick up any pieces of wood from the local hardware store to practice on, and if the old wood is treated with arsenic then...you'll want solid PPE either way. Some of the modern ground contact wood treatments or anything with arsenic in it...you probably want to protect your arms and all that too...
 
Big old knot right in the center of one of the pieces. :)

And appreciate the tips on a practice piece, CA, and the PPE.
 
I have a lot of scrap Douglas fir that I use for "shop" projects. In addition to the tips on superglue and PPE, sharp tools are a must. It can be a beautiful wood, but it LOVES to tear out. So the sharper your tools are, the better. It's universal advice, but even more applicable with the SPFs.

Also, keep some DNA handy in case your tools gum up from sap/pitch. The DNA dissolves it pretty quickly, and I've found it make the turning experience much better.
 
'bliged for that.

Bonus: I'll be going cross-grain. I might just sand it into a shape.
 
I had some historic old wood like that. Was/is a bear to turn. The wood was very hard and soft along the grain. Didn't sand well - it would end up very wavy - even 600 grain sand paper wouldn't touch the hard lines and would eat away at the soft wood. So, ended up taking very very light shavings while turning to final size and finish - no sanding.
 
Soft woods turn best with Skews instead of scrapers and carbide inserts. Scrapers and carbide inserts do their best on hard woods. If you can saturate it with CA or stabilize it with Cactus Juice or other hardener under a vacuum/pressure, carbide inserts and scrapers will then fare better than without, and sanding might be more consistent.
 
leehljp said:
Soft woods turn best with Skews instead of scrapers and carbide inserts. Scrapers and carbide inserts do their best on hard woods. If you can saturate it with CA or stabilize it with Cactus Juice or other hardener under a vacuum/pressure, carbide inserts and scrapers will then fare better than without, and sanding might be more consistent.
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Stabilizing it with Cactus Juice sounds like the best option to me. It would ensure all parts of the blank are stable, and would allow for an easier and more enjoyable time turning. If the necessary equipment wasn't owned, checking with the local woodworking clubs or even a woodcraft store might be a way to borrow some equipment to get the job done.
 
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