Hardwood enthusiast in an MDF world

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Greetings DIY Audio.

I'm more of a lumberjack than expert audiophile. I approach the hobby from a [very] amateur carpenter's point of view. For me, building loudspeakers is just another case of cabinetry.

What makes my projects unique is surely my approach to acquiring raw materials. There are a lot of things I don't enjoy about living in the Midwest, but one of the perks is unprecedented access to standing dead hardwood. Maple, Oak, Ash, Walnut, Black Cherry; all of the big names and all available as spectacularly large specimens.

The trouble, of course, is getting the big dead tree whittled down into some kind of regularly sized material. It can get expensive and discouraging when you are faced with a whopper like this:

Ashtree11.jpg



Such a situation generally calls for heavy equipment and a saw mill. However, with the right tools, plenty of gumption and at least a bit of foolhardiness it is possible to manage a DIY solution. It is simply a matter of having a big enough chainsaw:

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And then knowing what to do with it:

Ashtree4.jpg


NewAsh2.jpg


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With some practice, it is possible to produce hardwood lumber of excellent quality with only a few hundred dollar's worth of tools:

TodaysHaulsmall.jpg



Perhaps the best thing about this approach is that you can use classic techniques that have long since been abandoned by the industry. Quarter-sawing is a prime example of this. It tends to waste more stubby off-cut material out of a given log and so has fallen out of favor. However on certain breeds of wood, Oaks especially, the resulting beauty is more than worth the lost material:

QrtrsawnSm.jpg



When you are a hobbyist lumberjack of this capacity, thousands upon thousands of board-feet will pass beneath your fingers. This gives you the best chance of coming across a few pieces that are truly irregular; truly special. These are the bits that don't get sold. They get stacked up in the personal stash to await an appropriate project.

Over the years a few such projects were stereos. The quarter-sawed Red Oak above eventually became a small coffee table come big subwoofer:

QrtrSawnSpeaker.jpg


It was a 12" driver job with a passive radiator and was part of a beefy 2.1 system. The satellites had the same red oak and black face look. I'll have to scrounge up photos of them.


I haven't been on an audio forum with my projects before because, to me, the only thing interesting about them has been the carpentry. As far as the stereo bits they have been of good quality, but unremarkable design and execution. Simple pre-constructed passive crossovers matched to solid and well-matched, off-the-shelf components. Only mild computer-assisted design through the use of WinISD.

However my most recent project has been different. It is based on some truly bizarre 'purple-streaked' Ash that I've had for ages. The stereo itself is a simple, 2-speakers bookshelf Hi-Fi system with grand packaging ambitions. It employs a fully active crossover system powered by MiniISD, a miniature medical-grade power supply and super-efficient Tripath-based digital amplification. :D

Ending on that note, I was hoping to post this new project as a blog. I've been looking at the (very well-done) entries of other members but have been unable to figure out how to make new entries of my own. Anyone care to chime in on my noob issues? :wrench:
 
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Hi and welcome. You are welcome to start a new 'build' thread if you wish, it doesn't have to be a blog. I know the blog area doesn't get the same traffic as the forums do so...

Anyway, I like you work. I have a friend with a similar portable type sawmill and all the planers and such that are needed to bring out the best in the wood. Good to see that some are still interested in doing it rather than heading to the lumberyard.
 
Ahh, awesome. I should have just asked where the best place for a "build thread" would be. Obviously I need to do some more lurking.

There are still a few of us amateur lumberjacks around. Its amazing what is possible with a simple "Alaskan" style, chainsaw-based portable saw mill.

I still hit my local lumberyard every now and again. We have a pretty strong rule about only cutting up trees that are "standing dead". I would not kill a perfectly good, living tree just for some lumber. I'll take farmed hardwood rather than do that. However if you keep your eyes open there is a lot of dead stuff just waiting around to be salvaged.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm fairly proud of my projects. Looking forward to sharing lots more in the future.
 
Very impressive I must say! I myself have some experience with chainsaws and cutting down big trees but I haven't made planks of them, only firewood. By the way, that's a damn big chainsaw!

As I might have said before, it's always interesting watching a professional do his job that an ordinary person would have no chance at all doing.
 
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lumberjacks
Ahem...Craftsman.
I still hit my local lumberyard every now and again.
Of course you do.
We have a pretty strong rule about only cutting up trees that are "standing dead". I would not kill a perfectly good, living tree just for some lumber.
Not to mention the storage while drying. Standing dead is perfect.
Thanks for the compliment.
It's nice to see you doing it.
 
frugal-phile™
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Very nice Zach. Good to see more exploring what can be done with solid wood. Do post more of your builds.

I am fortunate to have a couple locals that are skilled enuff to do solid wood builds... you can see some of them in the miniOnken gallery.

I am fortunate to have a buddy with a giant version of your diy mill. Urban Milling (more pictures there)

I got the opportunity to be helper labour when he did a 400 year old garry oak, milled right where it blew down. I've helped him with a number of trees on the same order of size (including a couple cedars on our property that had to come down because they were killed by lightning strike)

oak-end-on.jpg


The chain saw attachment has something like a 6' blade.

oak-big-slab.jpg


dave
 
frugal-phile™
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Dave, pics of Garry Oak please. They are one of the 'coolest' trees while living but I don't think I've seen one cut. Is that one in the pic? I know all too well that isn't you there. ;)

That is the other dave (aka Mr Miller). Since i was taking the pictures (there are more on the web site) i'm not in any of the pics. I took away a bunch of scaps (that would normally see the fireplace... a few phase plugs have been made, the base on these the toobs Mk 1 and i loaded Bernie up and he is building a set of µFonkenSET for Scott (moose). It is lovely stuff and a bitch to work.

dave
 
frugal-phile™
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I just googled garry oak and it doesn't look like the ones in the park in Nanaimo. those ones are really windswept and look a lot different. I may be thinking of Piper's Lagoon. Kind of a poor man's Arbutus. ;)

Your Nanaimo ones look heavily wind scupted. The rest of the row of Garry Oaks at the same place we milled the fall were tall, tall.

This is more typical

IMG_5493.JPG
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


dave
 
Wow. All I did was post in the noob forum and I'm learning cool stuff already!

I've seen one of those "scaffold" mills in action and they are very innovative. They still always look too fragile and spindly to me though. I'm always amazed that they work at all, leave alone produce results as stunning as skilled sawmen regularly produce with them. The great thing about them is that the size of what you can cut is really only limited by your ambition. You could mill a damn Redwood with one of those things if you really wanted to.

I enjoyed the miniOnken gallery and a lot of other pics I'm finding around here besides. However there is one puzzling trend I've noticed. I see tons of people using vented box designs, but everyone always seems to build the vent into the box via carpentry rather than use some kind of port tube. Any reason for this other than cost?

I've also got a little preview pic of my current project:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Don't let it escape! Quick! More clamps!
 
Very impressive I must say! I myself have some experience with chainsaws and cutting down big trees but I haven't made planks of them, only firewood. By the way, that's a damn big chainsaw!

As I might have said before, it's always interesting watching a professional do his job that an ordinary person would have no chance at all doing.

Haha, we are far away from professionals, but we muddle through somehow.

We do have a couple of serious saws. The biggest is a STIHL 084. The model number tells you how many cc's of displacement it has. Its like someone took a fairly substantial dirt bike motor and then stuck it on the end of a handle!

If you can believe it our smaller saw, the 066, can actually cut circles around the 084. The 084 has lots of grunt, but low RPMs and therefore low chain speed. The 066 is a real screamer and can cut pretty much anything the 084 can. It is so competent that we will soon be cleaning up the 084 and putting it on eBay because there is just no need for it.

We also have a STIHL 044 which is our meanest saw. It has been extensively modified with a bigger piston and cylinder, dual-port exhaust, a re-jetted carb and a thorough port/polish job. It feels very nearly as powerful as the 066 to use, but weighs far less. It runs rich at idle, but as soon as you open the throttle and bury it in a log all is well. :cool:
 
Wow. All I did was post in the noob forum and I'm learning cool stuff already!

However there is one puzzling trend I've noticed. I see tons of people using vented box designs, but everyone always seems to build the vent into the box via carpentry rather than use some kind of port tube. Any reason for this other than cost?

you will find most of those that you are seeing are more than ports, rather folded horns. They are not just a flared opening, but rather tend to curl around inside to make the port much longer than is achievable going front to back. this way they are able to produce much lower frequencies than typically possible even with reflex designs.

so you can with some effort get pretty decent extension with a fullrange driver

this effect can be taken to extremes for massive Dub-horn or Tapped Horn speakers built into floors that fold the horn many times and are capable of 'the brown note'


With your skills and access to materials you would have good fun with the TH-18 project here on the forum, extensive thread, good measurements

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welcome!!
 
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Haha, we are far away from professionals, but we muddle through somehow.

We do have a couple of serious saws. The biggest is a STIHL 084. The model number tells you how many cc's of displacement it has. Its like someone took a fairly substantial dirt bike motor and then stuck it on the end of a handle!

If you can believe it our smaller saw, the 066, can actually cut circles around the 084. The 084 has lots of grunt, but low RPMs and therefore low chain speed. The 066 is a real screamer and can cut pretty much anything the 084 can. It is so competent that we will soon be cleaning up the 084 and putting it on eBay because there is just no need for it.

We also have a STIHL 044 which is our meanest saw. It has been extensively modified with a bigger piston and cylinder, dual-port exhaust, a re-jetted carb and a thorough port/polish job. It feels very nearly as powerful as the 066 to use, but weighs far less. It runs rich at idle, but as soon as you open the throttle and bury it in a log all is well. :cool:

Wow, that's some big engines! I myself have a 45cc old Swedish Jonsered chainsaw, it's from the 70's and in pretty bad shape so you can't runt it too hard for too long unless you want the fuel to start boiling (happened once actually). Dad has a newer Husqvarna 445 (4-series 45cc engine) and it has some kind of turbo and it runs way better than my old one, and it weighs only about half as much too.

Speaking of big trees. This is by my summer house. We had to call in professionals for this tree. It's one of the biggest trees I've seen in this part of Sweden and it was close to four houses as well so it had to be taken down perfectly to avoid smashing something to pieces.
http://i.imgur.com/ktef5.jpg
It may not look very big but if I remember correctly it measured around 75cm diagonally. But I suppose this is nothing compared to the monster trees you have over there in America ;)
 
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