Day late and.....

[RollaJohn]

Stopped by the local, 1/2 mile away, winery yesterday afternoon to visit with the owners with the idea of placing some bottle stoppers on consignment with them. While I was there the owners nephew stopped in feeling pretty proud of himself. He had taken a pickup truck full of wood to the landfill and when he weighed out the bill came to $23. He still had a lot more loads to dispose of, and being an attorney and hard up financially :rolleyes:, he was grumbuling a bit about the cost of getting rid of 3 or 4 years of fireplace wood he didn't have room to store.

He started to load some more of the smaller pieces that could be handled by one man. Then was interrupted by a fellow that drove by and asked what was he going to do with all that wood. Doug told him his plan to which the man replied that he was interested in getting some and asked what Doug wanted for it. Doug said that if he took it all, he could have it free of charge. The man jumped on that offer, got a couple of trucks right over and cleaned up the mess.

Doug asked if he was going to heat his house next winter with it? The man said no he is a wood turner and would use it in projects. The tree was a maple about 4 feet in diameter that didn't fit into the yards new landscaping.

Seems I'm always hearing about these deals after the fact. :(

At least the wood found a better home than the landfill. :D :D

[William Young]

That is one of the nicest things I like about wood turning. Besides it being the most enjoyable form of woodworking I have ever done , the wood to use for turning is mostly free. I seldom ever buy a piece of wood for turning now that the locals have found out I am turning. I have enough wood donated to me now to last a couple life times and I am still getting phone calls to come and up pick more and some bring it right to me. I save the nicest pieces and burn the rest. That comes in handy because I heat my home with wood.
No more resawing and jointing and gluing up pieces and planing down and sanding thin panels like needs to be done with scroll sawing (unless you are wealthy enough to buy it in pre-machined panels at ridiculous high prices).
Just a band saw and make a rough piece of square wood any length or thickness you want and put it on the lathe and turn it into a thing of beauty in a very short time and apply the finish right on the lathe and it's done when you take it off the lathe.. . Eliminates all the extra time consuming finishing by spraying or brushing or dipping or any other method of finishing which is required with most any other type of WW project AFTER it is made.

Free wood and less time to make nice saleable gift items equals easy money for items with a fast turnover at craft sales.
Lathes used to be very expensive so not many got into turning. But now with so makes makes available at reasonable and competetive prices , it is little wonder that more and more hobby woodworkers are getting into turning.
W.Y.