Turnco wood lab

In like a lion...

2009-04-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

So far this spring has been roaring right along... here are some shots of some of the work we've been doing lately.

alder. alder. alder. how do I love thee? let me count the ways, thou art more forgiving- easy to sand, lacking knots, and light in weight.
This was an alder order we did that was a variety 54 pieces and 7 different turnings.

Many hours spent at this lathe over the alder job.

This alder job gave us a chance to learn a new fluting tecqnique, the "reeded" look.

Attic endcaps for some exterior grade fir columns.

Some cabinet turnings waiting to be finished and packed up.

Mahogany tuscan columns and bunfeet.

video clip #1 from the shop

2009-03-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

One of our lathes in action, turning some paint grade poplar table legs. You can see how much "hands on" involvement goes into each piece.

wood waste idea #2

2009-02-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

"Salvaged", "Reclaimed", "Reused", "Found", "Rescued", "Recovered", "Recycled", and many more are buzz words that the furniture and wood industry love to be able to use. We do this knowing it helps us to be more environmentally responsible and these tags are becoming valued more and more by consumers today.

Since coming into this industry we have realized how much opportunity there is in using such wood. Intrigued by the possibilities we started to develop products using solid logs. We used a number of ways to start acquiring our stumps. One is the local tree pruning business that dumps all their "waste" in the front of their yard for people to pick through for firewood, some stumps come from vendors who hold salvage permits- many of those logs are from the nearby Fraser river, which brings a mass of logs to the lower mainland every spring. We store them in our shop so that they can dry out a bit over time, then they are less messy to turn and lighter weight by the time we are shipping them.

So what becomes of such a stump...?
...after it was first turned, not sanded or finished yet.

the voluptuous stool finished. check out this and other stools here.

Rustic fir table legs

2009-02-16T22:14:00.000-08:00

These rustic legs were done using our TL-600 template. Once again FIR-- seems to be a common theme with us. We work with fir a lot being in BC, it is pretty much our outdoor wood of choice, plus it turns nicely and smells wonderful!

some of the detail- up close and personal.

2009-02-10T20:13:00.000-08:00

These are small finial balls to replace rotted toppers on a outdoor planter box. These fir balls would eventually be painted white, and be fixed in all four corners of the planter. Size was approximately 2"x2".

Wood waste idea #1

2009-02-09T21:31:00.001-08:00

Wood waste. Since we started in this business I wondered how we could recycle or better yet reuse our wood waste. This is one great way we have found to give our wood waste new life.

Part of our primary business is turning hardwood spindles. We do all our own planing, cutting and glue-ups, so we end up with a lot of scrap hardwood. It is beautiful Maple, Alder, Sapele, Cherry, and sometimes Oak. What to do with this wood waste? We can always find people who LOVE to have this kiln dried wood scrap for kindling. But that wasn't cutting it for me, I wanted to create a product out of this beautiful wood.

So out of that came the cutting boards, cheese boards and trivets or "pot lifters". They are still in the stage of being developed, but we gave some away at Christmas and they were a huge hit.

There are more pictures up if you follow our flickr link.

*photo credit to tamila :o)

Custom "mushroom"

2009-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

This fun mushroom shaped finial came to us when a customer came in with a 1cmx1cm image from a page ripped out of a magazine. We took on the challenge and developed these little mushroom shaped banister toppers. There size was approximately 4.5" high x 5"diameter.
This picture really shows off the interesting grain of poplar. Its the wood we use when we are doing paint grade. I happen to love the grain; a little green, a little grey, and a little purple(if you are lucky).