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Woodworking With Lizards in It...


     Here in the sub-tropical region of Central Florida, I have the pleasure of working under the constant scrutiny and discerning gazes of a myriad four legged reptiles of various types. I don't know their correct species names  or their family affiliations with other lizards (i.e. iguanas, salamanders, skinks, anoles, ch
ameleons, etc.), but I do know that they are a joy to have around. I just refer to them all as Newts, although a few have earned humanesque names for themselves. Stubs, the one who protects my bandsaw from nefarious spider types, is always glad to greet me in the mornings and seems fascinated with my chili pepper coffee mug. He does however, keep a watchful eye out for our orange tabby, Weasley, as this was the feline who appropriated his tail. Weasley has a penchant for lizard tail and is delighted in the sustainable, "green" attributes in the delicacy. Therefore, their are quite a few newts running around with tails in various stages of regrowth.


Greening Up My Act

    For the past couple years, I have been conscious of the need for protecting our hardwood forests and finding alternate sources for my raw materials. I am fortunate, in that most of my woodstuffs are small and material can be obtained from cast-offs. There are some beautiful woods out there at garage sales, auctions and estate sales (not to mention on the side of the road) in the form of broken furniture.
    Then there are crating materials and pallets from local factories. These are normally oak and ash and other common North American hardwoods. If these are from overseas, you will often find woods that are exotic to us. I have run across teak, purpleheart, wenge and others that are just haphazardly nailed into crates and pallets along with trash wood. I guess if it doesn't meet a certain grade, it is set aside as trash for crating.
    Tree services in my area send 99% of their results to the landfills. There are no mills around. So, most of the sycamore, jacaranda, magnolia, oak, persimmons, etc. are wasted. I manage to snag some small, choice pieces that my humble shop can manage and mill them myself. It can take quite a while to get the moisture down and out of some of the harder tropicals.
    Getting my materials this way is by no means cheaper. First you have the gas and time for acquisition. Then you have to spend shop time for dismantling a piece of furniture or crate material. Milling it up (or down) into pieces that I find useful is wearing on my equipment and can be expensive. There is nothing like hitting a hidden nail with a new $80 blade.
    I would estimate that 60 to 70% of my "raw stock" comes from perfectly good used stock and hope to make that percentage higher in the future. I may be spending more time and money doing things this way, but it makes me happy to give a beautiful piece of wood a second or third incarnation instead of committing it to the overflowing landfills.


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