Among The Trees – Offcut Challenge

When I was at Among the Trees in Marrickville last month selecting timber for a couple of projects I was asked if I was going to enter the Off-cut Challenge.

With 8 days before the deadline for entries, and only 5 days of casual teaching to be done, I said “Why not!”

To enter, you can select up to a milkcrate full of the bits and pieces from their off-cut section.

I had a rough design for a band sawn box floating around in my head, so, to save time, I selected an appropriately sized end cut from a bench top lamination, and a piece of Jarrah floorboard that I thought would make a nice box.

To get the full thickness for the box, I needed to laminate two pieces from the bench top together.

A quick mark out for size and alignment and it was off to the bandsaw. As the benchtop had already been machined in their shop, I didn’t need to run over it with the metal detector. BAD MISTAKE!

First cut going well and then the blade stopped cutting. Hmmmm. Must be a nail. Turned the board around to finish cutting and it stopped 8mm from the first cut. Lucky for me it was an old blade and not a new one. Now completely blunt.

I had to break the board and prise it apart to reveal what the problem was. A 5/16th bolt holding some of the laminations together.

With that removed, and a run over with the metal detector, things then went along as planned (only a few mistakes). I even left the bolt hole in the finished article to add character.

Not bad for a rush job. Even managed to win the function section.

Here is the poster for the next Challenge. I was asked to encourage our members to participate.

Take a trip, check out the shop (some good timber there), pick out some offcuts, challenge yourself and have fun. I picked up my timber for it today!