faFFing around - The Tour de SEQ - photo & fun heavy

[FenceFurniture]

Tuesday TOD....11.50 .....I think....

Yes well you know things got a little confused, but what follows is a true story. I would NOT lie about anything concerning wood.

So at 11.50 I was driving and had to look for the first available place to stop. We were on our way to the Slab Factory at Mullinbimby, and were most probably on the outskirts of town. As I was pulling up I said to f "Look at those stacks of something under black plastic. Looks like it might be timber."Meanwhile, the 10 minute TOD window had to be satisfied. A Fig and a Eucy joined at the hip.

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I walked along the road in to the property to ask the owner if he would mind if I took the pics I had already taken. Probably about n 80 metre track/driveway in. As I'm getting closer to him I start seeing things like

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which is starting to look mighty interesting. Reading words on the boards like "Hoop", "Bunya", "Blue Fig", "Quandong", "Silver Ash" et al were somewhat encouraging. (and that btw completes my 3 entries for Tuesday)

Went to have a chat with "the chap" and soon after had to whistle in f, as this was starting to look like we were going to have a Slab Factory Triple Bypass.

Turns out that "Ken" used to work at the SF.

From here f can take over, but I will say that it involves < 6° of separation, and was brought about all because of TOD! As he is currently stretched out in front of the TV back at Boambee (Coffs - Fletty's Girl's house again) after another another crackling good roast dinner, he may be "quite some time".

STOP PRESS: f is now up and about, sitting next to me with iThing at the ready.

[FenceFurniture]

From there we went to see Terry Gordon in Alstonville who gave me a tour of his exceptionally well organised facility. Things stacked in order there, ordered piles of planes parts there, vises all in the same state of assembly in another room. What's not to like eh? :D

I believe f has some pics of the visit to post. Terry was showing me around the "different" version of his face vise that we had been discussing and planning, which involves a wider face and a heavy hand wheel. It is more or less ready to go, and seems to work as planned which is great.

From there we pushed on to Coffs without much of a pause, and here we are.

Tomorrow we will be breakfasting with 62wollybugger in Macksville, and then pretty much hot-footing it home.

[fletty]

OK, the message stick has been handed to me.
Day 6 of faFF started at Kyogle and we drove towards the mill at Uki cleverly named the Uki Mill. The early morning scenery was spectacular and the views only confirmed that everything in this area is dominated by Mount Warning...

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We we arrived at Uki Mill and met up with ‘The Boss’ and the young man who had already spoken with FF. In spite of this, we were allowed in!

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One of our aims of faFF, was to find relevant timber suppliers who would be of interest to ALL on the forum and Uki Mill certainly fills the bill. FF notes in the post above the timber that we bought, in my case 2 planks of bloodwood, but they also have old slabs of silky oak and camphor laurel which are just quietly drying and waiting for someone to take home and cherish.....

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As for most of our morning however, Mt Warning sat above us..... brooding...

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IT WAS FFs turn to select a time for TOD ...... and that’s where serendipity started. We stopped the car at the announced time and I headed off taking random pictures....

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... however, just above where we had stopped to TOD, there appeared to be stacks of slabbed timber...

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FF got there first by breaking one of the Rules Of TOD (TOD rule number 7 = you must be in sight of the vehicle!) and met the owner of the timber who invited him in......... (he obviously hadn’t spoken to the men of Uki Mill)?
FF called me up by a combination of hand symbols and whistles having obviously mistaken me for a sheep dog, and I too entered the mill. Far from being “dark and satanic”, it was quite simply fantastic! We started talking and I felt immediately that I had met him before (the mill man that is, NOT FF!). I asked his name and we quickly both realised that a mere 16 years before, he had sold the timber to my daughter to make a coffee table train set for her HSC major work...

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While this in itself was not particularly amazing what was amazing is that;

he rembered her
he remembered the coffee table
he remembered that my daughter’s teacher then discouraged her from a career in woodwork AND...
he had only been talking about her to his wife the week before!

What was amazing to me was that;

If FF had chosen a minute earlier or later to TOD, we wouldn’t have found the mill
I rembered him AND...
I had only shown the picture of the coffee table to others last weekend!

Whilst the new mill has been operating for 2 years to build up stock, it isnt ready yet for general sales, however FF bought a HUGE cypress pine slab while I just wandered around drooling at beautiful timber and veneers being readied for sale. There were piles of hoop pine, cypress pine, Norfolk Island pine, quondong, Blackwood etc....

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AND containers loaded with MUCH more exotic and rare timber!
We’ll keep in touch with him and let everyone know when he is ready for general sales. We have also encouraged him to sell through the forum as well.
Those of us on the East coast will soon be blessed with the current commercial city-based sellers, Boutique Timbers for sawn slabs and this new mill for partially dressed boards and exotics. It was quite a day and my daughter was also thrilled. A great day for a woodworking Dad.

fletty ( aka f and F1)

[Bushmiller]

Oh...It was THAT coffee table. Sounds like the third law of coincidence raring it's head yet again. Amazing!

Regards
Paul

[rwbuild]

I must protest vigorously, you blokes are having way too much of a good time while us poor unfortunates have to be content with your commentary and pictures.
This situation must be addressed at the earliest convenient opportunity and a posse organised to confirm that such entities etc are up to the stated standards that you have described.

[Glider]

this situation must be addressed at the earliest convenient opportunity and a posse organised to confirm that such entities etc are up to the stated standards that you have described.

c​onvoooyyyy!!!

[ian]

or one very big truck ?

[62woollybugger]

I had the pleasure of catching up with the honeymoon couple this morning when they stopped in for a bacon & egg breakfast, before the drive back to Sydney. It was good to catch up with both of them, even if it was only a quick visit. Even though they had a trailer full of timber, they decided to drive up the road to check out the Bowraville mill, before the trip home. They're probably still making their way through Sydneys traffic, which I don't miss one little bit.

[FenceFurniture]

...which found us in the trickiest location yet. On the side of the Pacific Motorway somewhere in the vicinity of Taree.

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[62woollybugger]

Ok, Just for Crowie, three of the best looking blokes you're ever likely to see.
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[FenceFurniture]

So here we are back in Camden, having arrived at 18:30.

Kicked off the day repacking a rather large quantity of timber. Had to leave my Red Stringbark behind in Boambee, but it is still very wet so no big deal.

Then on for a great but short visit with Mike & Felicity at Macksville. We were on a promise of Bacon & Eggs which we hadn't been treated to for, hmmm, easily 4 or 5 days. Mike's were particularly special though - half gas cooked and half electric. We parted company after an hour or so with a bag of fruit from their extensive orchard.

Thanks very much Mike!

After that we went to the Bowraville Sawmill to check out what they might have to offer. I had spoken to "Josh" last week before we left, and it sounded promising. ATM they mainly have Blackbutt, and in 325x40mm boards which were destined to be stair treads. The timber looked pretty good.

After that it was just TOD and then straight home through the peak hour traffic with a heavily loaded 5x7' trailer. :C

[ozhunter]

Good to hear you got back mostly in one piece.

[ian]

So here we are back in Camden, having arrived at 18:30. through the peak hour traffic with a heavily loaded 5x7' trailer. :Cwill there be a next time?

are you booking a 4.5T truck?

will you be taking orders?

if it's sometime between late July and late August I could help with my HR licence (= big truck :D )

[Christos]

Ok, Just for Crowie, three of the best looking blokes you're ever likely to see.
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Crowie would most likely look in the mirror in the morning what else does he have to compare against?

[IanW]

Home again, home again, jiggety jog! The upshot of this odyssy will no doubt be that small mills of northern NSW & S.E. Qld. will be wondering why there are suddenly all these groups of grey-headed xylophiles calling in & name-dropping, hoping to discover some treasure. :U

Good to catch up with FF again, and make the acquaintance of the gentleman cabinetmaker for the first time, but not the last, I would hope. And btw, Brett, out of curiosity, I checked the date & that saw-making workshop where we first met in person was early November, 2013, getting on for 5 years ago - time flies when you're having fun!

Now all that's left to do is to find room for yet another trailer-load of masterpieces-in-waiting....
:D
Cheers

[FenceFurniture]

Back in Katoomba now after The Gentleman f brought me and my booty up the hill (along with some other booty that had been stashed at his place). He then helped me load it into the timber store which is 50m down the yard from the street, so it was a goodly number of heavily laden walks. Thanks very much Al! Much appreciated, as was your generosity of spirit during the trip.

All up a thoroughly enjoyable trip in excellent company.

No TOD today for a few reasons - nobody mentioned it, as we were back driving our usual paths, and we were on a bit of a time schedule. Although as we drove up the Northern Road it did cross my mind to call TOD for 5 minutes time...


will there be a next time?Well I think there probably will be. Perhaps a Tour de VIC? We may have to look at a Tour de Northern NSW again as an excuse to get some more timber.

[FenceFurniture]

Now all that's left to do is to find room for yet another trailer-load of masterpieces-in-waiting....:DI thought you said you were finishing making tools?

[FenceFurniture]

Noo then. Monsieur Wilkie. Just harking back to this picture:

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Specifically this bit:
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P'raps you thought you got away with it, as it wasn't mentioned on the day(s)? I can say with complete authority that it was most certainly noted for future mention......just as soon as your beautiful tools were safely smuggled over the border in Baja California (we are not quite completely Mexico here)....:;




Or have you just completely misinterpreted the meaning of Dust Collector?

[IanW]

...... Or have you just completely misinterpreted the meaning of Dust Collector?....

??? Whatsa matter? It's collecting dust, innit?

:B Okay, okay, I don't hook it up too often( as you plainly saw), it's mainly used for the planer, which doesn't get a lot of use, either. I've long been getting around to putting it outside the shed where it might actually do some good for my lungs. When I do use the dustmakers like the planer & bandsaw, it collects the chips & larger dust particles ok, but with its standard 'filter' bag, it ensures the damaging fine stuff gets thoroughly mixed with shed air. So I just wear a dust mask when planing. But I'm looking for the round tuit, it's here somewhere.....

Cheers,

[Xanthorrhoeas]

That's an easy task where you are Ian. I just put mine outside in a small lean-to, disconnected the bag and let it blow away. You would be amazed at how much more suction you get if you open up both the inlet and the outlets. Your neighbours (like mine) aren't close enough to be affected.

It was good to meet Brett and Al in person, we should all organise more tours!

David

[Bushmiller]

It is time for me to thank Brett and Alan for undertaking this trip. Naturally I fully appreciate that they too hugely enjoyed the journey for that indeed is what it was and not just in a distance sense. The ability to bring together people (mainly far-flung) of like mind cannot be understated. The fact that they have been able to entertain us with their pix, their anecdotes and their wit is an added bonus. It became a travelogue of the first order.

For me it was a renewal of friendship, but others clearly were able to meet up with the terrible two for the first time. Maybe others Forum members will also contemplate such adventures in the future (if you can do it in the past you are ahead of the rest of us, or should that be behind? :? )

I should put out the disclaimer that having the opportunity to taste the best red wine in a long time in no way influenced my objectivity. Well.....A very teeney amount perhaps.

Regards
Paul

[doug3030]

Maybe others Forum members will also contemplate such adventures in the future (if you can do it in the past you are ahead of the rest of us, or should that be behind? :? )

Stop it Paul - that's making my brain hurt.

I do however agree with the sentiment of how beneficial it is to meet up with other like-minded woodworkers from our own areas occasionally and even more so to visit or be visited by those from a distance away.

[IanW]

....... I just put mine outside in a small lean-to, disconnected the bag and let it blow away. You would be amazed at how much more suction you get if you open up both the inlet and the outlets. Your neighbours (like mine) aren't close enough to be affected....

David, few years ago, on the advice of another woody on acreage, I was going to do just that. Then we got a grass-fire that came in off the road and worked its way down the gully towards our block. I stopped it at the fence-line & went off to do other things. Fortunately, I checked again just before going inside for the night. I must've left a bit smouldering because it had re-ignited and was working its merry way via a mat of pine-needles to the pile of dry wood stacked up against the back of my shed. That was precisely the area I'd intended to aim the dusty outlet towards. :O As you may imagine, I decided there & then to re-think my strategy.

So what I've decided is along the lines of what you suggest, i.e. removing those back-pressure inducing outlet bags, but istead of a free-fire zone, have it spray into a 3-sided catcher enclosure (with shade cloth or similar for walls). Then I can cart it further away from my precious shed. Just need that round tuit, as I said. I'll find it eventually.......
:U

Cheers,