Sugar Gum - have access to one being taken down; any tips/advice?

[Kerplunk]

Hi all,
'been a while since I've been here (got distracted with the electric guitar side of things).

As per the thread title, I've got access to a large Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus Cladocalyx) that's to be taken down on Thursday (14th December).

It's a beauty; probably 30-35 metres tall and straight as a die. Not too many branches coming off it so shouldn't be too many knots to deal with.

Am looking for advice on what parts I should try and get wood from, e.g.
- base of trunk versus top or middle?
- centre of trunk versus closer to the bark? I'm guessing aim for quartersawn-style pieces, particularly the section straight through the centre of the trunk?

Also any advice on sizes I should be looking to get out of it (am guessing they'd need to be larger than the intended finished product due to the trimming that goes on during construction)?

I haven't seen much in the way of sugar gum being used in acoustics or how they end up sounding, so am thinking of trying to get some blanks for electric guitar and electric bass bodies as the first priority. Should I also be trying to get some necks out of it? How about sections to make an acoustic out the wood?

Lastly any advice on what I need to do for stickering the wood?

Nice to be back - lots and lots of nice builds been happening in my absence I see. I'd better not get too distracted by it now though; got to concentrate on making sure I don't stuff up the harvesting of this tree.

Thanks & Cheers all!

[blackalex1952]

http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/node/971

[demonx]

Sounds like a big tree, should get many weeks worth of firewood out of it!

[Kerplunk]

http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/node/971

Thanks! Some good spec's on Sugar Gum in there - will compare it with some of the more commonly used Australian tonewoods and try to figure out from that how to make something worthwhile out of it.

Cheers!

[Kerplunk]

Sounds like a big tree, should get many weeks worth of firewood out of it!

- that's the tragedy of it; this is a tree I've really admired ever since I was a little tacker and have grown up with (it's at my parent's family property where I grew up from being a little kid), and I'm trying to save at least some of it from going into their firewood pile.

Sadly, nothing lasts forever. Not that tree, nor my parents or my childhood. So turning that wood it into an instrument or two will remind me of my parents and those childhood memories every time I look at it, so I can keep them with me for the rest of my life.

Haven't seen too many acoustics made with Sugar Gum (although I did spot one in a post from Peter Young - "viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5442&p=62600&hilit ... gum#p62600"), so I get the impression that Sugar Gum is not terribly well regarded as an acoustic tonewood; hence the idea of using the wood for an electric guitar and/or bass body, seeing as the tonal qualities of the wood are not as crucial to the sound of such instruments.

Mind you, Bob Taylor proved with his Pallet Guitar that you can make a decent-sounding acoustic guitar out of pretty much any wood. So I'll try and get some wood for an acoustic too and do my best to make something worthwhile out of it.

Cheers all.

[kiwigeo]

Sounds like a big tree, should get many weeks worth of firewood out of it!

- that's the tragedy of it; this is a tree I've really admired ever since I was a little tacker and have grown up with (it's at my parent's family property where I grew up from being a little kid), and I'm trying to save at least some of it from going into their firewood pile.

Sadly, nothing lasts forever. Not that tree, nor my parents or my childhood. So turning that wood it into an instrument or two will remind me of my parents and those childhood memories every time I look at it, so I can keep them with me for the rest of my life.

Haven't seen too many acoustics made with Sugar Gum (although I did spot one in a post from Peter Young - "viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5442&p=62600&hilit ... gum#p62600"), so I get the impression that Sugar Gum is not terribly well regarded as an acoustic tonewood; hence the idea of using the wood for an electric guitar and/or bass body, seeing as the tonal qualities of the wood are not as crucial to the sound of such instruments.

Mind you, Bob Taylor proved with his Pallet Guitar that you can make a decent-sounding acoustic guitar out of pretty much any wood. So I'll try and get some wood for an acoustic too and do my best to make something worthwhile out of it.

Cheers all.

Furniture?

[Kerplunk]

Furniture crossed my mind, however I've never seriously considered making furniture in the past, so don't know much about it, plus I think I'm going to have a hard enough time convincing the parents to let me have pieces big enough to make guitar bodies out of, let alone furniture as space to dry out the wood in the shed is at a premium.

Will keep it in mind though.

Cheers Martin!

[blackalex1952]

The tangential and radial movement figures are the ones you should look at first when comparing with other well used timbers. Then as it is a eucalyptus, gum veins might be an issue. Also look at cross grain vs long grain strength and stiffness. If no info available, resonance once dried. Weight when compared to other timbers you have used. Also eye up the trunk or any sections you want to mill for any signs of runout. If straight grained, you could cut to electric body lengths and split the pieces off with a froe. Make sure you remove the heartwood when drying. I reckon you might get an electric body to work if you are lucky, not sure at all about acoustic. But an acoustic would use a softwood soundboard, the sugar gum if stable and workable enough it make back and sides. -cheers Ross

[Fisherman]

Thinning it to 1mm of so and laminating to another timber such as cypress or might get around the issue of movement/suitability for back and sides.

Also might be worth considering just incorporating it into rosettes if you want a much easier way of using the timber while still highlighting it on instruments...

[blackalex1952]

From the size of the tree that's one hell of a lot of rosettes!
-R

[Kerplunk]

From the size of the tree that's one hell of a lot of rosettes!
-R

Yup.

And based on the width of the trunk I estimate I'll be able to make 2-foot diameter rosettes

Big thanks also to blackalex1952 and Fisherman for the tips as to how to handle obtaining and using the wood - the tree felling mob have just shown up and are getting stuck into the tree now, so I'd better head out to lend a hand and mark off the sections of trunk I'm after.

Thanks to all who've provided advice and will try to bung up some photo's of the harvested wood in the next day or two.

Cheers all!