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How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

bambooimport.com

91–100 of 226 posts

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#91
post #55

My standing desk top, a Fully Jarvis, is made from bamboo. Comparing the illustrations in TFA to the thing I'm leaning on, I think it is constructed of a core of side-pressed pieces, with a thin layer of plain-pressed pieces giving the working surface and underside. I've had it for < 1 year. It is a little soft, and shows dents and scratches where I set down moderately heavy objects with too much force, but it still…

If it makes you feel any better my solid "hardwood" workbench from Gladiator (purchased at Lowes) I use as a standing desk also has some dings and dents! I also figure it's part of the charm.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#92

I would love to know if there are any "hobby" communities for "doing things" with bamboo. I'd love to pot some of the fast growing stuff at home and harvest it to muck around with.

One thing to note is that bamboo is hilariously invasive. moreso than japanese knot weed.

Its has two modes of propagation: spreading its roots(rhsomes) or, at the end of it's life flowering and setting seeds.

So, you should be able to dig up a good chunk of root (dinner plate size) and propagate from that.

A good tool to have is a sharp billhook. its good for managing roots and branches.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#93

If you start with something that is natural and sustainable (for example, bamboo), and you add to it something that is neither (for example, glue), then you end up with something that is neither natural nor sustainable. Sorry.

That's very absolutist thinking. Just because some solution doesn't solve all the problems outright doesn't mean that it's totally useless. What's the baseline? Using bamboo plywood thing instead of normal plywood? What's the end-goal? Increasing carbon sequestration when building stuff? Reducing ground water pollution? Something else? Where is the bamboo lumber used? How far is it shipped? For what it's used? Et cetera.

Notice though that the article doesn't talk about sustainability, ecology, or being natural at all. It just shows how bamboo lumber is made. Which is interesting in its own right.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#94
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/vorsprung-durch-technik....

Strange that that article states "There's no single English word which is an exact equivalent of 'vorsprung'". Vorsprung is lead. Durch is harder in my opinion. Can be translate as "by" or "because of". So the translations would be "lead by technology" or "in the lead because of technology"

It means being ahead (of at least some of the competition, presumably) due to (better) technology.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#95
post #84
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange that that article states "There's no single English word which is an exact equivalent of 'vorsprung'". Vorsprung is lead. Durch is harder in my opinion. Can be translate as "by" or "because of". So the translations would be "lead by technology" or "in the lead because of technology"

Vorsprung is anything that is slightly ahead, so you're wrong there. It applies to a lot more than you seem to think. It's frequently used in describing smallish platforms on mountains, buildings as well for example. The German term for "to lead" would be "führen".

In the ‘small platform that sticks out’ sense the English equivalent would be ‘projection’ (interesting that that comes from a Latin root of ‘something that is thrown forward’, while the German word is more ‘something that jumps forward’), but in the context of the phrase the other meanings of that word would dominate.

There’s definitely a sense of ‘getting a head start’, ‘being at an advantage’ to Vorsprung that is hard to capture in a single English word.

Perhaps one way to translate it would be: Privilege through technology

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#96
post #74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

121x20 cm board, 20mm thick was around 22 EUR + shipping. The shop I bought it from had 3 kinds of bamboo boards (normal, dark and some "figured" made up of dark and light stripes) but currently sell only the figured.

I guess I was looking in the wrong places ... or the wrong construction. 20 mm thick sounds like it was only the core with more layers. In the end I went with some 150x4cm oak strips of varying width from the left-overs bin of a wood vendor. 5€ the piece was a pretty good deal back then.

Yeah, I cut the board I ordered into 4 stripes, rotated them for 90 degrees and glued back together with purpleheart veneer in between, to get the core/neck part.

I really wanna build one almost completely from bamboo (with various veneers to get some accents/lines in) but it's really hard to source boards now. Meh... but yeah, who would have thought that "tonegrass" would become a term someday haha.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#97
post #33

Long time lurker here, first time poster. I got pulled into the rabbit hole of building guitars at home during the covid lockdowns. My first build used traditional "tonewoods" (mahogany, ebony, rosewood etc.) and while purchasing materials for my second build, I stumbled upon bamboo boards on a German wood retailed shop. Compared the properties to the wood I wanted to use for parts of it (mainly the core/neck and fre…

Awesome looking guitar! I noticed you use the Planet Waves tuners. I love those as well, they're much more practical as they cut the strings for you. I wonder why they don't make them in more traditional colors, or why other manufacturers don't provide similar solutions. Everyone else makes just regular and locking tuners, not the locking-and-cutting tuners. For a performing amateur musician, the ability to change yo…

Yeah, I was looking into buying a new instrument, then youtube started suggesting all those build videos. Eventually found the project guitar web/forums and went for it. Probably my favorite side projects so far.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#99
post #69

I wonder how long does take for bamboo to grow and if it can grow in US and Europe. Maybe it's economically viable to grow bamboo instead of cutting down trees.

Yes it grows in US/Europe. I only have experience with smaller forms (1inch, 2.5cm diameter). It's fast growing and spreads like crazy. Be careful with bamboo in your garden, it'll shoot out underground and resurface couple meters (yards) away from the main plant if you don't encase it in concrete. Now if it yields more then a fast growing tree? Don't know.

There are types of bamboo that do not spread like that.

Re: How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

#100

"Because laminated bamboo panels consist of individual strips, they show less swelling and shrinkage than solid wood panels." As a layperson this kind of statement could as easily have said "they show more swelling" and I would have been equally as credulous.

Wood does indeed expand and contract a lot due to changes in humidity. The expansion and contraction is far greater in certain directions and will vary according to species and how the grain is orientated in a particular board.

Laminiating strips or sheets in addition to the strength from the glue (typically in plywoods this is done with perpendiclar grain directions) can counter this.

For a solid wood panel door for example you really want a very stable hardwood species for the frame and for the panels to be fitted without glue into recesses with room for them to expand and contract.

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