I've got one stump and am in the process of cutting another, both are California oak. What method do I use to flatten the bottom so the stump stands steady and plumb on cement? Scribe a line with a level?
Haha, I just leave 'em in the ground. Our neighbour at our place in Ca sees me walking around the property with a chunk of metal in one hand and a couple hammers in the other, looking for just the right stump. I have a half dozen oak stumps from dead trees I cut for firewood, with the tops shaped for metal pounding.
Used to have one with an anvil mounted on it and one with a vise on it and a third one just for beating on. There was never anything used but eyeball measuring to create them.
Bolt 4 bits of angle iron around the side with heavy timber bolts like legs then trim until it sits square.
I bolted mine to a rolling furniture dolly with lag bolts using washers between to level it. Put it on my cement floor with a level on top. Changing the subject slightly, how did you hollow out the center...chain saw?? Bruce/CT
I just cut a chunk of White Ash thats 30" across that I had behind the shop for a few years with my chainsaw. Poor saw just spun and smoked through most of it. Lets just say only one side will sit level on the floor....... I was going to bolt on some lets to level it up. Even then I'm sure I would have to predrill holes for the lag bolts.
Oh, on the cutting the center out... a Skill saw sunk straight down into the center, then take it out and rotate a dozen times, after than chisel out whats left. Could use a muffler chisel. http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53&highlight=stump Or get the special 4.5" grinding wheel from HF, heard it cuts through hardwood like ****er. http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6888&highlight=stump
I mounted mine to a commercial trash can base with all the wheels on it. Works great. Use a grinder or chisel to shape and sand areas you want to work. Sometimes a few stumps with different shapes are as useful as a few different hammers are. Get creative. Too many cars, so little time!
Shim it up to where your happy with it, then use some sort of shim and a marker and mark your cut line.
Use three legs instead of four. Then it will sit solid whether the surface it's sitting on is level or not.
How you choose to mount your stump is, in my view, primarily a function of what you intend to do with it, and how hard you're gonna pound stuff on it. I've got a part of my shop that has a dirt/sand floor, and my primary anvil stump is sunk into that about two feet down, but I use the hey out of that anvil. Another smaller anvil sits on a stump that is simply 'wiggled in' to the floor, although the bottom of that stump is pretty flat and true anyway -- that one I use for more delicate shaping, so I didn't need to sink it. I've got a much smaller shaping stump in there now, that's small enough I can move it around easily, but it's very limited in it's scope. Though it's served me well for quite a while, it's goin' into the wood stove before long. I've talked my wife out of another stump (she'd thought about making a planter out of it) that we just cut down last year: a 2' dia apricot tree, which is cool in that the top of this particular section was where the tree started to fork, so I'll have about four different surfaces to work with, all different sizes, too. Problem is that I'm running out of floor space, so it'll probably have to sit just outside the back door.
I use mine quite a bit and work in a two car garage, so space is limited. I mounted four casters to it so I could roll it around but I never thought they would last. That was back in 2007 and they are still rolling. Recently I bought the new 8'' large Tuck Puck, so I can take it along with me to buddy's houses. Its a real space saver but works better with a stable base. I kind of fell in love with it because I use the bottom of the hollow as a dolly for a lot of projects and this surface is perfect for that. So what I did was I dished out my stump so that it would fit into it. I left it up a little so there was room for my fingers. If I want to take it with me I just have to grab it. When I can I am going to order the two small Tuck Pucks recess them into my stump and then it will be the perfect stump for me. If you have a stump you need a shaping hammer. A tear drop is not heavy enough to do it. I posted a lot about shrinking on a stump and have had 15 to 20 people asking me where I got my hammer. At the time I had no where to send them because the guy I bought mine from quit selling them. I just got a new hammer that is equal or better then my old hammer. I seem to be reaching for it a lot lately. It is from Hoosier Profiles. Just a heads up on two new products.
Dammit, now I gotta drag one of the stumps from the backyard into the shop and shape it today...been meaning to do that for weeks...so much for getting any progress done on the truck today ...
this idea came to me while reading this thread. why not use a piece of 6"x6" post to carve shapes into? you could have 4 different shapes on each piece of post. would'nt need to be very long, you could get about five pieces out of an 8' post, 20 different shapes.
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