Oddest project ever?

Spokeshave?

I made a big cutting board / knife holder for a drug dealer. The cutting board was a laminated block about  12" x 24" x 8" thick with an attached block to hold knives.   Inside of the cutting block was a secret compartment to hold a stash of cash or drugs.  the way that you accessed the compartment was to remove the honing steel rod, and put you pinky finger up  under the hole to pull the release lever, which allowed the knife-block to pivot  away revealing the  cavity.

@Joe Fleming,
Nope, but you're getting warmer.

Drawknife wouldn't make "identically thick" shavings, so now I'm thinking handplane.

Added later 01 min 37 s:

I have a collector baseball card from Upper Deck in the 90s that has a slice of the player's bat.  For 19,000 pieces, you must have used a very thin cut.

Added later 01 min 16 s:

Hennebury, a drug lord's money cash is pretty cool.

So, Ellis ... did you actually COUNT the 19,000 pieces?
I'm guessing a wood chipper !!!   Plug cutter ???

Turn the bat on a lathe to make it a dowel, then take slices off the end grain with a guillotine,  making paper thin disks of the same diameter and thickness.

I cheated and asked Woody...

Woody:
19,000 pieces is quite the impressive number! It sounds like the woodworker employed some very precise and intricate cutting methods. Let's brainstorm some possibilities on how this could be achieved:

1. Micro-Lathing: Using a lathe to turn the bat and then slicing it into very thin discs. If each disc is extremely thin (e.g., fractions of a millimeter), this could produce thousands of pieces.

2. Ultra-Thin Slices: If the bat’s total volume is segmented into ultra-thin slices, you could achieve a high count. For instance, if the bat was 34 inches long and you made slices that were 0.0018 inches thick, you could get close to 19,000 slices.

1. Micro-Cubes: By cutting the bat into small cubes, you could significantly increase the number. For example, if the bat is 34 inches long and has a diameter of 2.75 inches, the volume is approximately 200 cubic inches (assuming it's a solid cylinder). Dividing this volume by very small cubes (e.g., 0.01 cubic inches) would yield a large quantity of pieces.

1. Laser Cutting: Using a laser cutter could provide the precision needed to cut extremely small pieces without damaging the material.

2. Water Jet Cutting: Another precise method that can cut through wood cleanly with minimal waste.

1. Volume Calculation: Calculate the total volume of the bat and divide it by the volume of each piece. For instance, a bat with a volume of 200 cubic inches divided into pieces of 0.01 cubic inches each would result in 20,000 pieces. Adjust the size accordingly to reach 19,000 pieces.

• Volume of Bat: Approximately 200 cubic inches (assuming a cylindrical shape with a length of 34 inches and an average diameter of 2.75 inches).

• Desired Pieces: 19,000 pieces

• Volume per Piece: 200 cubic inches / 19,000 pieces = 0.0105 cubic inches per piece

If each piece is, for instance, a tiny cube, then each side of the cube would be approximately the cube root of 0.0105 inches, which is around 0.22 inches per side.

• Plan and Execute: Draw a detailed plan on how to segment the bat, considering both lengthwise and cross-sectional cuts.

• Precision Tools: Use high-precision cutting tools to ensure each piece is uniform and minimal material is wasted during the process.

• Safety and Authenticity: Ensure safety measures are in place and maintain the authenticity by documenting the process.

It's a challenging but fascinating puzzle! If you need more specific guidance on tools or techniques, feel free to ask!

@Ellis Walentine,

How much did he sell each of those 19,000 wafer-thin slices with a genuine certificate of authority for?

Added later 01 min 50 s:

hennebury wrote:

I made a big cutting board / knife holder for a drug dealer. The cutting board was a laminated block about  12" x 24" x 8" thick with an attached block to hold knives.   Inside of the cutting block was a secret compartment to hold a stash of cash or drugs.  the way that you accessed the compartment was to remove the honing steel rod, and put you pinky finger up  under the hole to pull the release lever, which allowed the knife-block to pivot  away revealing the  cavity.

Can you make a similar design for a coffin? I'm planning on taking a few things with me.

I'm currently working with some colleagues to build a display cabinet for a woolly mammoth tusk. It will be displayed in our local library.

@Gary Radice,

Now there's a challenge. Will you please post your design?

Ellis Walentine wrote:

@Gary Radice,

Now there's a challenge. Will you please post your design?

Sure. The design is still in the works, but here is the tusk:

City workers in my town were digging a trench to install a new sewer line on a main street in front of a Starbucks. They stopped when they heard a "crunch." They accidentally cut the tusk in half. You are seeing only the tip portion and it is 6 feet long. Lots of conversation about what to do. They discussed removing the entire skeleton that was there but decided it would take too much time and cost too much money. They called in folks from the university who stabilized and removed the tusk. When the library learned about it they said, "We'll take it!" The library then got in touch with our local woodworking group to see whether we could build a cabinet for it. We said sure, sounds like fun. City agreed to pay for it. We got local businesses to donate wood for a base and acrylic for a top. So this is a city/university/Library/citizen/business community project. Pretty cool.

@Gary Radice,

Did they not try to remove the other tusk that hadn't been crunched? Build a case for that one and sell the broken one on eBay.

admin wrote:

@Gary Radice,

Did they not try to remove the other tusk that hadn't been crunched? Build a case for that one and sell the broken one on eBay.

The whole elephant may be there. It would be a shame for a bunch of amateurs to dig it up, probably destroying it. Dug professionally, it could be a valuable scientific find. Complete ones also bring mega $$$'s.

The workers found the tusk when digging a trench for a new sewer line. The backhoe severed the tusk. They could see where the other tusk "should" be and part of the rest of the skeleton. But it was going to be a huge project to try to dig up whatever of the rest of the skeleton remained. And it turns out that around here mammoth skeletons aren't so rare. The animals were pretty common here near the end of the last ice age about 10K years ago. Probably a bunch died all at once during one of the Missoula floods. They dug up part of another skeleton a couple of miles away when they were renovating a football stadium. Bones turn up along river banks all the time. 

https://gazettetimes.com/news/local/mammoth-tusk-found-at-corvallis-construction-site/article_78366f47-e12b-59f9-a12a-6928bf4b8a65.html

https://gazettetimes.com/news/local/scientists-dig-into-mammoth-bones/article_a400ff1a-d0ca-5003-9c59-5e2be8d541c6.html#tracking-source=article-related-bottom

The library wants to have the display mostly to spark imagination in little kids. They want us to make the cabinet low enough for the little ones and folks in wheel chairs.  We are working on two very simple design based either on a table (four legs plus tall aprons with a vetrine cover) or a plywood cabinet with vetrine cover. The plywood box cabinet would better accommodate casters.

The library entrance has an unused corner that would just fit a display cabinet for the tusk. Conceptually it would look like this:

Paid subscription required to see anything at the links.

Oops. Maybe try this one:

https://www.oregonlive.com/today/2016/01/mammoth_bones_unearthed_at_ore.html

That link is a go!
Thank you.