OK so it is the west of Africa :wink: but I thought you might like to see where I go to get wood here in Lomé.
Desiré is the guy who runs the yard and is always happy to stop for a chat. At the moment he has quite a lot of timber and the pile he is standing next to is half in the road! At night they pull the 'gates' closed as far as possible and lay a couple of boards over the top. I guess they have some sort of night watchman but usually they sleep so soundly you could probably walk off with the lot and no one would notice.
Most of the timber is in 5m lengths and is rough sawn by chain saw. Depending on who did the milling it can vary from reasonable to diabolical and so you have to have a good sort through to get good pieces. The timber is mainly Iroko with some Mahogany, Utile and Sapele. Prices are fairly reasonable - 10cm x 5cm x 5m is about £5; 15cm x 5cm x 5m is about £8. A little while ago I bought some nicely figured Utile - 30cm x 5cm x 5m for about £16 a piece.
As mentioned, the timber is fairly roughly sawn but it is possible to have the timber planed - the aforementioned Utile cost an extra 50p to be prepared. This would bring it up to about the quality of rough sawn in the UK :lol: Regarding the planer/thicknesser Desi said 'J'étais obligé de bricoler un peu.' - approximately 'I had to adapt it a little'. For example there is a bit of sheet steel bolted in front of the cutter head which is shaped so as to direct most of the chips away from the operator who is in front of the machine - but all over the poor sod supporting the timber on the other side! I forget off hand the manufacturer but iirc it was built in Fribourg. I just hope that British style 'elf and safety never makes it to Africa as if it does, almost everyone will be out of business
I'll have to try and get some pictures of the beast in action but as usual on the day I went there was no power.
The only other machine that they have is a combi which they mainly use for ripping.
If you have got this far, then I hope you enjoyed this small insight into carpentry in Togo.
Cheers, Steve :lol:
Desiré is the guy who runs the yard and is always happy to stop for a chat. At the moment he has quite a lot of timber and the pile he is standing next to is half in the road! At night they pull the 'gates' closed as far as possible and lay a couple of boards over the top. I guess they have some sort of night watchman but usually they sleep so soundly you could probably walk off with the lot and no one would notice.
Most of the timber is in 5m lengths and is rough sawn by chain saw. Depending on who did the milling it can vary from reasonable to diabolical and so you have to have a good sort through to get good pieces. The timber is mainly Iroko with some Mahogany, Utile and Sapele. Prices are fairly reasonable - 10cm x 5cm x 5m is about £5; 15cm x 5cm x 5m is about £8. A little while ago I bought some nicely figured Utile - 30cm x 5cm x 5m for about £16 a piece.
As mentioned, the timber is fairly roughly sawn but it is possible to have the timber planed - the aforementioned Utile cost an extra 50p to be prepared. This would bring it up to about the quality of rough sawn in the UK :lol: Regarding the planer/thicknesser Desi said 'J'étais obligé de bricoler un peu.' - approximately 'I had to adapt it a little'. For example there is a bit of sheet steel bolted in front of the cutter head which is shaped so as to direct most of the chips away from the operator who is in front of the machine - but all over the poor sod supporting the timber on the other side! I forget off hand the manufacturer but iirc it was built in Fribourg. I just hope that British style 'elf and safety never makes it to Africa as if it does, almost everyone will be out of business
I'll have to try and get some pictures of the beast in action but as usual on the day I went there was no power.
The only other machine that they have is a combi which they mainly use for ripping.
If you have got this far, then I hope you enjoyed this small insight into carpentry in Togo.
Cheers, Steve :lol:
