C'da, These are just fantastic. Love the coffee tables. It must have been a lot of hard work.
With reference to marjeting of bamboo products, years ago (I think around 1995 or so), a friend of mine from Guwahati wanted to market plywood (with compressed bamboo filling: ie two plywood sheets and inside would be this bamboo compressed pulp - the best I can describe). I took the samples (he had sent) to some of the local Houston people in the construction business. Several of them were very interested. There were several problems: (1) the price was way too high. (2) the resin that was used was a substance the would not pass US import regulations (Not a fire retardant) It didn't go thru, of course, but for those interested in exporting bamboo products, these are some things I experienced first hand, and may come in handy. Further, for finished products, some of the places to try would be like Pier 1 Imports (stores like that). As most people already know supplies must be consistent and uniform, and often such stores may want varying quanties, sometimes in a hurry. One big problem for a many products from India in the finish. Compare products from China or Taiwan, Indian products may be functional, but definitely lack the finish. Your table on the other hand loked fabulous. --Ram On 3/4/07, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://flickr.com/photos/cmahanta-stl/ 3 Images of Mboo ( copyrighted name) Cofee Table from the workshop of yours truly. I just completed a coffee table that I made from left over bamboo floor boards, which are engineered from strips of glued and laminated bamboo. I machined off the grooved bottom surface of the 5/8" thick floor boards with a recently acquired 13" power planer to a thickness of 1/2", glued the two together to make an one inch thick board, ripped off the tongues and grooves on a radial arm saw, planed the thin edges off by clamping together several boards and voila: I had 1" thick X 3.5" wide engineered bamboo lumber to build furniture with. The bottom shelf is made from 3/4" thick medium density fiber-board ( MDF) finished with bamboo veneered wall covering ( expensive @ $ 45/square yard) manufactured by MDC Wall Covering. I finished everything after sanding with water-based clear polyurethane paint applied with a sponge brush. This was a project I have been planning for a number of years: To verify if glued/laminated bamboo sections could be used as a replacement for quality timber for furniture and interior construction. I was hampered by not having a power planer to undertake the task and prove it to myself. Finally I got it done. And it WORKS! There HAS to be a market for engineered bamboo sections of many many shapes, manufactured in Assam. One way to generate employment and cash in rural Assam from a widely available raw-material thru value added engineering and manufacturing. cm _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
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