Wood questions for those who can see the Southern Cross every night...

I'm an Yank woodworker who visited Australia last month and saw lots of great looking wood that I didn't recognize. For example, the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay has walls covered with a tight curly veneer that looks a little like maple but darker and more tightly curled - a beautiful wood. What is it? I also saw a lot of a wood that reminded me of Koa from Hawaii but it wasn't Koa - what wood would that be? Also, a lot of wood floors were made of a same type of wood which occasionally had a reddish hint to it. What wood is that? I spent the bulk of my visit in Adelaide and didn't really see many trees down there that looked like they were hardwood lumber type trees. And how come all the electrical outlets have tiny little switches on them?

Thanks,

-Scott

Reply to
onoahimahi
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I'm in NZ, and don't visit Oz/Sydney very much, but much of the wood there is a variety of Ecalyptus. Often it's known under a more "fancy name" ie, Tasmanian Oak is the name used for three almost identical species of eucalypts. E. delegatensis, E. regnans and E, obliqua

A lot of flooring is Jarrah aka Eucalyptus marginata It's quite hard and distinctly reddish.

How come all the USA switches go the wrong way? :>)

Barry

Reply to
Barry Lennox

Fri, Jun 1, 2007, 8:31pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (onoahimahi) I'm an Yank woodworker walls covered with a tight curly veneer that looks a little like maple but darker

Now that's funny. I bet most of 'em down there have no idea what maple looks like. Hey, I'm in North Carolina. We don't have maple here either. What "does" maple look like? LMAO

JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?

- Peter Egan

Reply to
J T

Did you also notice the grain swirls in the opposite direction too? That happens on trees below the equator.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

The syrup comes in different grades from very light to dark. I'd have to assume the trees come in those shades also.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

| And how come all the electrical outlets | have tiny little switches on them?

Eh? I've never visited Australia or New Zealand - and this is the first I've heard of this. Do the switches disable the outlets? Can/would someone post a picture?

Thanks!

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

I have not been to Oz or NZ myself, but if this is the same code as the UK, the outlet plate cover has a little finger size rocker switch, typically in the upper right, which does disconnect the outlet.

Drive me crazy when I travel back to the UK. The hotel cleaning staff turn each one off every day. So I have to turn on the ones I am using every day.

Dave Paine.

Reply to
Tyke

Tyke wrote: | I have not been to Oz or NZ myself, but if this is the same code as | the UK, the outlet plate cover has a little finger size rocker | switch, typically in the upper right, which does disconnect the | outlet. | | Drive me crazy when I travel back to the UK. The hotel cleaning | staff turn each one off every day. So I have to turn on the ones I | am using every day.

Thanks, Dave - it seemed like a reasonable guess. I'd have liked to install something like when my kids were "ankle-biter" age.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

We have both: those with switches

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and those without
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Reply to
Henry Law

The switch turns off the power to the outlet. It's a safety thing as the line voltage there is 240/250V. I've seen the same switched outlets in Europe. Art

And how come all the electrical outlets have tiny little

Reply to
WoodButcher

Henry Law wrote: | Tyke wrote: || I have not been to Oz or NZ myself, but if this is the same code || as the UK, the outlet plate cover has a little finger size rocker || switch, typically in the upper right, which does disconnect the || outlet. | | We have both: those with switches |

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and those | without
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interesting! I'd never seen one of these before.

Thanks.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

Done, take a look at

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for a comprehensive guide to the world's power. So much for "standards" !

Scroll down to Type I for Aust/NZ. The outlets come in a number of styles and switch sizes, and some have no switch.

Barry

Reply to
Barry Lennox

"WoodButcher" wrote in news:GZWdnSiaHYEDVvzbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

I have US outlets that are switched.

Took a little googling for "combination switch outlet", but here is 1 answer:

One of the uses is to wire a shoplight-type fixture that comes with a plug so flipping the switch makes the ficture go on or off, rather than having to plug the light in and unplug it.

Reply to
Han

Thank you Kiwi - you guys use the same plugs as the Aussies, right? I did the drive from Auckland to Christchurch a few years ago but don't remember the plugs. I remember beautiful countryside, sheep, glaciers and glow-worms. And thinking that this would be a great place to retire to...

And yes I did notice that those little switches were opposite - up is off, down is on. After getting used to those delicate little switches, the ones in the States seamed big and clunky when I got home.

I found a website with photos of native Australian wood and think that maybe the wood in the hotel is Golden Satinwood

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think the wood that looked like Koa to me may also have been Jarrah that was brown instead of red.

I went into several bookstores looking for an Australian woodworking magazine but none of them had one. They had lots of classic car magazines like "Classic Holden".

I'm going back to Australia in November - this time Perth - where do you buy your woodworking magazines if not in bookstores?

Thanks,

-Scott

Reply to
onoahimahi

G'day Morris, In Western Aust. all electrical outlets must be switched. Until a few years ago external and 3 phase outlets where not required to be switched but under new codes, all must be now. You can still buy unswitched outlets eg:

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they must be combined with one of these
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Reply to
John B

G'day Barry, In Oz, Book shops sell very few magazines, as you've found out. A News Agency "where you buy News Papers" is the best bet. The bigger ones have hundreds of mags. I hope you enjoy Perth. I lived there for a number of years, but a team of wild horses couldn't drag me back to the big smoke now. :)

If for some reason your heading 600 kms east of Perth let me know and I'll show you around. regards John

Reply to
John B

G'day John, Where I am actually going to be working is Laverton which I think is about 800km NE of Perth. I'm going to be doing some work at JORN. 600 kms east of Perth sounds like Kalgoorlie - if we have time to be tourists, we may head down there to checkout the huge gold mine...

-Scott

Reply to
onoahimahi

Could this have been Black Acacia, AKA Australian Blackwood, which is native to Australia? Very similar to Koa in grain structure and it's tendency toward spectacular figuring, but lighter in color.

--Steve

Reply to
Steve

G'day Scott, You nailed it :) Have been to Laverton a couple of times. Hope you do have some time to have a bit of a wander around. It's truly God's country around here.

The offer still stands mate. regards John

Reply to
John B

John - thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on it and send you an email if we can make the trip to Kalgoorlie.

The Australians suggested that the American visitors don't do any driving on the remote roads around Laverton. They are afraid we won't be able to handle encounters with those big road trains on the remote roads with only one paved lane for both directions. They think we might pull off the road on the wrong side at that same time another car may be passing the road train.

-Scott

Reply to
onoahimahi

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