Our Services

Due to the volume of enquiries from Australia, we now have an Australian account available to simplify receiving payment from our Dinkum Aussie mates and avoid those nasty foreign exchange fees

At present we:

• manufacture our own stripwood, from a wide variety of timbers.
   
• manufacture laser cut windows and doors
   
• manufacture kits and bits by Rapid Prototyping- that’s printing plastic in 3D
   
• stock Microengineering rail, sleepers and preassembled track components
   
• stock useful bits and pieces such as 12V micro lightbulbs, turnout lever kits- see our pricelist!

Who Are We?

Woodsworks is run by Paul and Claire Woods, a husband and wife team located in Whangarei New Zealand. Paul’s engineering and draughting background combined with a love of working with timber and machinery has gradually evolved into a commercial enterprise. Claire’s business administration experience keeps Paul organised and the business running smoothly.

Meet the Trees

There are lots of woods suitable for machining into stripwood. The main requirements are a fine grain and strength. We are happy to investigate any type of wood, subject to availability. You will probably be familiar with most of the timbers commonly used by modellers. We can easily obtain mahogany, rosewood, walnut, oak, cherry, cedar. But there are timbers commonly available in New Zealand that you may not see elsewhere. While Yellow Cedar is recommended for outdoor use, garden railway modellers may still be interested in the Macrocarpa for appearance purposes as it also has fair resistance to rot. Kaihikatea is no longer supplied due to dwindling resources and the fact that Yellow Cedar is a better alternative.
 

Yellow Cedar (Callitropsis Nootkatensis)

Yellow Cedar is the common name for Callitropsis Nootkatensis. It has recently been reclassified and should properly be called a cypress. Native to the North-west coast of Canada and Alaska, it grows to approximately 24 metres height and 90 centimetres diameter. With the decay-resistance typical of cypress, it is not unusual to find trees still standing that have been dead for over one hundred years, and indeed, this is causing a few problems. The forest canopy is not opened up to allow new growth, slowing regeneration. However, it has been found that wood up to eighty years dead shows no significant loss of strength, and an industry is developing to harvest this valuable resource.
Prized for boatbuilding not only for its decay resistance but also because it is easy to glue, screw and nail, yellow cedar is also very stable (doesn’t warp much) and carves well. It is pale yellow in colour with a fine straight grain. These properties make it ideal for model builders- indeed, it has received the blessing of several notable modelers in New Zealand- and that is why we offer it as our first choice.
For aircraft builders, Yellow Cedar is an acceptable substitute for spruce. With our involvement in flying microlights and home-built aircraft, we are aware of the specific requirements for straight and parallel grain timber. A KR-2S homebuilt microlight was our first customer for full-sized timber, and the owner informs us that he is very pleased with our product.

Right: Yellow Cedar, a very durable timber.
 

Rimu (Dacridium cupressinum)

Also known as Red Pine. A hardwood, it grows up to 60m tall, but more commonly only 25-30m. The small, spiky leaves of adult trees hang on graceful drooping branchlets. In all stages of growth it is a distinctive, handsome tree. It was extensively milled up to the late 1960’s and little remains of the original vast forests. It is now illegal to fell Rimus unless the specific tree is endangering property, making it expensive to obtain good timber for our purposes. It is so hard that we worry about setting off the smoke alarm while trying to machine it- it really smokes the place up. It takes a beautiful polish and, as its nickname suggests, it has an attractive reddish colour.

Left: Rimu, New Zealand's Red Pine yeilds a very hard reddish timber.

Kauri (Agathus Australis)

The largest of our native trees, it also ranks as one of the worlds largest. The largest remaining example is 51m tall and over 17m in circumference- not quite a Sequioia, but quite impressive to stand beside all the same. Mature Kauris often had a straight trunk free of branches for the first 15 metres or more and were highly prized for their timber. Once they grew extensively over the northern half of the North Island, but now few remain, and are very much protected. As luck would have it, a thriving industry exists today unearthing ancient trees from swampland. The original timber is a beautiful golden colour, while ‘Swamp Kauri’ is often distinctly green from the chemicals it has soaked in for thousands of years, but is nevertheless very well preserved.  It can give trouble with warping when cut. No matter how much you dry it first, it will still warp, due to the stresses built up in the wood from supporting such a massive tree. As such, it uses for model builders are largely decorative.

Right: Kauri, the largest and most majestic of New Zealands native trees.


Macrocarpa (Monterey Cyprus)

This is not a native to New Zealand, having been introduced from its native California in the 1860’s. It was planted extensively as shelter belts by farmers but has gone out of favour because cattle like eating the leaves but it can make them ill. This means there is lots to be had for timber with the dairy farmers all busy ripping them out. They have a horrible tendency to fall over in strong winds because their root system is very shallow, another good reason to fell them. Any Kiwi will tell you that it also makes excellent firewood, but a rising demand for decorative uses in houses, floorboards and suchlike, has made Macrocarpa milling a growth industry. When pruned properly it will grow tall and straight, but most trees are rather ugly, and good clean timber with no knots is hard to find. Fortunately it is very inexpensive, and- attention Garden Railroaders- IT HAS EXCELLENT ROT RESISTANCE. This means you can enjoy the natural wood look outside without having to treat it. Just remember that it will eventually go silver like most woods exposed to the elements. The natural colour varies from quite pale to a lovely golden brown to slightly reddish- sometimes all in one plank. It can warp a little sometimes, but not alarmingly so.