The house I just bought (NH) came with a couple of old piles of lumber, which the previous owner assured me was worth salvaging. … I tried to pick it over during the summer, but the mud and bugs made it look like a pile of garbage. Luckily, I took another look once things froze and discovered that most of it is worth salvaging. I’ve since hauled a lot of it into a warm basement room with a dehumidifier running. It’s done well, but now comes the job of cleaning it up and using it.
A bunch of it is tongue and groove pine, which I plan to use in indoor furniture projects. It’s quite rough, including worm holes, but neither rotton nor weak. The tools I have that seem relevant for the job: a 6″ jointer, crummy bench saw, a few old (grandpa’s) decent hand planes, orbital sander, router w/ homemade table.
Last weekend I ran some of the thinnest width boards (6″) over the jointer to see what was underneath the years of weathering. It looks nice, but there’s at least an eigth of an inch of weathered grain to get rid of on each side before it’s smooth. My problem now is that, most of the rest of it ranges from 8 to 14 inches wide.
My questions …
With the above tools (i can’t afford any more), what would be the best way to clean up the wider boards? Should I rip them narrower, joint the face, then edge join them, keeping the original tongue and groove (it cleans up nicely with a rabbet plane)?
Should I forget about the original tongue and grove and just rip it and turn it into panels?
Should I sand them the best I can?
Is it possible to run one side of a too-wide board over a jointer, then flip it and get the other, or am I limited to the 6″ width if you’re really just trying to plane off rough wood rather than perfectly flatten?
Any other ideas?
Thanks for your help.
Replies
You might want to buy a cheap metal detector...under $100
You can't Properly joint a 12" board on a 6" jointer.
Other ideas...http://gallerynaga.com/furniture/whittlesey.html
Edited 12/10/2002 11:49:16 AM ET by rsl
The first and MOST important thing to do is check each board carefully with a metal detector. There's probably nails and other scraps of metal in those boards. Yes, you can do up to 12" wide boards with a 6" jointer, but it is not very safe and it will not give you a uniform thickness like a planer would.
I guess you don't want to send it to me?
I would find a local wood working shop with the right tools and use them. Maybe your local high school or college or maybe a pro shop. Those boards are gold, don't cut them down to 6".
Good luck.
Dealing with old wood can be a chore but the patina and character makes it well worth the effort. '
Dealing with embedded metal with a metal detector would be my first goal. I made a work table from salvaged fir from a renovation and I went over it as carefully as possible by eye alone. A few years later, while planing off the various tool marks and stains, I found a bit of snapped off nail in the wood, damaging an otherwise fine 3 1/4 " planer blade.
Another step is to clean to wood off on both sides with a wire brush to remove fine grit that will cause planer blade wear. It will also allow your to better see the wood's color, grain etc.
You could also go to the trouble of cutting off bad ends, sorting it into its various grades and lengths, saving you time when you need to match boards later.
John
Thank you all for your input.
I forgot to mention that I did purchase a metal detector once I started handling the boards and imagining one of my precious tools tearing into the old hard metal nails and screws. I got a "Little Wizard," I believe it is called, for $17 bucks from Woodcraft. It seems to have done the trick so far.
Good idea to hunt around for a shop with better tools. It's clear the value of this wood once I've started to work with it. ... pretty much priceless if you ask me. I would hate to spoil the wide pieces. If I can't find someone with a planer I'll probably just plane them all by hand using my grandpa's old No. 8 Stanley.
One shop-made solution to planing wider boards than your jointer can handle would be to build a jig for your router. If you set it up so the router can run east-west on sturdy tracks, for, say, 12 inches you could put your boards into the jig in a north-south orientation. You could then use a planer bit to plane a very narrow path. Move the board and plane some more. You'd need to attach something so that the board is pressed down while planing. This is somewhat tiresome but undoubtedly doable.
Another option would be to go out and buy a bench planer in the 12 to 13 inch range and plane the boards yourself. I've got a 12 inch Delta and it's a great little machine.
John
PS, If I owned a shop and you brought your wood in I'd either tell you a flat "No", because of the possibility of metal in the wood, or I'd want a very big deposit, in advance, to handle any unforeseen damage to my equipment. I think most shops would give you the first answer ("No").
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