Greetings,
Just retired and have taken up woodworking. Am a typical retiree, no lolly and lots of free time so I scrounge wood, mostly wood doors and waterbed frames along the treebelt that would otherwise end up as landfill. My question is what are the hazards associated with using old wood? I hear it can be rough on tools. Thanks. Hank.
Replies
three-fingers,
Apart from finding a nail in the old wood with your plane, I don't know of any dangers.
I use wood that is 75 to 100 years old in most of my work (restoration of historic buildings) and have found that, if anything, it is easier to work and more beautiful than recently-milled wood.
I wonder about "water bed frames", though. In the US they are mostly chipboard veneered with plastic. (read: Nasty)
Hope this helps,
H VIII
Thanks Enery for the advice. I'll look closely for nails etc.
Hank.
Three fingers, When ever I see someone's thrown out an old chest of drawers, I 'Glomm' on to it.
The drawers are usually 3/8" thick oak or sometimes poplar The drawfronts can be 3/4" oak/maple/or other hard wood/ I immediatly knock the drawers apart with a rubber hammer and just save the 'Good stuff'. I can't count the many small articles I've built with this 'Stuff'.
As one of your posters said, nails are a small problem, so, pull them out right away. (No need to step on an old rusty nail eh?)
This 'Free' hardwood is getting scarce, (thanks to those abominations, chipboard,masonite and particle board)
I've made finger jointed boxes, small storage chests (Dovetailed) and bird houses too from scrap.
As I sit here, I,m facing a three drawer cabinet made from reclaimed oak. it's nine inches high and sixteen inches wide x 17" deep.
I keep my small hand tools in it. (Wide drawer above two smaller ones.) Sitting on it's top, is my computer screen at eye level. G,Luck, Stein.
Edited 7/8/2003 12:24:06 AM ET by steinmetz
Hello Stein, You are right, most of the treebelt furniture is man made compressed sawdust with a printed iron on finish, really horrible stuff but occasionally you find a gem and I never thought of just taking the drawer fronts and leaving the rest. Thanks, Hank.
Welcome to the forum Hank and congrats on the retirement. I'm old enough to retire but can't find a quitting place or I don't want to, really don't know which one. On using recycled wood I'm a firm believer in doing so and have been for many years before it was a popular thing to do. I looked to see where you lived to give you some pointers on locating some of the good "stuff" but there was no info. If you live in a large city anybody who has heavy products or machinery are usually glad to have someone haul off pallets and wooden boxes. I have got some good 4" X 7" X 5' red oak and 31/2" X 61/2" fir 5' from a book binder shop in Houston,TX. A neighbor was in the oil business a few years ago, drilling in Guatemala. When they shipped parts back to the U. S. to be repaired they were shipped in mahogany boxes 5/4 rough cut. I got in on the tail end of the oil business but what I got was put to good use. What is really amusing to me the machine shop repairing the tools threw away the boxes the tools arrived in and made new ones out of plywood and shipped them back. There was probably some one in Guatemala tickled pink to get some plywood. If you are near the ocean, the docks can be good picking. Good Luck!
God Peace
les
Hello Les and thanks for the info. I picked through the pallets at a Yamaha motorcycle dealer here in Massachusetts and found one with reddish wood. Don't have a clue what kind of wood it is but when you cut it and it is extremely hard wood it is almost pinkish color inside. The grain is pretty wild also. Looked up Hoadley's?? book for ident but there are too many pinkish woods. Got several long boards from a tobacco barn that was being demolished, shade tobacco I think and the wood is dark brown on the outside and light brown on the inside; might be chestnut. Had zillions of nails and layers of bird droppings, but long straight 100 year old wood. Regards, Hank.
I recommend investing in a metal scanner. I picked up the stud finder / metal scanner combo at Home Depot for about $27. It has paid for itself a couple times - in planer blades.
I also recommend a good gas mask. Old wood makes especially fine saw dust.
Ken
The joy of tracking down and using recycled wood is one of the real pleasures of recreational woodworking. You'll discover, as you get good at it and get a local name for it, that you'll accumulate wood faster than you can use it!
When I lived in Wales, in the UK, I used to hang out at country auctions and buy the 25 pounds Victorian wardrobes that no-one else wanted. I still have scraps of beautiful Cuban mahogany, American white oak, Southern yellow pine, black walnut and various unrecognisable softwoods - obtained by breaking up old furniture - that I used to make small jewelley boxes and tables. Wood that was unobtainable commercially, lovely to use, and in such big, wide, clear boards.
Here in New Zealand I recently bought all the floorboards from an 1880s gold-rush era building that was partially demolished to make way for a flood-protection scheme - a truckload of 1.25 by 6 inch boards up to 20 feet long of a native species known as kauri; one of the great un-sung timbers of the world. It's a lifetime supply for a 56 year old recreational user, and it thrilled me to bits to get hold of it (and thereby lies another tale). There's one problem tho - not only was this timber nailed down with big ugly aquare iron nails, it's had various floor coverings glued and stapled and pinned to it over the years, and its very hard to completely denail. So here's what I do: I rough-cut to size, job by job, then use a cheap, thin-kerf carbide blade to rip the face off the boards - cutting off just the thickness of the blade. This reveals all the nails and staples and other objects that no amount of carefull searching would find, which I remove before going anywhere near my thicknessor.
Hello Kiwi, Any relation to Kiri, one of my favorite NZ singers? I loved your idea of surface stripping old wood with a cheap carbide blade. I'll probably need a suit of armor, I have been stripping old hardwood doors covered with layers and layers of paint. Dont ask me why anyone would paint hardwood, but enamel comes off like shrapnel and a face shield is required. I'm still experimenting on this as I have to wear glasses which fog up. Regards, Hank.
Hi Hank,
I use a steel cutting blade for the circ saw - figured that it wouldn't matter if it hit a nail. cuts smoothly too.
Cheers,
eddie
Thanks Eddie, All I have are carbide tipped blades, real good ones in the 80 dollar range. I think the metal detector first and then a cheap disposable blade second is maybe the way to go just in case you miss something. Regards, Hank.
Hello Ken, I did buy a metal detector, Fisher hand held model like the Marshalls use at the airport and it has already paid for itself. When you mentioned gas mask is this better than a dust mask? I use the Moldex dust masks and they seem to do a decent job but I am looking for something better, my glasses fog up initially and this is in hot wx; what will happen in the Winter? Regards, Hank.
I use one designed (I guess) for painting. It's got 2 screw in canisters with cotton snap in pads over them. It was about $25 and I'll let you know if they were worth it on the other side.
Hello Ken, The guy in the hardware store was wearing one of those 2 canister jobs. He was cutting keys and believe it or not this generates dust, brass dust. Don't think I'd like metal dust in my lungs. Regards, Hank.
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