A buddy of mine has a lot of old fir and cedar that was removed from a building. The lumber has been painted, is dirty, and has the occassional nail. He’s surfaced some of this using his planer but it’s a slow go and dulls the steel knives quickly. He wants to rescue this lumber for an upcoming project. It’s beautiful vertical grain and expensive if purchased new if it could be found at all. So, does anyone have experience in cleaning old lumber such as this? The boards are about 12 inches wide. I’ve suggested a planer fitted out with carbide cutters, but I don’t have direct experience in this particular application. He’s wondering about a wide belt sander, but I suspect that will just get a quickly clogged belt. The nails can be best dealt with by using a metal detector and some self discipline, I think.
Thanks
Replies
You may want to pick up some of those test units for LEAD paint before you go any further. Lead poisoning is cumulative.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Sometimes hand work is the best option. I have used a carbide bladed flooring scraper for just this work, the paint chips away with pressure and a lot of the dirt also comes away. Nails are revealed as is the quality of the timber and more can then be taken off with a normal hand scraper to leave a relatively clear surface without sacrificing thickness. My floor tool is made by Sandvik but they are easy to find.
I also have the Metabo paint removal tool which was mentioned in FH in connection with cleaning shingles and that is useful for the dry removal of paint and dirt.
The caution re: lead is well received. As far as hand scraping goes...... there is far too much surface area for that to be an option. I'll look into the Metabo paint removal tool.
If it does prove to be lead base paint. Semi-paste stripper works well as it doesn't get the nasties airborne. If you go forward with the mechanical stripping. I would invest in a couple disposable jump suits and definitely a NIOSH approved particulate respirator. Treat it like Asbestos.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Sap,
You can use a hand-held electric planer to clean paint, dirt and similar gunk off old planks. I have cleaned hundreds of feet of various reclaimed wood in this way using a Bosch planer with the 3 inch carbide knives. These machines are a lot cheaper than a Metabo paint remover.
Set the planer to a very shallow cut and use it with a vacuum, if you're worried about toxic dust from lead paint.
If the planer knives do hit a nail, they usually survive if the cut is shallow and the nails are old (ie made of softer metal). Even with many nicks, the blades will continue to remove the paint and dirt.
When the knives do eventually give up the ghost, replacements are very cheap - a lot cheaper than they are for a full size jointer/planer.
Lataxe.
I recently prepared similar material by slicing off the surface with a well-prepared bandsawre-saw set-up
i'd suggest a sacrificial set of planer blades...
check with a metal detector, remove any offending metal fasteners by what ever means is most applicable...
set your planer to just get past the paint and crap...you are going to proabably mutilate your blades by the time you have run it all through.
change blades and then surface everything to closer to your final dimensions, leaving some material to be removed after everything has acclimated...
I have not tried this but assuming there is not a lead paint problem a friend of mine suggested putting the boards on the floor and using a floor sander to get the a crud free surface. When I had a lot of old doug fir 2x4s I ran all four sides over the jointer after pulling all the nails it trashed the jointer knives but after I did this, I changed the knifes and face jointed one side and one edge and ran them all trough the planer and everything was beautiful including the wood. Anyway be sure to remove all the nails. The old doug fir is great wood.
Troy
powerwash it, it's not like it's never been wet before. It's only surface water, very little will soak in if you dry it off fairly fast, like with a fan. The powerwasher will get rid of the paint, dirt and any rotten wood.
Sapwood,
My son and I take apart old buildings for the materials that's in them, We've cleaned far more than our fair share of old materials. (We have the slivers to prove it )After we get the material hauled home we use a hand held metal detector to check for any metals. We then scrape the wood with hand held paint scrapers to remove the majority of old paint and a lot of the old dirt and any loose debris. We always wear a good quality dust mask no matter what we're doing to the materials. We then blow off the materials with compressed air. Before we plane or joint the stock we run the hand held belt sander over it to remove some more old paint and dirt. After blowing it off again now its can be put through the surface planer then the jointer and then to cut it to preferred length its put through the table saw then back through the jointer to clean up the sawn edge. We use the paint scrapers and belt sander so the jointer and planer blades won't dull quite as quick and so we can get a little more use from the blades. The majority of the operations to the wood is either done outdoors or with good dust collection hooked up.
Personally for the last ten or so years alls I've used is old recycled materials when building furniture I like it because there's not hardly any moisture so when the projects completed I don't have to worry about it moving or splitting do to changes in temperature. The worse part is the darn slivers,I dedicate time every night to set and pick those buggers out.
Good luck
Sincerely,
Jim at Clark Customs
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I reclaim redwood here in California occasionally. Many redwood decks in this area are being replaced, but the original redwood is much higher quality, albeit some areas of rot. Therefore, when I see a deck being removed I'll check it out and many times come home with great stock for many home projects.
I will not touch this stuff with my planer or jointer blades. They will dull very quickly because of the soil and junk on the surface of these boards. I use a belt sander with # 60 grade and clean off down to fresh wood surface. Even then I avoil running through the jointer or planer if at all possible. I have to clear off not only the face of the lumber but also both edges.
After cleaning off with belt sander, I will re-saw on the bandsaw to obtain desired thicknesses. These clean surfaces can then be run through the planer.
Tim
Interesting post Jim. I've been pondering what to do with some thousands of board feet of oak from the thirties and fortys. Some has paint, most has varnish.
blue"...
keep looking for customers who want to hire YOU.. all the rest are looking for commodities.. are you a commodity ?... if you get sucked into "free estimates" and "soliciting bids"... then you are a commodity... if your operation is set up to compete as a commodity, then have at it..... but be prepared to keep your margins low and your overhead high...."
From the best of TauntonU.
blue,
If your any where near Michigan I'd be more than happy to relieve you of your old material.(wink) (wink) But seriously,once the materials cleaned up you won't be disappointed in working with old materials and the projects you build with it. I keep watching the weather here in Michigan very close because I have two older than 100 years old houses to take apart but the weather man says we're do for another pretty good size snow storm this weekend. The weather doesn't bother when the buildings closed in but once we get busy it only takes a few days to take a house apart from start to finish. I really hate to have "18-20" wide boards get wet. When the weathers nice we spend our time taking apart and cleaning old materials but in the winter months we use the materials for furniture projects everything from bedrooms sets to kitchen cabinets to custom moldings to living room suits we've even used materials to help a custom car builder rebuild an old woody. My son and I feel we're doing our part by recycling and not using new materials.
Good luck, And whatever projects you do decide to create with your materials be sure to post some pictures so we can all check out your work.
Sincerely
Jim at Clark Customs
Aw come on this is Michigan, if the guy says it will be cold and snowy it is at least as likely to be hot and dry.
I would love to have that Job, be wron 99% of the time and still not get in trouble.
Doug Meyer
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