Reclaimed Douglas fir


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The house across the street from me is getting renovated.I was able to get my hands on two of the interior doors.Under the many layers of paint is clear mostly Vg fir.One of my favorite woods.The best piece has about 45 lines per inch.

Nothing long enough to make table legs so boxes it will be.

Not to bad for free wood.

my lucky day

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That is awesome! Nice score!

 I have done a lot of work on old houses and VG fir is common throughout. I have some vg fir flooring that I salvaged off one project. The nails have all been removed and I planed it all down to even thickness to clean it up. Due to the time it takes to salvage rather than demo out, I don't usually get to do that. 

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I'm going to say this with a :(. I had a bunch of trim in my house that was all old pine 90+ years old. I felt terrible throwing it all away but i have so much horded wood already and i had to choose between the old pine trim or the 500+ BF of reclaimed redwood that i have. The redwood won out because it's just not possible to find around here.

What is your method for removing the paint from the old boards? The redwood i have is all painted and i previously just used a belt sander to remove it and then planed it back to flat but i lost a lot of wood that way.

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12 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

What is your method for removing the paint from the old boards? The redwood i have is all painted and i previously just used a belt sander to remove it and then planed it back to flat but i lost a lot of wood that way.

To strip old boards I just run them through the planer. I usually run rough stuff through on the right half of the blades, then finish out on the left. 

Most woodworkers find this to be a horrifying offense. But, other than dulling the knives, it doesn't hurt the machine and I just consider that dull knives are the result of production. 

I have taken the same approach with my 12" DeWalt planer (which has been in use since '98,) my 15" Jet planer, and now my 20" Jet planer with Shelix cutter head. 

 

That old pine is really some gorgeous stuff too. That is a sad story! 

 

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As Todd mentions I did the same ran everyting thru my planer on the left side.I have a Bryd head so that helps.

Ive been in a dry spell when it comes to wood.Shipping pallets started sounding good.I guess the wood spirits felts sorry for me.I Almost started hunting for pallets behinds local businesses with my truck.:ph34r:

 

 

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If it makes you feel any better the previous homeowner was a nail happy guy. I don't know what size they were but every 12" there were 2 huge nails so on an 8' board there were practically no nail free spots and i didn't appreciate trying to pull the gigantic bastards out.

I tried using the planar for some of the paint removal but it dulled the knives so quickly that i could get maybe 25 feet of wood planed. Also the redwood were 9" wide so they piratically took up the whole planer.

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Oh man that Byrd head is AMAZING isn't it?!?!?

I started getting a lot of reclaimed wood projects for commercial projects last year and I was sending out 2-3 sets of knives a week to get sharpened. After doing a couple of projects and another big one hitting the shop I bought the 20" planer with Shelix cutter head and I have been on the same cutting edge for 10 months now. 

I did the math and figured the savings in sharpening planer blades alone would pay of the machine. In addition to that, the new planer is faster and I have dropped my milling time by 1/3. For every 9 hours I spent milling on my 15" planer, I can do it in 6 hrs with this machine. 

And on top of that, I don't spend the time changing and setting planer knives. It turned out to be one of the best investments for my shop. 

3 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

If it makes you feel any better the previous homeowner was a nail happy guy. I don't know what size they were but every 12" there were 2 huge nails so on an 8' board there were practically no nail free spots and i didn't appreciate trying to pull the gigantic bastards out.

I tried using the planar for some of the paint removal but it dulled the knives so quickly that i could get maybe 25 feet of wood planed. Also the redwood were 9" wide so they piratically took up the whole planer.

Ugh - That is tough! 

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You might be kick yourself for not getting one sooner.If you work with nasty hardwoods, knots, paint,exotics.The carbide inserts gobble it all up.

I was running some of the clean fir this morning.And pieces of the old paint are showing up in the outfield side so I guess I got some cleaning to do.

I wonder what the primer they used in the 50s it's a tan color and is some stinky tuff stuff.Paint stripper barely softens it.

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44 minutes ago, Aj3 said:

You might be kick yourself for not getting one sooner.If you work with nasty hardwoods, knots, paint,exotics.The carbide inserts gobble it all up.

I was running some of the clean fir this morning.And pieces of the old paint are showing up in the outfield side so I guess I got some cleaning to do.

I wonder what the primer they used in the 50s it's a tan color and is some stinky tuff stuff.Paint stripper barely softens it.

Yeah i know I'm going to kick myself for not getting one sooner. Honestly though the only wood that i ever have a terrible time with tear out is maple. I've ran Puprleheart Jatoba, zebrawood and a few others i can't remember through strait knives and they all come out fine but that dang maple always gives me the worst time.

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Another bonus of the spiral cutter head; since each cutter takes a little bite of the wood, my 4" dust collection port never clogs up anymore. 

During heavy milling, it was common that my dust collection port would clog up with curls of wood on average 1-1/2" long. With the smaller particles that does not happen. 

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25 minutes ago, toddclippinger said:

Another bonus of the spiral cutter head; since each cutter takes a little bite of the wood, my 4" dust collection port never clogs up anymore. 

During heavy milling, it was common that my dust collection port would clog up with curls of wood on average 1-1/2" long. With the smaller particles that does not happen. 

:blink: 1-1/2" wowza.

Because i deal with a lot of hardwoods, Hickory (that was the other really hard wood i like to use), for example i usually take really light passes with my DW735 like 1/4 to 1/8th of a turn. it makes for nice finishes but it takes a bit longer. I posted some junk to sell online lets see if i can find enough stuff around my house to fund a bryd head for my planer.

Any one want a Nikon 28mm f1.8 for a smoking deal?

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46 minutes ago, toddclippinger said:

Aww man! I just went Canon for my DSLR!

:( Well enjoy your inferior product :D.

In all seriousness they are both good companies each has the upside and downside. Unlike power tools it's all subjective and if you think the debates are bad here .....

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56 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

:( Well enjoy your inferior product :D.

In all seriousness they are both good companies each has the upside and downside. Unlike power tools it's all subjective and if you think the debates are bad here .....

Yep...I know what you mean

I have had a good time getting back into photography though. I have been running a point and shoot for so many years. The last time I had a 35mm SLR was a Nikon FG back in the 80's. I have been getting incredible images from my Canon 70D. iPhones and iPads, etc do take pretty decent pictures for being a camera in your pocket, but they don't come close to the clarity, the resolution and full range of tone that a DSLR can capture. 

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Well i sold one of my bikes this weekend so that gets me $300 closer to the bryd head for my DW735. I have a Foosball table and the camera lens posted. I got a really sketchy offer on the camera lens i decided to not reply to. CL makes me uncomfortable.. I might have some spiral cutting action within the month. Thanks for the motivation guys!

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1 hour ago, Chestnut said:

Well i sold one of my bikes this weekend so that gets me $300 closer to the bryd head for my DW735. I have a Foosball table and the camera lens posted. I got a really sketchy offer on the camera lens i decided to not reply to. CL makes me uncomfortable.. I might have some spiral cutting action within the month. Thanks for the motivation guys!

Good Luck with getting into the spiral head cutter - they are amazing!

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