Garage sale Wood gloat

[Bill Keehn]

So a local trim and door company was having a garage sale and I bought these handrails. Most of what I took was red oak, a little poplar and one long piece of cherry. My truck bed is 8 feet, and the longer pieces in the picture are 16 feet.

I paid 25 cents a lineal foot! :D Whole thing was a $100, including the 15 48" brass piano hinges I also bought. It was cheaper than firewood. Most pieces are laminated, but the grain matching is really good. After I square it up I should be able to get a 3x3 out of each handrail. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but if nothing else I could make a pretty solid workbench.

[Mike Wilkins]

We have the same problem. I have purchased oak handrails with no intended purpose,other than the cost; super low. I have a problem passing up stuff like this. It only becomes a problem when storage becomes an issue.

[John Keeton]

Now that is a steal!! If the grain match is good, you could resaw the profile off each side of the rails and have some interesting trim pieces - and use the rest for bench, leg stock, etc. The poplar looks pretty clear, too. Nice stuff!

[Don Bullock]

What a haul. I sure wish it was closer to me because I need some oak handrails.

[Bill Keehn]

Most of them are 16 foot and heavy! I'm going to have to chop them in half and get them square quickly. It's hard to move around in the garage now. I hate to cut lumber before I need it, but I'm just can't store stuff much over 8 feet. Plus the rounded rails don't stack very well.

I have a few solid (not laminated) poplar rails are 12' x 1.5" x 8" more or less. I never saw any like this before .. the heartwood is a deep brown. I thought it was walnut at first.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm guessing that the bottoms of the rails are flat, and will sit on something well. Just get some pieces of 3/4" ply scraps and make some stickers. They would sit across the rounded rails just fine, then the rail bottoms of the next layer would have something flat to sit on. Just continue until you have all the rails stacked! That way you can decide what to do with it later. Just don't stack the first one of a layer on the outside edge!! :D
Could cutting it release some tension in the wood, and create some movement that will cause problems later if not glued up quickly after cutting? If so, I'd want to wait to cut it until I was closer to the time to use it. Jim.

[Bill Keehn]

The rails are all glue-ups to start with, so movement shouldn't be an issue. They are all very flat on the bottom, which makes it easy to machine. Most are about 3.5" high and 3" wide, but I won't get that much after I cut off the profile. The short maple rail I machined looks great!

There is just no place to keep that length of stock for very long in my 2 car garage shop. My lumber rack is 8 foot and I don't think I'll be building anything bigger than that. Not into building boats ... yet :)

What I really have to be careful about are hidden brad nails and staples. Gotta dig out the metal detector. I don't want to ruin a blade or spend a brake cartridge on my Sawstop.