Possible Wood Purchase? What to do?

[todd bourassa]

So I have come across a possible deal on some Red Oak. A guy has a large pile of about 75 boards (guess) thats been on his property since he bought it about 4 yrs ago. Has know idea on how long they have been there. They have been covered somewhat and stickered. I went to look at them tonight. All the boards are at least 2in. thick if not thicker. All over 8 ft and widths that run 4,6,8 ,12 and a few at least 15 in wide. I am figure it has to be roughly 1000 bd ft. The top few layers and outer boards have lots of checking and cracks. I took a board home. Cut it into 4 ft lengths, jointed and planed it down to 1 and 3/4 in. It is HARD wood. The board I took had cracks in it and they run at least half way through the thickness of the wood. It would require a lot of planning the get it out. My Grizz 14in bandsaw would be really put to the test to try and resaw this stuff. This stuff would be hard an my equipment and be a lot of work to get planned to working material, especially with the checking and cracks. But I know there are some nice boards in the middle of this stack.

So is it worth all this work and abuse to my equipment if I cant resaw it. I have a 8 in jointer, Ridgid planer, 14 in bandsaw. I can get this for around $200. Not a lot of projects I have made required 8/4 wood. Its not to far from me and would require 2 pickup loads. What would you guys do??

[doug faist]

Todd - I don't know if I would jump into this purchase. The extensive cracking would seem to indicate that the wood had not been dried correctly and not stickered well. If there is much cupping or warping you may be planing a lot of it down to much thinner thicknesses to have workable pieces.

Some other things you need to consider concern what projects you might have planned for the wood and whether or not you have the storage capability if the projects are a long way out.

Just some things to think about.

Doug

[Russell Sansom]

Todd,
I have a few hundred board feet of red oak bought 11 or 12 years ago. The ones I stored in the garage have fared well, but those outside in the wood house have mostly all checked. I've taken to using it as lumber for construction rather than fine woodworking because it's hard to find a "fine art" board among all the checks.
On the other hand, 2" red oak is pretty dense and it machines beautifully. Working around the checks, I've been able to build a decent sharpening table top, a 2" thick router base, and a few other shop fixtures, like a sawyer's bench.
I found I can literally "break" some of the boards with profound checks and re glue. It's worked also to perform dentistry on some of the checks by routing a uniform groove where the check was and filling it in with thin inserts.
Depends on what you want to do, but $.20 a bd. ft. is ... well ... cheap!

[Joe Chritz]

If 10% of the board end up being good you are above even as far as cost.

That leaves transport and storage. If you can get them in a proper storage area (outside is fine if covered correctly) you will have lumber for a long time.

With a good band and a tune up that 14" bandsaw can do a lot of work for you on those boards.

Joe

[todd bourassa]

Well I found a buddy who is willing to go in half with me for this wood. I do believe by getting half I will have room to store it inside my garage. I'll figure what to do with it later. I am going to make him a offer on it since I know he wants to get rid of it. I did have one thought. There is a guy around here who has a woodmizer. I might ask him how much he would charge me to resaw some of these boards. I would assume he should be able to do this rather easily since its already basically dimensioned. Right?

[Prashun Patel]

If it requires a lot of machining it's not worth it. It gets tedious (DAMHIKT). Especially on red oak, which is relatively cheap to get - even S2S.

If it were me, I'd pick through the boards and take the select (straightest, thickest, widest, prettiest grain) pieces.

Don't underestimate yr need for 8/4. It's a nice to have for legs on oak furniture. The alternative is to glue up multiple pieces; it can be hard to match up grain on oak laminations.

You know, on second hand....all that oak could make a mighty fine workbench...

[Myk Rian]

To make resawing easier, get a cheap Diablo blade for a circular saw at HD. They come in a very thin kerf. Rip both edges as deep as you can, then finish up on the BS. I've done many boards that way. It's easier on the table saw with that thin blade, and you don't waste a lot of wood due to the kerf of a 10" blade.

[Chip Lindley]

Probably HALF the lumber will be unusable except for kindling. Offer the seller $100 and go half with your buddy. Thats $50 a piece for some RO which may or may not be worth all your effort. For $50 you will have a valuable learning experience in working around bad areas in bargain hardwood.

[Mike Archambeau]

Todd;

I recently bought 1168 board feet of Red Oak. It was rift sawn 8/4 x 6 in lengths of 8 feet, 10 feet, and 14 feet. The stump from the tree was visible in the seller's back yard. It was 4.5 feet in diameter at 2 feet above ground. It was sawn on a band saw mill, then stickered and stored in the seller's garage.

I bought 100 board feet, went home and ran a piece on the jointer, planer, table saw to sqaure it up. When I confirmed that it was rift sawn, I went back and bought the rest.

It worked out to about 85 cents per board foot. In my area Red Oak (kiln dried) sells for about 3 dollars per board foot. So I think I got a good deal. I have the wood stickered and stored in conditioned space. I am going to let it air dry some more before I work with it.

Just sharing my story so you have a reference point. Good luck with your decision.

[todd bourassa]

We decided we will get. $170 for all of it split between the 2 of us. Will post pics when we pick it up on Friday. I took a chance like this 4 yrs ago. A guy had 2 large piles of rough cut oak and birch. It had been sitting out uncovered for 5 yrs. I took 1 pile home, 75 boards of various width, 9 ft long, 5/4 oak. It looked ugly, had a lot of rot, cracks etcc. Started to go through it and it was some very nice red oak under the uglyness.. Had to cut around some stuff but it was well worth it. Took me 2 yrs to use it all. Hopefully this will work out the same!!!

[Dick Phillip]

I bought a bunch of old oak (reclaimed) and paid more than what you did. Oak trees are a little difficult to come by in WY. I made four pool halls chairs using an old chair that I had as a pattern. Some of the cracks I would not discover until I had the wood cleaned up, some I did not like the looks of. To the waste pile it went. The waste was tremodous, but the results were worth it.