Ben Martin
10-12-2010, 10:49 PM
So, about 3 months back when my parents were at my grandmothers house, my grandmother got on a kick complaining about some lumber from the old barn that was in the new Morton building "taking up space" (nobody lives on the farm anymore, and the barn is only used to store my uncles tractors with plenty of space to spare...). Knowing that I would probably like some of that lumber, my father told her that he would take care of it!
Fast forward to this past weekend when my father and I headed out to the farm to figure out what we had gotten ourselves into, none of us knew what the wood species was or size of the boards. We were met with the longest boards that I have seen in my life, ranging from 26-28' long, a full 2"x10", they were the old floor joists from the barn. I still cannot determine the species of the wood weather it is Pine or Douglas Fir, it smells like a tubafor. We ended cutting most of the boards into 3 pieces, to ease transport. As you can see from the pictures, I not only have a lot of wood, but also a lot of work ahead of me, being joists, these boards have hundreds, if not thousands of square nails.
Now on to some pictures, the boards once we cut them to size and loaded them, sorry no pictures of the 28' long board, you will have to take my word for it...
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_528_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_537_.jpg
Tight growth rings...
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_535_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_529_.jpg
The farm was started in 1876, so I would expect that this barn was built around that time. My Dad and I were debating today about whether my 2X or 3X great grandpa was the one who built this barn.
This barn was located 30 miles south of Des Moines, Iowa in case anyone wants to take a guess at the species. I do plan on sending a sample in for testing.
My father brought the lumber up today and we have it stacked under my 2 story deck, on top of pallets, with a tarp on the top to protect them from the elements but allow for air circulation, is this a good way to store the boards? I am planning on building an additional lumber rack in my basement shop once I get all of the nails pulled.
I took one of the boards into my shop tonight to joint and plane it to size, amazingly this board had no nails. It was surprisingly easy jointing a 10" board on my 8" using the rabbeting ledge and a shim to plane it to size. As you can see, some bugs have gotten to the boards in the past 150 years and the boards seem to have a lot of splits in them. Any tips on the split? I expect using a thicker poly on the boards might fill them in and you won't be able to notice. Also any tips on getting around the bug spots would be appreciated as well. I can easily get 2 3/4" thick pieces out of each board, so possibly using the newly exposed faces from the inside might be the best bet, since hopefully the bugs will not have gone that deep.
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_995_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_996_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_998_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_1002_.jpg
Any tips on pulling the nails would also be appreciated, I have read a couple of past threads on the subject and plan on purchasing the specialized nail pullers/pliers that lift the nails out.
Thanks for looking.
Ben
Fast forward to this past weekend when my father and I headed out to the farm to figure out what we had gotten ourselves into, none of us knew what the wood species was or size of the boards. We were met with the longest boards that I have seen in my life, ranging from 26-28' long, a full 2"x10", they were the old floor joists from the barn. I still cannot determine the species of the wood weather it is Pine or Douglas Fir, it smells like a tubafor. We ended cutting most of the boards into 3 pieces, to ease transport. As you can see from the pictures, I not only have a lot of wood, but also a lot of work ahead of me, being joists, these boards have hundreds, if not thousands of square nails.
Now on to some pictures, the boards once we cut them to size and loaded them, sorry no pictures of the 28' long board, you will have to take my word for it...
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_528_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_537_.jpg
Tight growth rings...
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_535_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/208715997_photobucket_529_.jpg
The farm was started in 1876, so I would expect that this barn was built around that time. My Dad and I were debating today about whether my 2X or 3X great grandpa was the one who built this barn.
This barn was located 30 miles south of Des Moines, Iowa in case anyone wants to take a guess at the species. I do plan on sending a sample in for testing.
My father brought the lumber up today and we have it stacked under my 2 story deck, on top of pallets, with a tarp on the top to protect them from the elements but allow for air circulation, is this a good way to store the boards? I am planning on building an additional lumber rack in my basement shop once I get all of the nails pulled.
I took one of the boards into my shop tonight to joint and plane it to size, amazingly this board had no nails. It was surprisingly easy jointing a 10" board on my 8" using the rabbeting ledge and a shim to plane it to size. As you can see, some bugs have gotten to the boards in the past 150 years and the boards seem to have a lot of splits in them. Any tips on the split? I expect using a thicker poly on the boards might fill them in and you won't be able to notice. Also any tips on getting around the bug spots would be appreciated as well. I can easily get 2 3/4" thick pieces out of each board, so possibly using the newly exposed faces from the inside might be the best bet, since hopefully the bugs will not have gone that deep.
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_995_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_996_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_998_.jpg
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/martbj/Martin%20Family%20Farm%20Lumber/494252253_photobucket_1002_.jpg
Any tips on pulling the nails would also be appreciated, I have read a couple of past threads on the subject and plan on purchasing the specialized nail pullers/pliers that lift the nails out.
Thanks for looking.
Ben