Better than a tree - but I still dont know what to do with it - suggestions!

[Carl Beckett]

Ok, well... I have this disease of chasing around after cheap lumber. So another CL ad and its some old 'white oak' planks. Fuzzy pic, etc.

It takes a couple weeks but I get around to taking a look and it doesnt look too good. They are old. But not properly stored (outdoors under a tarp), and you cant tell too much. The junk yard that had them said they came out of an old ship yard (indoors) and they thought they were white oak. A little scraping and ok, could be. He wanted rid of them so I ended up buying them (I guess this also qualifies me as a 'gambler' - although price was about $.25 a board foot so could always burn them for firewood...).

Just unloaded them and the smaller ones I got through the planer to clean up the surface. These are about 3" thick, 10 - 12" wide, and 10 ft long. White oak for sure, and they cleaned up ok. But a board of this size is all I can handle.

The other 6 pieces are more like 5 to 7" thick, 10" to 15" wide, and 12ft long. Yikes! I could barely drag them out of the back of the truck and let them clunk to the ground.

So now what?

I think there are some nice beams in there. But I cant get them through a bandsaw nor planer to clean them up. I would be dead by the time I got them cleaned up with a scrub plane.

Maybe cut them in half with a chain saw so I can handle them? Should I resaw? (am thinking there are some decent leg stock so wouldnt want to take them all down to 4/4 or anything)

Would make nice outdoor furniture but maybe too nice for that. Maybe.

What would YOU do??

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[Jim Matthews]

I'm not clear on where you are located - perhaps a cooperative would be able to help you process these into useable sizes.

Keeseh Woodshop in Providence, RI 9info@keeseh.com

Archangel in Worcester, MA also has larger machines available http://archangelwoodworks.com/

I would want to make table legs out of the quartersawn sections of these boards.
The wilder stuff in the middle would look good as either table tops or box lids.

It maybe worth while to shorten the lengths to have a little less mass to lug around.
That said, resawing something this hard, and this big is not a first-timer's task.

If it was me, I would drop a line to the IYRS people in Newport - they might have something more manageable for your
projects to offer in trade. Worst case, you could donate to them and take a tax deduction.

jim
wpt, ma

[Ed Aumiller]

Cut them to shorter lengths, i.e. 3-4' or less for leg stock, etc then they would be manageable on a band saw with an outfeed table...
Even though he said they were indoors, the moisture content may be higher than you want it to be, so measure it before using...
Most outdoor lumber is 12-13% which is way too high for anything you want to make for indoor use... and thick stock will take a LONG
time to dry out w/o a kiln...

Good luck...

[Gary Herrmann]

Fireplace mantles. Turning stock.

Wish you were close to me.

[Ted Calver]

Boy, some of those sure would make a nice bench top.

[Carl Beckett]

Thanks Jim/ed/gary/ted for some good ideas.

I'm not sure these are good enough for restoration work. And they are pretty moldy on the surface, but a single planer pass cleaned it up so my thought was to resurface it all to help preservation (don't want mold setting in...)

Indeed they are likely higher moisture content than ideal. And it's white oak so can take a long time to dry out. For the first couple 'thinner' ones I just stacked/stickered along with another pile of WO. 'most' of my woodworking is with air dried lumber so not worried about that.

A workbench had me chuckling..... Indeed, a good idea. (I would probably build 4 more if I could rationalize it in any way..... Too many other projects 15% complete)

[David Nelson1]

Man after my own heart. All the wood I gathered for my floor came from private sources that didn't take care of the wood properly. As a matter of fact I had some many comments refering to using something else. There is a lot of good wood hedden under all the mold but the thicker stock will take time to dry properly.

I would saw to manage size as others have suggested. Air dry then off to the kiln for drying and dissinfecting the wood.

[David Nelson1]

Here a couple of examples of the nastiest!




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[kevin nee]

Woodcraft in Woburn MA is having a bandsaw demo Nov 10 and they are inviting
people to bring there own logs. (see flyer or call store)

[Joe Angrisani]

"Planks", he says...

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Great score, Carl. Just don't see things like that pop up out here in hardwood-less Colorado.

My opinion is to NOT break down the 12/4 stuff. Resaw some of the 5-7" timbers to get 5/4 and 8/4 boards for your lumber rack, but don't go slicing it all up. It would be a crime to just resaw everything.

[ray hampton]

this is your wood , so do with it as you see fit, the beams are worth a quite bit more as they are now instead of re-sawing to a smaller size

[Carl Beckett]

Woodcraft in Woburn MA is having a bandsaw demo Nov 10 and they are inviting
people to bring there own logs. (see flyer or call store)


Lol. Wonder if they have a fork lift...... Would Mak a heck of a demo, from moldy logs to nice lumber.

My bandsaw is a Laguna Italian 18" model. Pretty decent. But handling them is another story. This morning I went ahead and chopped the worst one in half, and cleaned it up. It wasn't the largest, but even half of it was more than I could reasonably guide through the bandsaw without making a track ( which just might be the time to do). Not perfect wood, but plenty of usable pieces in there.

I'm not going to slice them up until I know 'why'. In the meantime I have to figure out how to store them without propagating the mold ( no room inside....)

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I sure wouldn't cut them up unless you had a project, like you said. Not like they are going to fall apart in our lifetimes if you store them better. I would use one for an exposed beam in my new woodshop, and a workbench.

[Mel Fulks]

Joe, the word "plank" is indeed accurate, in the Oxford a plank is 2 to 6 inches thick, at least 9 inches wide, and at least 8 feet long. As we acquire modern technical terms we are making old ones blurry. Pirates had to "walk the plank" because a thin "board" could break before the convicted got to the end of it. Early OSHA

[Jim Becker]

Clean them up using hand tools!

[Ken Platt]

I didn't see anyone mention resawing with a Woodmizer. No difficult handling. I am lucky enough to have a friend with one, and he does that sort of resaw all the time. One used to be able to find local folks with woodmizers by contacting the company. I also see folks on craig's list regularly advertising such services. I'd go ahead and resaw the real thick ones, down to a thickness you think you might actually use. FWIW.

Ken in Granby,CT

[Carl Beckett]

I did contact IRYS in Newport and it was too far for them to bother with it.

Found a group closer by that restores historical buildings. Very cool work. They want them, and asked that I place a 'value' on them for tax purposes.

Soooooooo..... What's the 'value' on an old white oak beam? Let's just do one and extrapolate from there. 10" wide, by 8" thick, by 12 ft long.

Anyone care to throw out a wild guess?

[Todd Burch]

$5/bf minimum. Probably closer to $8.

[Andrew Joiner]

Joe, the word "plank" is indeed accurate, in the Oxford a plank is 2 to 6 inches thick, at least 9 inches wide, and at least 8 feet long. As we acquire modern technical terms we are making old ones blurry. Pirates had to "walk the plank" because a thin "board" could break before the convicted got to the end of it. Early OSHA
Thank God OSHA is getting more strict on this. I think they now require carbon fiber planks. We wouldn't want those Pirates to get injured before they die.

[Joe Angrisani]

Joe, the word "plank" is indeed accurate, in the Oxford a plank is 2 to 6 inches thick, at least 9 inches wide, and at least 8 feet long. As we acquire modern technical terms we are making old ones blurry. Pirates had to "walk the plank" because a thin "board" could break before the convicted got to the end of it. Early OSHA

Carl's new post brought this thread to the front. I missed Mel's response when this thread was started. So a belated....

Thank You, Mel. Mom was right. You learn something every day.

[George Gyulatyan]

Boy, some of those sure would make a nice bench top.
Ditto. I see a new bench build thread coming up...

[Jeff Duncan]

I did contact IRYS in Newport and it was too far for them to bother with it.

Found a group closer by that restores historical buildings. Very cool work. They want them, and asked that I place a 'value' on them for tax purposes.

Soooooooo..... What's the 'value' on an old white oak beam? Let's just do one and extrapolate from there. 10" wide, by 8" thick, by 12 ft long.

Anyone care to throw out a wild guess?

Nope.....but if it were me I'd probably call up one of the local recycled lumber retailers and get a quote for one or two of the sizes you have, (as if you were buying, not selling), from them. There's one in Cambridge....I think Longleaf? or something like that?

good luck,
JeffD

[ray hampton]

I did contact IRYS in Newport and it was too far for them to bother with it.

Found a group closer by that restores historical buildings. Very cool work. They want them, and asked that I place a 'value' on them for tax purposes.

Soooooooo..... What's the 'value' on an old white oak beam? Let's just do one and extrapolate from there. 10" wide, by 8" thick, by 12 ft long.

Anyone care to throw out a wild guess?

a beam 12 foot long will demand extra, I will guess that a beam this size are worth 5 times what a bf sells for

[Carl Beckett]

Thanks to the idea of finding a cause to donate these towards, they are now off being integrated into this project:

http://www.ipswichknighthouse.org/

I believe they will be used for some of the furniture in the house.

Any leftovers will be applied to other similar projects. As far as I am concerned, this was a GREAT use for these and I will make out fine having a tax write off, so a win win. Thanks for the idea!

[David Nelson1]

Sounds like a winning situation for everyone.!

[Jeff Monson]

Great use of the wood Carl, I'm sure it feels great to help this project out!