Reclaimed Oak for Roubo

[Patrick Harper]

I have the opportunity to by some sizable barn beams from white oak for about $2.40 b/f. The beams are 12' long and 4.75x7.75". They have been stored indoors for the last 5 years. Assuming that they are relatively straight, do you think my chances of getting a 8' top that is 4+" thick is reasonable? I was thinking of laminating three to get about 20"x4". Also, this is the first time that I'll be using reclaimed lumber. Aside from nails, is there anything I should be aware of? I wouldn't think that WO would be very susceptible to bugs. Is there a good method for cleaning? Thanks!

[David Weaver]

I can't say too much for reclaimed wood other than that if you get through the old wood to good fresh wood, it should be as good as any other.

At the price, it's hard to criticize too much. Sometimes around here, we can find red oak 8/4 a little cheaper, especially if we'll tolerate air dried, but not white oak that I'm aware of. If I were building a bench, I'd go for it, even if some of those beams have pith because they were part of a vertical structure. It'd be preferable to have beams without pith, though.

Even if you end up with an 8' top that's 3 1/2" thick or even slightly less, you'll have all you ever need. To a great extent, how straight the beams are will determine how much you end up with. On the fourth side of the beams, you can be a lot less particular about how perfect the finish is (and thus remove less).

Clean with a wire brush and vacuum combination and remove any wood that's not good and fresh via old planer blades (like in a hand power planer) or with a scrub plane or something. A hand power planer is probably the most reasonable.

I wouldn't build a bench with them in my shop unless they had a month or two to acclimate to the shop. Also, if you have a warm shop that has a lot of valuable wood in it, I would still watch for bugs, not so much for bug damage to the wood, but for the chance that bugs may be transported into your shop. I spent a lot of time in barns in my youth, and as long as the roof was on the barn and whatever is inside is dry, I didn't ever see bug damage of any notable amount in beams. If the beams get wet and are thus easier for bugs to get into, then all bets are off. Those barns were all old "bank barns" as we called them, that had a bank on one side so that you had access to the top, and an entry on the bottom side so that you could get to both floors with something pulled like a wagon. One was old enough to have bullet holes and artillery damage from the civil war - well, many were probably that old, but only one actually had damage in it on east cavalry field in Gettysburg. (You'd be surprised how big some of those civil war era barns were)

[Chris Hachet]

Plus one on the use a hand plane to clean them up before yous tart to work on them. I have a WWII era Stanely #4 in my shop dedicated to tasks jsut like this.

[Patrick Harper]

I was definitely planning on letting them sit for atleast a month. I have an old Type 11 No.5 with an 8" radius on the blade. I think it should make short order of the rough milling. ...at least I hope! The wire brush and vacuum sound like a great idea. Any suggestions on a small metal detector to detect nails, etc? The beams are supposed to be nail free, but you can never be too careful.

[David Weaver]

I don't know much about metal detectors, but I do know something about using junk blades on junk wood.

Are you going to be ripping these with two cuts on a table saw, or are you going to do it with a bandsaw? It's probably cheaper if the former to just use a table saw blade that is inexpensive. If it finds a nail, you'll know it.

If these were beams from a very old building, they should be pinned mortise and tenon (all wood) and any nails that are in them should be incidental like a place to hang feed bags or twine or wire, or perhaps a fixture for a ladder, etc.

[Dave Beauchesne]

Patrick:

Mr. Weaver has sound advice ( as usual ) - I don't have experience with old barn beams per se, but that thickness of white oak would sustain you parking a truck on it. And, the price is reasonable - GO FOR IT says me!

Good luck - Dave B

[Patrick Harper]

I don't know much about metal detectors, but I do know something about using junk blades on junk wood.

Are you going to be ripping these with two cuts on a table saw, or are you going to do it with a bandsaw? It's probably cheaper if the former to just use a table saw blade that is inexpensive. If it finds a nail, you'll know it.

If these were beams from a very old building, they should be pinned mortise and tenon (all wood) and any nails that are in them should be incidental like a place to hang feed bags or twine or wire, or perhaps a fixture for a ladder, etc.

David, I only have a bandsaw. I certainly don't want to rip this thing by hand.

[David Weaver]

I'd do the work with an old blade. Though it's a cheap trick, if you have a dull blade that you can do the first cuts with, you can put it on the saw backwards and stone the teeth a little and wake it up. Only a little.

Or give it a quickie job with a diamond chainsaw thingie in a dremel (point being, you can't afford wayward wandering cuts and need a blade that's at least partially sharp, but you also don't want to run the teeth right off of a $50 or $80 blade).

(maybe I'm missing something, and some of the bimetal blades are designed for this - they're not that cheap though, either).

[Patrick Harper]

I was just planning on using a cheap wood slicer from Highland.

[David Weaver]

that seems reasonable. You can check with the guys up in the power tool section to see if the metal detectors work well, I'm sure they're a lot more concerned about things that affect power tools than we are.

[Jim Matthews]

I don't see why you're changing the orientation of the boards.

If the wide face is flat, go with it.
Why make more work for yourself?

Unless you have an obvious cup to contend with, build first flatten as needed.
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/45457/building-a-two-slab-roubo-workbench-part-1

[Patrick Harper]

Jim, I'm not sure what you're referring to. If the 7.75" faces are fairly flat, I'll simply joint the edges and then glue the edges. Once cured, I would than flatten the top and bottom. I only plan on removing the least amount of material possible before glue up.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Patrick,
A few years ago, I had a few commissioned projects that involved reassembling/reconfiguring some 1850's barns from Ohio, onto a site in coastal SC. It was interesting, and the woods were incredible. When you think about the age of this trees that were used to construct the originals barns, you realize that many of them were saplings during the French & Indian War. You don't get that kind of wood much anymore. The figure is amazing, and the mellowness of the natural color can't be achieved any other way. I culled a few odd off cuts and other boards, and have made rustic furniture for a restaurant with some of it. Having a said that, I found that a metal detector was VERY handy. The more powerful ones probably can penetrate 2+ inches. I always scan both side of a board, as well as the edges. So, what do you do when you do find an offending article? Most of them can be pulled out from just below the surface. If you do need to really excavate something big out out of it, simply patch it with some scrap.

Now, about your top- a 4" thick top is very stout. However, if after planing it down, you end up at 3.75, or even 3.5", it's still one beast of a bench, especially at 8'.

[Patrick Harper]

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Still being new to this I decided to pass for the time being. There was evidence of minor bug infestation at some point and there was a little rot on the corners of a couple of the boards. However, 4 out of 5 were very straight and free of twist. What do you think?

[Maurice Ungaro]

I'd go for it. Adds character. For bugs holes, rot, etc., use West System Epoxy. You can even tint it.

[Jim Matthews]

Sorry I was unclear about this.

I would only joint two boards together to make a single "plank".
I would make two "planks" and leave a space between them.

The only surface that must be flat faces up.
Rather than make one large top, I would make two
smaller pieces and mount them to your trestle.

I was under the mistaken impression that you intended to rip these
lengthwise, and turn them 90 degrees to orient the "sides" upward.

Sorry if I muddied the water.

******

If it was me (and it's not) I wouldn't even bother with flattening the bottom of the planks.
Once you make the trestle or base, the only part that needs to be flat is where
the planks rest on their supports.

[bridger berdel]

If they come dirty, I'd start with a pressure washer.

[Patrick Harper]

One more question. With beams this large, should I still avoid them if the contain the pith?

[Jim Matthews]

How old are the boards?

Pith shrinks, but not forever.
If it hasn't worked loose after this long...

[Patrick Harper]

The barn was built in the 50's, so they're atleast that old. There's some heaving checking down the middle of atleast one of the boards that contained the center of the tree.