I'm a wood hoarder I have left over prefinished maple flooring what do I with it?

[Brian Runau]

I have some left over prefinished maple flooring and, being a wood hoarder, I am reluctant to throw it out. I was planning on keeping a few of the longer pieces for repair if need in the future, but not sure what I can do with it after I would mill the finish off and get rid of the grooves in the floor side. Might have a 1/2" thickness?

Thanks.

Brian

[Jim Becker]

Small boxes, cutting boards, shop organization aids, oh, so many things come to mind.

[phil freels]

Last week I made a bench top out of some. Cut off the T&G of the outside perimeters.

[Robert Hayward]

Years ago I was working on a site that the owner did not like the look of the black walnut flooring that had just been installed. 3 1/2" wide X 13/16" thick. A little over 2000 square feet of it was torn up and put in a dumpster. I hauled about half of it home. I removed the tongue and groove after pulling nails. Kept it stacked like that and planed the grooves off the bottom as I needed the wood. Ended up about 9/16" thick X about 2 3/4" wide of good useable wood. Every woodworker that knew me and including myself made more small projects out of that wood than you can imagine. There were even guys cutting up the shorter pieces and making garden plant marking stakes.

[Richard Coers]

Milling off the finish may be a huge surprise for you. Many companies use a finish that contains aluminum oxide in it for wear resistance. Note, that is the same material used for sandpaper. Send one piece through your thickness planer and the blades will be dull before that piece gets all the way through. Ask me how I know!

[Doug Garson]

I've milled off the finish on prefinished hardwood flooring using a very thin kerf rip blade on the table saw cutting just inside the finish not thru the finish and then run it thru my thickness planer to remove the grooves. Made a variety of things including these shoe horns and trivets.
shoehorn.jpgtrivet finished.jpg

[Brian Tymchak]

Picture frames to match the beautiful floor you just put down? Or if you have enough, some shadow boxes to display some treasures.

[Tom Blank]

Richard is absolutely correct on the finish destroying planer knives.

I know how he knows.

[Brian Runau]

Milling off the finish may be a huge surprise for you. Many companies use a finish that contains aluminum oxide in it for wear resistance. Note, that is the same material used for sandpaper. Send one piece through your thickness planer and the blades will be dull before that piece gets all the way through. Ask me how I know!

Richard, I verified with the manufacturer of the finish that they do not use aluminum oxide in this product. Thanks Brian

[Tom Bender]

We have a window seat/shelf in a bay window. It had been nice Oak ply until the sun and moisture wrecked the finish. It now matches the new Oak flooring.

[George Yetka]

I was gifted 60 bf or so of unfinished oak when I was first starting. It milled down to just over 5/8 with the grooves on the back removed. I used a lot of it with the grooves though. Ive used it for a ton of stuff around the shop and trimmed a foyer table with a pallet wood mosaic top. Came out pretty good for an early project. Wood is expensive, dont let it go to waste.

[Jim McCue]

You can use for tabletops for small tables. Leave as is if you don't mind the grooves, or mill off and glue up for a solid surface.

You can leave as is and use for the backs of casework, tongue and groove back to allow for expansion.

You can make an 'accent wall'. Not my cup of tea but I see lots of pictures on the internet "look, there's hardwood flooring on a section of my wall!"...