Holy Milling Lumber Batman!

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Verdaccio

Verdaccio

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Posts
757
Loc
Berthoud, Colorado
I am the proud owner of a portable table saw and a bench router. See, there was this barnwood from a barn in Minnesota that this customer brought me wanting frames made from it. We negotiated a good price and I was able to procure equipment for that job that hopefully will serve my shop for years to come. Last night I milled the barnwood down from unruly planks to 2.5 inch strips and cut in the rabbet. The process was nearly faultless and did not take even an hour to mill down enough wood to do about 4 reasonably large frames. This morning I hit the cut edges with a powdered charcoal and steel wool to weather it to closely match the finish of the uncut sides.

I am so stoked with ideas for a line of custom frames that I would make entirely myself... :)

Anyone else doing this sort of thing? How has it worked for you ?
 
Yes, and it works AMAZINGLY well. Reclaimed wood is very hot in our area, always has been... we used to call it Driftwood, then Barnwood and now Reclaimed wood... whatever, as long as they keep buying it =) We use it for so many things. You can use old wood fences that people tear down too...
 
Absolutely, over the years we've also added a spindle moulder, buzzer, planer and drum sander for this type of work and much more. The next step is in planning stages...
 
If your going to get into this, the next thing to get is a hand held metal detector. Reclaimed wood will have lots of nails and it only takes one to really mess up a blade and potentially cause a dangerous situation.
 
FrameMakers said:
If your going to get into this, the next thing to get is a hand held metal detector. Reclaimed wood will have lots of nails and it only takes one to really mess up a blade and potentially cause a dangerous situation.
Click to expand...

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto...................................

Nothing like having a 15" planer blade with a nice chip out of it to realize the importance of this.
 
About a year ago the owner pulled down an old picket cedar fence in his yard. We then ripped each board down the middle and routed out the rabbits. They look really nice on the right peices and every time we make a ready made or two out of them they are gone within the day.
 
Having made stained glass edged mirrors, I was looking around for interesting framing and used dock boards (same as barn board) and sold them so quickly, that I would do a delivery to a store, and had to refill it the moment I got home. I ran out of boards eventually. A metal detector is important unless you want your saw to look like a hockey player; with a few missing teeth! Old wood windows also are good. Shabby chic is very"in" with designers right now.
 
I've been working toward this end for a while now. Almost got my outside workshop (=shed) fitting out for the purpose.

shed13_004.jpg


Bit light on equipment at the moment. There is my (basic) table saw which I can now operate without shifting piles of clutter first. The bench on the right lower corner is destined for a dedicated miter saw station. It's not a big area, the headroom is a bit tight. But it's 25' long which makes it good for manipulating long things like sticks of moulding.
One thing I would like is a planer/thicknesser. Many is the time I have needed thin bits just the right size for spacers and wotnot. A router table would also be an asset. It have lots of old timber stashed away. Some came out of the big house next door which the then occupants were renovating. Eventually they got tired of the job and moved to a new house. The guy who followed had no interest in restoration and heaved all the old skirting boards and stuff out and was preparing to burn it all when I rescued it. Granted it doesn't look good on the surface, but it's beautiful timber beneath the layers of flakey paint. Can't buy new wood like it.

I don't really want to get into heavy-duty milling, but it's surprising what you can make by just adding a groove or a bevel here and there.
 
Nice shop area.

For a couple of years I've been holding on to old stained hardwood frames that have come from re-framing jobs. My idea was to age them artificially or naturally to give them a barn wood look.

Has anyone tried this?

Doug
 
Imagine using this stuff, old studs from abandoned homes in Detroit!

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People think that since it is recycled it's cheap, but a lot of labor when into taking a house down removing all the nails, milling it, finishing it. In the end you have a high end product.
 
DVieau2 said:
Nice shop area.

For a couple of years I've been holding on to old stained hardwood frames that have come from re-framing jobs. My idea was to age them artificially or naturally to give them a barn wood look.

Has anyone tried this?

Doug
Click to expand...

Wire wheel on a power drill does a fair job. :p Or sand blasting if you have the kit. :help: For doing timber in the length, an old saw blade dragged sideways along the grain can be effective. Or put them in a tank of caustic soda. This will take off any old paint and start to destroy the wood structure and you get an near-instant aged look. You have to gauge exactly how long to leave it soaking though.
This is extremely unpleasant stuff. What it does to wood it will do to flesh but a lot quicker. :help::help::help:
 
To finish the raw cut sides of your barn wood frames try mixing some grey rottenstone with a little water and white glue. You can also tone it with acrylic paint or dry pigment powders. Test it on some scrap by letting it dry to adjust your color toning.

I had been milling my own rustic mouldings from the very beginning of my business, mostly from old fence boards...not to many barns in San Diego, very profitable.

I am now, in my retirement, making oval and round frames along with a few styles of mission type frames for a few local frame shops. I am keeping it low key simply because I do not want to end up with another business at almost 71.

-John
 
I must admit, as yet I do not have a metal detector and use a metal rule with a row of rare-earth magnets on it (necessity made me do it) which surprisingly lets me know easily even if a small piece of nail is broken off in the middle of a 4x2. There was a recent thread on metal detectors and I really should get one! Some great ideas on refinishing the edges, I have historically left them clean as I rather like the "reveal" which gives an insight to the timber beneath.
 
I got a metal detector recently. Little Wizard II. Think it was Larry who steered me toward it. Works great and not at all expensive.:thumbsup:

[video=youtube;P7X86vqDMgg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7X86vqDMgg[/video]
 
Larry Peterson said:
Ditto, Ditto, Ditto...................................

Nothing like having a 15" planer blade with a nice chip out of it to realize the importance of this.
Click to expand...
There is.....a 24" planer with a chip out of it!
When I was making furniture I had a 24" thicknesser with a tapered square head. Blades were half and inch thick with hard inlays on the cutting edge!
I would never put used timber through it unless I denailed myself!
Got a chip every so often, from bits of grit/gravel embedded in the wood!
 
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