Solar Power Day 25

So this is really just a slideshow showcasing the milling process for the reclaimed Douglas Fir boards, but I wanted to share just how consistently beautiful each one of these turned out just by cleaning them up and planing. I know I mentioned the warehouse where these boards served as shelving but what I may have neglected to share is that they served that purpose for over a hundred years! So not only did they survive in the warehouse for all those years, but this Fir is old growth from super old trees. After running the math, on average, I’m working with wood that’s between 200-300 years old. Now that’s just insane to me! But enough geeking out, to the woodshop!

These are what the boards look like after scrubbing them down with a wire brush to remove build-up and other junk. The board in the lower right has already been surface planed, but not to final dimension.

I scrubbed the boards down outside with a wire brush to keep the crap out of my shop, but even working outdoors the brush kicked up a ton of black dust from the build-up. Definitely didn’t want that floating around my shop even after vacuuming and air filtration. Once that was done I would do a single light pass through the planer to flaten a decent amount of surface area on just one side. This allowed me to do the same on the other side, and then determine which was the better face. Once that decision was made, the better of the two faces would face up going through the planer to get the best cleanup. Since only one side of these boards would be visible once installed, there was no need to fully plane both faces.

Literally a night-and-day difference just by doing this one operation!

This is the same board with the notches from the first photo above

Opposite face of that same board

Before and after images in the same photo :P

I don’t know if it’s oils or other liquids soaking into the boards, but some of these just have SO RICH a color it just boggles my mind that this is the same wood species often used in just framing lumber. I don’t drink, but wine, eat your heart out. This stuff ages WAY better than you!

Hmmm…I wonder what this will look like coming out the other side of this machine?

POGGERS!!!!

OMG … I … yeah I can’t even…

Those of you acquainted with the Felder brand (and its other partner brands Hammer and Format4) will have a good idea just how much one of these machines costs. Don’t think for a minute that the machine has anything to do with how beautifully these boards come straight off the planer, it’s all in the wood. The only real advantage that my machine gives me over something similar (or smaller in the case of benchtop planers) is this beast has a 4HP motor, so if you’re dealing with super hard reclaimed wood (mine really isn’t that hard) you won’t stall your planer. Of course, having said that, regardless of what wood species you’re working with, if your planer is bogging down and it’s working properly, decrease how much your taking off. It’ll take a little longer, but the results won’t have any unpleasant surprises. As for the surface quality, that’s up to your cutter head. Mine has a 4-inch helical cutter head with square carbide knives but that isn’t unique to the my Felder AD-941, it’s available on almost any surfacing/thicknessing machine either standard or as an aftermarket upgrade, and believe me, that’s worth whatever the price difference is.

So if you’re thinking of taking on a project that calls for gorgeous tones and figuring, consider reclaimed wood. The extra effort in board prep can be well worth the end result.

See you in the next post.