Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Cleaning Timbers and an Early Christmas!

I know, it's way too early for talk of Christmas, but people are gearing up and I'm especially filled with holiday cheer.  Santa Claus must think I'm a very good boy, because he's recently sent me two very excellent Christmas gifts.  I've received my Bad Axe saws from Mark Harrell.
Meet Doc, Wyatt and The BeastMaster!  The beautifully handcrafted saws are exquisite.  I had mine made with Cherry handles and stainless steel backs and split nuts.  I can't wait until I get to play with my new little friends!

 And today, my Benchcrafted hardware for my
Roubo bench arrived.  The entire kit includes the leg vise and wagon vise hardware, along with extremely beefy bolts for the the bench stretchers. Those will allow me to adjust for seasonal movement, or if Sylvia ever decides I'm too damn expensive, she can take the bench apart and sell it after she's gotten rid of me.  Remind me to make sure she stays happy!!!

The timbers are almost all cleaned up and I wanted to get you caught up.  I brought over nearly 380 board feet of the reclaimed barn timbers, which is nearly three times the amount actually needed for the build.  The reason for this is that it is a bit rough in places and without being able to see the wood, I really don't know how I am going to choose which timber becomes which piece of the build.


This is a shot of the board I'm cleaning right now.  This is the last board that needed cleaning before I start laying out the pieces and start the rough dimensioning.

These are the tools I used for the surgical removal of all the errant nails.  Pictured is the Wizard metal detector, gloves and ear muffs, dead blow hammer and chisel, small nail puller, cats paw, side cutters and a dental pick.
I used the Wizard to find the nails and marked each with chalk, then went back over each and used whichever tool suited the situation best to get the metal out of the board.



As you can see I had to excavate to get to the nails that had broken at the surface and rusted inward.



This final shot is how I set up the belt sander to remove the old age, grit and god knows what from the surface prior to subjecting any edge tools to these boards.   The next step is selecting the parts from the oversized pile of lumber and start the rough dimensioning.
I HATE DUST.  As you can see the floor is covered in sawdust and chips from the chiseling, but nothing got airborne.  I've still got to figure out a better solution for my router operations.

8 comments:

Marilyn in Seattle said...

Ok .. first off .. I see three saws, not two. Lucky boy! Second, I'm also rebuilding the base of my workbench as part of the Guild Build. I think I'm scared that I'm doing the same project as you! ;oD

Vic Hubbard said...

Yea, but you're ALL hand tools. I'll have my big corded friend to help. I'm really looking forward to the next phase of layout!!!

Jeff said...

When you find a better solution for your router generated dust, please post it. I am still searching...

Vic Hubbard said...

Jeff, what it's going to come to is just buying a router with decent dust collection. The Triton is supposed to be a good one. I have much more research to do. I know Festool, but that an expensive system to get started on.

Shannon said...

Vic, I'm really excited to see this come together. I have been looking at a lot of reclaimed timber at work lately and just itching to clean it up and get a freshly planed face exposed. Alas, not a good idea when the stock doesn't belong to you. Please share some before and after photos of the timber once you have it cleaned up.

Vic Hubbard said...

I will, Shannon. I think I'm about to get even more of a workout, as I have to move lumber around to find that perfect piece for each element of the build. At least I've got a good size pile to pick from. Out of curiosity, is the reclaimed lumber at McIlvain costly? I was told it's considered premium now. It sure wasn't when I grabbed this stuff years ago.

Shannon said...

We haven't gotten that far into this new product yet for me to be able to answer that accurately, but it is definitely a premium product because we do all the clean up work you are doing now before we sell it. It is expensive to obtain, and even more to "reclaim" and ready for sale.

RV said...

Can't wait to see your bench come together. Keep posting pics.