These were10 foot sheet metal palets that had been sitting in the hot sun for 3 or 4 months before I got them. They would have been kiln dried (baked) to jany ctitters before being made into pallets. They cut fine with a carbide blade - but don't take kindlyto being punctured by a nail. This is mixed hardwood. I suspect mostly birch, ash beech, and hard maple but I don't know for sure.
Some woods simply get harder as they age. About 20 years ago I refinished and re-glued the pieces in the top that the glue has failed on. Running those boards through the saw to clean off the old glue and then through the jointer resulted in dull knives almost immediately and only in that 3/4" location on the blades. This piece was supposedly about 60 years old at the time.
My first experience with that phenomena was with Douglas Fir floor joists... cutting, drilling, nailing them was a real chore 20 years in compared to when they were new.
One has to wonder if the finish that soaks in might have something to do with that. Although I have cut up some old oak limbs with a chain saw and the blade dulled quite quickly, 6~7 4" cuts.
When the douglas fir granaries were but into the barn all the wood was cut with a hand saw.IT WOULD TAKE A REAL MAN WITH A GOOD HANDSAW TO CUT IT UP TODAY!!!
No finish on the pallets 0r the gramaries.
I wonder if the wood wasn't better/harder than what we get now.
"old growth" timber was definitely more dense - and therefore harder and stronger than "new" wood - buit the pallets were not likely old growth wood.
With pallet wood you sometimes run into "heat treated" wood, a process that goes beyond "kiln dried" as a means of killing insects, mold, fungus, etc. I tried working with some heat treated pine that could be had cheaply and it was just awful... hard and brittle would be a good way to describe it. The heat treated wood was rough cut on one side and thickness planed on the other... I think it was intended for crating purposes.
I wonder if the [foreign-made] boxed nails we get aren't softer. Back in the late 70s and 80s I had to pre-drill old-growth pine trim before hand-nailing 4p and 6p finish nails.
Dave in SoTex
On 09/03/2016 8:34 AM, krw wrote: ...
White ash group (includes white, green and some other less common species) have a tendency to form silicate deposits depending upon local soil conditions.
There are a number of green ash for ornamentals in the yard here that unfortunately the emerald borers have managed to find...several have been killed. Sawing dead from them that has been standing for years is a real treat...sparks simply fly from a saw chain and it dulls a chain in a heartbeat; about as bad as just digging the bar into the ground...
Maple varies tremendously in species as well; soft maple is quite easy to work although occasionally will leave a little fuzz after shaping while sugar maple/birds eye while gorgeous is a real workout...
Like I said. "baked"
This is pretty straight-grained sugar maple, complete with the tap holes. The boards are just under 8' and *heavy*. The ash is a feather, in comparison.
Here is an example of the flooring cutters for shapers...
They create an off set tongue, back beveled edge, etc. These combined with a stock feeder would make the milling pretty straight forward though likely it would get boring!
On Thursday, September 1, 2016 at 1:49:05 PM UTC-5, bnw...
I still don't know how one would go about doing the grooving on the
erf (or more depending on width of the board) maybe 1/8" --> 3/16" deep, ra ther than plowing out a wide groove...
I've never cut relief cuts and don't know if this is safe.... a few thought s off the top of my head.
Load 2-3 blades (7 1/4" blades?), spaced apart, on the table saw. ....OR u se dado blades, spaced apart. Not sure if they could be secured properly.
Also, I suppose there might be a fluting type bit, but profiled for those r elief cuts, so that more than one "kerf" can be cut, at a time. I have an fluting bit that cuts three 1/2" flutes, at a time.
Also, I suppose one can grind/profile a set of jointer blades... make the a ppropriate knotches.... and run the boards through the jointer.... slower t han normal feed? For 1/8";3/16" deep cuts, 2 passes 1/16;3/32" at a time? I suppose this is the concept with dedicated moulder machines, as with ma king mouldings. But wonder if jointer blades are too brittle for this sor t of milling, that the "teeth" would chip off.
Sonny
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