WHat is this wood? Is it good for projects?

[stryped]

As you know I am a newbie. I have a table say, and just got a router and table for Christmas. SO please for give my basic questions.

I have someone that works at a wood flooring plant that got me some wood that were quality check pieces. The were dried in a kiln of the company. The ar erough sawn or seem to be. Can you tell me what they are and if they would be good for projects? They are varying widthe between 6 inches and 10 inches. They are all 1inch thick. I am guessing white oak but may be wrong.

Here are pictures I took:

guess I cant do much with them because of being rough sawn. I am very tempted to buy a small 12 inch planerr at Lowes. (Delta) I know it is probably not the best but all I can afford. Would really like a jointer too but can not afford both. I know they make a planer/jointer but the widest they seem to do is 6 inches.

Not sure what I want to get into but have lots of things around the house I need. First thing I would like to make my mom and wife a project in a book I boght. It was a drawer that had a butcher block on top of it. the drawer held you knives. I'd like to finish it the same as my cabinets. (Can you tell me what type of wood my cabinets are?) There are also larger projects I would like to do like a bookshelf and an entertainment center and some cabinets for my garage.

One last thing. I have bought some woodworking books and one of them said you can finish and true an edge of a board with a router and table. Is this true and could this be use dinstead of having to buy a jointer?

Again, thanks for your help and advice!

[CW]

There are many ways of jointing a board. The one with the router table is more of a pain to set up than it's worth. I often do it with a router using either a straightedge clamped or taped to the top of the board with top bearing bit or I clamp the board to my bench, overhanging the edge a bit and use a bottom bearing bit against the edge of the bench. You only need one strait edge to run against the tablesaw fence. Years ago, a jointer in the home shop was a rarity, though many people did fine work. Now, everyone seems to think you have to have one. I don't and unless someone gives me one, I probably never will. The planer is worth having though. Surfacing boards without one is a pain.

[shooter]

Cabinets look like they are red oak. Boards are hard to tell, could be red oak or ash.

R> As you know I am a newbie. I have a table say, and just got a router

[fredfighter]

Red oak is porous, white is not. If you can take a small piece and blow air through it like a straw, it's red oak. Also if you wet it and it stinks like dead fish, it's red oak. Now you know why they age wine in white oak barrels.

Its eas to joint boards with a hand plane. Google for Stanley #7 or #8, #607 or #608 planes. Millers Falls, Sargent, Winchester, Ohio Tools, Union, old Records, Old Stanleys, Keen Kutter, and Fulton are all good planes. You can also get a new one from Lie Nielsen, for about the price of a power planer.

[Frank Ketchum]

It is always a good idea to build a project for the wife. It has a way of freeing up some funds for new tools sometimes:)

The cabinets pictured are red oak. However, you do not want to use red oak as a surface for a butcher block as it is very porous and will absorb food juices and become rancid over time. You want a closed pore type of wood such as hard maple or walnut for a butcher block.

You can use a router with a straight bit that has a bearing on it (sometimes called a pattern bit) with along with a straight edge to joint a board. I am unsure about what they mean by table, maybe they are suggesting using a table edge as the straightedge?

If I could offer some advise, check out the books by Tage Frid. There is a book called "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" which is a two part unabridged addition of a couple of his earlier books. He has a way of showing how to do things in a very simple and do-able manner without major capital investment and without a lot of unnecessary crap. He was a highly respected woodworker and you won't find many who will disagree with his advice.

Frank

[fredfighter]

You can see ray flecks in the end grain of some of the boards so those are definately oak. It would be no surprise if there were some ash mixed in. It is not uncommon for red and white oak to be mixed together.

[stryped]

[fredfighter]

Resawing is what one calls sawing a board to make two thinner boards. Typically done with a bandsaw. Hardy souls do it with a hand saw.

[dadiOH]

Edge on a router, yes. Face on a router, no. Not without tons of work.

For the edge, all you need is an adjustable outfeed fence...run a foot or so of the edge, move the outfeed fence out so it meets the cut edge, run the rest of the board.

You can still do it without an adjustable outfeed fence but you have to set up to take off a predetermined amount then clamp something with that predetermined thickness (piece of formica, e.g.) to the outfeed fence instead of just moving the fence.

As far as joining/reducing the thickness goes, I have a 3/4 x 4" router bit I used occasionally for that, setting the router up horisontally and using formica to support the cut bottom. PITA but I didn't have a joiner at the time and it worked OK for narrow boards once in a while.

The other way involves building a jig with two long sides, each side identical to the other. The board to be surfaced is secured between them, a router is mounted on a stout board that will span them when the router is at one side; put as wide a cutting mortice bit as possible in the router, move it to across the board, move it a cutter's width forward, move across board again. Keep repeating until board is surfaced. Since you should only be cutting 1/8 or less in depth, the entire procedure may need to be repeated several times. You'll wind up (after a long time) with a board that has one true face. Go buy a joiner.

There are also the rotary "planers" meant for a radial arm saw or drill press. They work similarly to the above but cut a somewhat wider swath. Leave a coarse surface too. Go buy a joiner.

As long as I'm at it, I have also used an 8" softpad with coarse sandpaper mounted on a RAS horizontally. Works pretty well - better than a rotary planer - but makes absolutely *TONS* of sawdust. Go buy a joiner.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Pat Barber]

Three basic tools are needed to do "most" woodworking.

(1) table saw (2) jointer (3) planer

Dealing with "rough cut stock" requires the above.

If you choose to use sized stock, which is already planed, jointed and flat, then you can do with less.

Many beginners begin the journey with plywood which does not require a planer or a jointer.

A table top planer can be a fine investment and will "almost" pay for it self in the first major load of rough sawn stock you size with it.

The jointer is used for another type operation and can not be easily replaced by any other tool. If you are to have flat, square stock, a jointer is almost required.

A 6" jointer can be had for less money and is used by a great many people. I would save up for a 8".

Woodworking is a continuous purchase to get setup.

Spend wisely and you will be ready to go in a year or two.

A quick check on Ebay finds many nice little jointers in the

300-400 range. Shipping becomes an issue with large tools but you might get lucky on location.

stryped wrote:

[CW]

No.

[J T]

Sun, Jan 8, 2006, 5:08pm (EST-3) [e-mail] (stryped) needs to know: I have someone that works at a wood flooring plant that got me some wood that were quality check pieces.

Were they free? Free wood is always popular.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[Graham Gilbert]

[Doug Miller]

I'll go along with that. They are unquestionably *not* white oak.