Replies

1. 
   SawdustSteve | Sep 28, 2008 11:49pm | #1

   I guess the cute answer is to'cut it VERY carefully'.

   As you mentioned, the wood is full of nails, waiting to eat up the teeth on a saw or planer. I've seen several different pieces of bowling alley lane wood. Two of the lengths were nailed every 4 to 6 inches, with lots of nails sticking out the bottom. I guess a disc grinder could get rid of the bottom protruding mails faster than using a sawsall or pliers and file. What I don't know is if the wood is glued together, or just nailed similar to a floor. If you're going to crosscut to length, I'd use a circular saw with a contractors (nail cutting) blade to get almost to length and then belt sand to final dimension. Ripping the wood is more dificult as you will need to cut through many nails. Again, a demolition blade would be a good bet. For the last visible piece, I would probably glue on a nice clean piece so the cut nails were hidden. As for surfacing, it depensd on how flat you want the piece to be. If flatness is not critical, I'd find out if I could rent one of those big floor sanders, build a sacrificial platform around the 'top' and have a go at it. If Flatness is critical, I'd look for someone willing to run it through a commercial sized belt sander. Or... you can really get a lot of practice with a low angle plane and a card scraper.
   SawdustSteve Long Island, NY

1. 
   rwdare | Sep 29, 2008 12:34am | #2

   The maple section has case-hardened screw nails in it, the pine may also but usually not. Some lanes were shot with epoxy from the face side. Look for rows of plugged holes about 12" apart. If you want to break them down into narrower widths, use wedges and pry the boards apart at the appropriate joint. Usually you can then snap the protruding nails off.

   If you want to cut the length, get a GOOD metal detector and find a clear line across the lane. If you hit one of rhose nails with a carbide blade you will get a lot of sparks and lose a few teeth. When I was in the business, I used a very cheap thin-kerf blade from Grainger and figured on trashing one for every 2 cuts.

   Dick

2. 
   Ray | Sep 29, 2008 01:00am | #3

   I bought some really cheap carbide circ. saw blades from Sears.  Set the saw to cut about half the thickness of the slab and flip it over to finish the cut.  (using a guide)  2 - 4 cuts per blade.  The fireworks were spectacular.  I used a couple of crowbars to pry off the excess width and used a sawzall with a carbide grit blade to score the protruding nails.  They'll break right off with a hammer blow, then finish up with an angle grinder.  Made a couple of outstanding workbenches.

   
   

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   Edited 9/28/2008 6:03 pm ET by Ray

3. 
   BruceS | Sep 29, 2008 01:02am | #4

   I can't think of its name off hand but Freud makes a blade that will do the trick.  It is designed to cut steel like butter, even better and quicker than the fiber chop saw discs and NO disgusting smell.  I've seen it cut through heavy angle iron with no problems and the blade looked like new when the cut was completed.

   Work Safe,  Count to 10 when your done for the day !!

   Bruce S. 

    

4. 
   roc | Sep 29, 2008 03:23am | #5

   DuaneR,

   Evolution Power Tools has one see:

   http://www.evolutionpowertools.co.uk/us/index.html

1. 
   DuaneR | Sep 29, 2008 04:22am | #6

   Thanks for all the replies
   I tried using cheap carbide blades to cut them in half. the lanes are something like 44 inches wide @ 16 foot long 3 men and a boy couldnt move them :). I went thru 2 $5 blades from the local home center. I looked up the demo blades SawdustSteve recomended they are around 18-20 dollar range. My question now is are the demo blades worth the extra money. Will they last 4 times longer then just using a carbide blade
   Duane

1. 
   BillBrennen | Sep 29, 2008 07:34am | #7

   Duane,Yes, the demo blades will last a lot longer than regular blades when cutting through nails. They are made with teeth of a softer grade of carbide that is more shock resistant. Also, the shoulders behind the teeth (in the steel body of the blade) are larger for better support and toughness. Finally, the hook angle is lower and so is the top clearance angle. This gives the maximum support to the cutting edge, and minimizes the shock loading when nails are struck. Demo blades cut at a slower rate, but they keep cutting for a lot longer; both are a result of the differences noted above.Bill