I was at Rockler the other day and picked up two planks roughly 16 inches wide by 8 feet long. One is mahogany.. the other is walnut.
The only problem is.. they’re 1/2″ thick.
I bought them because of their considerable width.. their beauty.. and they were on sale.
In thinking about this.. I’ve come up with the idea of laminating the two planks together to form one plank 1″ thick.. then crosscutting and ripping them to yield three, 5″ boards, eight feet long.
Don’t ask me what I’d use them for.. but I’ll think of something.. maybe alternate them side for side and make a tabletop or a chest lid.
Any other ideas?
Replies
I'd consder resawing them in half, and end up with bookmatched 3/16 thick 32"X96" panels. Perfect to laminate on some 3/4 stock for a table or desk.
Edited 5/16/2005 8:00 pm ET by dustinf
Bill you could use them in a variety of ways. They could be used to build a small wall hung cabinet, thinner wood will give an elegant feel and with good joinery it will be plenty strong. Or you could use it as a panel if you are building something with frame and panel construction as in a set of doors. Small elegant jewelry boxes are another option. You get the idea.
Think carefully about laminating. It's sometimes gone wrong for me. Once I tried to 'extend' some precious walnut by laminating it 50/50 with sycamore (which I figured was nice and mild and would behave itself) and the other day (many years later) I finally burned the offending pieces. They bowed badly. Couldn't bring myself to burn them for 15 years. Getting harder in my old(er) age.
The dilemma with big thin boards is that it seems such a waste to cut them into smaller peices. I use stuff that thin (and thinner, down to 6mm/quarter inch) for my signature treasure boxes, but hate cutting into big boards!
I've got a stack of 12mm (half inch) kauri ceiling panels. 18 inches wide, about the length that the room (from the waiting room of the 100 year old Alexandra Railway Station, demolished in the 80s) was wide. Lovely boards, but what the hell do you do with them!?
Malcolm
0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
18 inches wide, about the length that the room (from the waiting room of the 100 year old Alexandra Railway Station, demolished in the 80s) was wide. Lovely boards, but what the hell do you do with them!?
I'd build a STEAM Locomotive AND a Railway station fer it!
Build a small sailboat and use the mahogany and walnut for trimming out the cockpit. It'll be overlaid onto marine plywood, which will be stable. You'll need some more, while you're at it.
How's that for a solution that leads you to a project that dwarfs the dimensions of the original problem?
May need to buy some more tools, as well,...
Take care, Ed
Ixnay on the aminatinglay.
Unless you resaw to 1/16 where wood starts to behave like veneer instead of solid wood, laminating to anything that doesn't expand/contract at the same rate is asking for problems. Here's an extreme (and very dumb) example.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=20465.3
I'd second Rich's suggestion for small decorative boxes.
Waddaya mean it wont fit through the door?
"Ixnay on the aminatinglay"
I've laminated 1/4" material to 3/4" several times. No trouble. I can see where it would be a concern. I don't know, maybe I got lucky because it was furniture inside a climate controlled house?
In the link I think the problem was he used plywood? Which is way more stable than solid stock.
I'm not trying to start an argument, just sharing my laminating experience(somewhat limited I admit) and thoughts.
It can work, and obviously the odds are better laminating to wood instead of ply. Laminating to some other wood that moves at about the same rate and working with narrower pieces would help too. But after learning my lesson the hard way, I just prefer not to tempt fate any more. If the WW gods are smiling on you, everything's fine, but sometimes Murphy's Law prevails..Waddaya mean it wont fit through the door?
Thanks for the replies and advice. I think I would be okay sandwiching these planks if I stay with grain direction but what I will likely do instead is use them for panels in blanket chests I like to build.
Normally the six panels required for these chests are 3/4" with 1/4" tongues milled to fit into grooves in the rails and stiles. Using these thinner panels I will probably just mill quarter inch rabbets all around.. or maybe even plane them down to 3/8" and mill my rails and stiles to 1" instead of 3/4".
I just couldn't pass on these 1/2" planks even though using them in some practical way presents some challenges.
Thanks again, all.
Bill
bill,
How can you afford Rocklers prices? Wood they sell for $30.00 or $40.00 is what I Cut up for firewood..
Don't you have a sawmill nearby? stop there and buy their "thins" (that's any board less than 1 inch thick) See mother nature doesn't often make trees come out exactly to the even inch and there is no real market for wood under an inch thick.. thus it's either chipped up or bundelled together with the slab wood. My local sawmill sells a whole pickup bed full of thins for $20.00 Cherry, oak, walnut, maple it doesn't matter. $20.00 has my pickup loaded so bad that the rear bumper is dragging and the front tires paw the air..
Your prices mat be slightly differant but the really great wood is direct off the sawmill.. every time somebody handles it the prices go up and the interesting bits get picked out and sold at a premium..
Anyway what I 'd do is use the wood as is and put a thick edge on it with maybe some stiffing ribs underneath..
I use thin wood as panels for the ceilings etc. of the house. I like doing coffered ceilings and thins are perfect for that application..
I don't usually buy wood at Rockler but occassionally they have a good sale. The place where I buy hardwood is plenty expensive, too. And they never have sales.
If I asked them for "thins" or anything else for $20 a truckload they would laugh me off the lot.
Bill,
Go get friendly with a sawmill operator.. The have a perisable product that they need to market on a regular basis.. If the wood should happen to get a little grey or something they really have no market for it.. they sell at dramatically low prices.. I've bought 5/4 ash for 10 cents a bd. ft. and 4/4 fiddleback maple for the same price.. I bought thousands of bd.ft. of black walnut for 17 cents a bd.ft. The only thing wrong with any of it was a surface discoloration. a pass thru the planeer resulted in fabulous wood! (you should see the fiddleback maple in my guest bathroom)..
Now I'm not saying that every sawmill operator will sell at those same prices but I do know that "thins" are often disposed of rather than sold. I also know that the differance between places like Rocklers and lumberyards and the small to medium sawmill is dramatic.. For example the market price for white oak is $0.80 a bd.ft. I'll sell you all you want at that price and some of it is quartersawn. If you were to pick out just the quartersawn and throw away the rest you'd still pay much less for it than you'd be able to buy the same fromRocklers even on their best sale..
Small to medium sawmills sell at a deep discount because their normal customer is somebody who buys up tens of thousands of bd.ft. from various small to medium sawmills and then markets the result to places like Rocklers or hardwood specialist comapnies.. They only want to buy in full bunker lots, thus odd lots have no real market... Since they sell to middle men who are the middlemen to the middlemen there is a lot of markup in wood..
Edited 5/18/2005 3:20 pm ET by frenchy
(you should see the fiddleback maple in my guest bathroom)
Frenchy,
Can you please post a picture?-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
jazzdogg,
I can easily take some pictures, however I'm a computer dunce. Maybe my daughter will come home from college this week and teach me how.. So far I've seldom been able to post pictures and then when I drive to California and have a buddies son do it for me..
Hello Bill,
Laminating those two boards together- notagood idea, because being of differing species they will have different reaction rates to moisture/climate changes. They will crack,warp,delaminate-any combination of.
I suggest making tops for some small tables e.g side tables. You can make them look thicker by glueing on an edging about 30mm wide by about 8 or 10mm thick, to give an edge of about 20 or 22mm thick. The grain must be all in the same direction, so you will have to cross cut strips that are 30mm x the plank width(406mm) for the the end grain edges and get whatever length you want planting them straight on.The long grain edges are straight forward. It is easy to do and if done properly hard to see what has been done without looking underneath.This is how bar tops should be done-but usually aren't.
Then you have a light table top and you can attach this to a suitable frame using one of several methods that allow for wood movement e.g buttons or z clips.Prior to do this you will have fired up your trusty router and put a nice moulding on...And if you are particularly cunning the (difficulttosee) glueline will have appeared to disappear in that moulding.
There are several ways to utilise the timber- I have only come up with something simple.
Edited 5/17/2005 6:45 am ET by mookaroid
The only problem is.. they're 1/2" thick.. SO.. make something with panels that shows the great wood... I don't know of anything that says ya' to glue anything together..
A good fit at edges to begin with.. SOme of them rubber ball thinkies to hold it together and see what happens..
If not glued together you can always rip it apart and make something else from them..
By the way.. Cutting up wood into something else is 'WHAT WOODWOOKERS DO!'
"Cutting up wood into something else is 'WHAT WOODWOOKERS DO"
Yeah, right. But doncha hate chopping into that nice wide board when you know you paid a premium for the width ... and you know how hard it will be to find another one!
I'm getting better at it. The older I get the less I put away for another day or a better project. This is that rainy day, eh!
MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
Yeah, right. But doncha hate chopping into that nice wide board when you know you paid a premium for the width ...
NA! I just hopes it do not warp!
This is that rainy day, eh!.. Yep I have a few Jack Daniels on ice one-in-awhile!
Edited 5/19/2005 12:12 pm ET by Will George
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