Reclaimed Lumber - A Simple Project

in #reuse6 years ago


I've been busy with "Real Life" so I haven't dived into the waters of Steem to meet up with all my fellow fishies in a few days. But I'm back to give you a little rundown on the project I worked on yesterday.

You might have seen my post on how I want to build some furniture out of old cedar fence posts I found at work. Well I got the wood and laid it out to dry.


It took me 3 trips in order to get all this lumber home.


Honestly I haven’t counted how much I actually got but I feel pretty confident that I have enough to do at least a few solid projects.

The issue is the wood is old. I mean that’s why it’s cool too, because it’s old and weathered and beautiful but that means that it’s splintery and not exactly supple furniture material. So I needed to spend some time working with it to find out what works best.

I grabbed a few of the broken posts and got to work out on my patio in the warm fall sun. First I sanded a piece and used coconut oil as a treatment. It’s non-toxic and from my experience works pretty well. A fine woodworker might think I was a kook but I’m not into using yucky toxic polishes. Then again, maybe I’m a bit of a hypocrite since I did use glue… can’t fight them all.

Here’s a picture of the wood unworked (grey), sanded (middle), and sanded and polished (top).


Really gorgeous, huh?! Of course I love the grey of the bottom unworked wood but that thing will give you so many splinters that there’s no way I could get away with leaving it like that. Maybe I can come up with a finish to grey it up again but at the very least I have to get the boards sanded. The middle board is still really beautiful and obviously old used lumber. But you can run your hand across it and not get stuck. And finally the top darkest piece is really slick too, I guess I have some thinking to do.

Many of the ends are split or unworkable which means I’ll have to cut them. I’m a bit disappointed about that because the rough ends are so cool but nothing will be consistent if I cut some ends and use the raw ends too. Here’s what they look like after some cuts and work…


Again the same three pieces, one un-sanded, one sanded, and one with the coconut oil. You can see how perfect the wood inside the boards actually is. The weather didn’t touch it. Gotta love old cedar. Plus it smelled heavenly while I was sanding and working with this stuff.

Now that I worked with these boards I wanted to try out the biscuit jointer that I borrowed from our Tool Library (It’s a rental service for our community!). Basically what the jointer does is cut slots into your boards that you can glue a little football shaped piece of wood into to create strong joints. I’d never used one but I’m now a fan of the tool.

But first to cut the stars. I’ll be honest, I struggled to get a 5 sided star! This was my first star…


I thought I was going to get a 5 sided star but turns out I got this instead. But I went with it. It still looks pretty cool. After some math equations and the help of a protractor I figured it out. And got one 5 sided star. I only had access to my chop saw so I couldn’t make the exact shape I wanted. I attempted using my ancient jigsaw and gave up pretty quickly. These will work for now…


Now for the Biscuit Jointer, gluing, and clamping…


Those little wafers are the biscuits, they’re glued between each joint and supposed to make it pretty strong. As I told @jist, I couldn’t figure out how to clamp them after gluing so I didn’t. Since it’s just a pretty wall hanging I figure it’ll be plenty strong enough.

So I’ve learned how the wood responds to sanding and how to use a biscuit jointer… Next project… A cool Industrial furniture set (coffee table and two side tables) out of these cool old matching file cabinets I found at ReSource (the salvage yard I work at).


My ultimate goal is to make some cabinets and bookshelves for the house but I feel like I need some more practice with the wood before I’ll feel confident in moving forward with that project.

I’ll let you all know how the furniture set turns out. Until then keep doing all the cool stuff that this community gets up to ( :

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Great. It turned out well. I am looking forward to seeing your cabinet. My top tip for any furniture design or woodwork project is , that wood will only swell and shrink across the grain. It will not move along the grain and is actually more stable than metal, which is why the used it for pendulums on grandfather clocks. So make allowances for it to move ( even if it is seasoned) and you are on to a winner. Thanks

That is good advice! It helps me decide how I'm going to lay the boards on the tops of my cabinets! Thanks!

No problem. Thanks

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Cool to know thanks!

Thanks! Simple way to step up.

You are so creative!! Love all your projects!!

Ah! Thanks! The projects are coming out of my ears is the only problem, and they days just keep getting shorter and shorter!

You and me both! It can be a problem if you can see so much potential in everything! :)

You get it ( :

wow that coconut oil really pops. I will have to try that. If you need to glue a circle shape try using a small ratchet strap, or a hose clamp. Or buy the strap clamp for those rare occasions you might need that tool.

Thanks for the advice!

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