Thanks: 0
Needs Pictures: 0
Picture(s) thanks: 0
Results 1 to 11 of 11
-
3rd January 2014, 11:32 AM #1New Member
- Join Date
- Jan 2014
- Location
- Christchurch
- Posts
- 4
Recycled Australian Hardwood - Not the most descriptive I know
Hello Everyone.
I am in New Zealand, and am fairly new to the woodwork scene. I cant seem to find any NZ forums that are operational, so I thought I would try here, the question is after all, about Australian Hardwood.
I am building a bit of furniture out of recycled railway sleepers - Imported (pre 1900's) Australian Hardwood - incredibly heavy and awkward to work with, but worth it for the end product.
For my next project I need to run a few sleepers (2.4m x 200 x 100) through a thicknesser. This is what I am wanting help with.
What type of equipment is heavy and strong enough and capable of dealing with this wood?
As I said, its all a mixture of Aussie hardwood, and having been outside for in some cases over a hundred years, nearly impossible to identify without cutting into it first. Pulling the stones and metal from it is another arduous task as well.
So specifically in regards to a thicknesser. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, brands of equipment that can handle this stuff? Ill also need to be routing some parts, but that can come later. I have a friend who had a dewalt thicknesser (I cant remember the model). He was taking 2mm off per pass, and it was struggling.
So does anyone have any ideas? Im obviously looking for something not commercial size (if possible) as that is clearly out of my price range.
-
3rd January 2014 11:32 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
- Join Date
- Always
- Location
- Advertising world
- Posts
- Many
-
3rd January 2014, 07:14 PM #2Skwair2rownd
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- Dundowran Beach
- Age
- 76
- Posts
- 19,922
Welcome to the forum newqaqua!! Good to have you along to the best
shed on the planet.
I am personally very worried about what damage you will do to any
machine you use on this timber.Apart from the fact that it is old, dry
and hard in itself the timber will be full of grit!!! Not going to be very
pretty machines when you are finished!!
Another point to be mindful of with Aus. hardwood is that it tends to be
highly fissile, especially ironbark.
-
4th January 2014, 10:10 AM #3Intermediate Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Location
- Sydney
- Posts
- 37
Thicknessing sleepers
I'm with Artme on this one. Driving Australian hardwood through a thicknesser will be difficult to say the least. Sleepers in particular are full of grit from the rail bed material, 100 years of vibration works the grit deep into the fissured grain and it will wreck the edge of any tool you use. Dont be discouraged - it can be done, I have just turned about 2 tons of mixed hardwood sleepers and bridge beams into furniture and the end result made it worth it. Tallowwood, red ironbark, Sydney blue gum and a few that I simply couldn't identify. Call me mad but I used a Makita circular saw, wrecked about 10 (cheap) Bunnings saw blades, followed by my old favourite, the adze, then planed (more Bunnings metal into the bin) and sanded, filled the remaining fissures with coloured epoxy and am more than happy with the result.
Good luck.
PS I got all the furniture and most of my wood out in the three days before the Blue Mountains bushfires hit my home. Then a pack of helicopters turned up and saved the house, the sheds, everything. Busy days and thank you Rural Fire Service.
-
4th January 2014, 11:40 AM #4Skwair2rownd
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- Dundowran Beach
- Age
- 76
- Posts
- 19,922
Ben that is a wonderful collection of timbers you dealt with!!
love to see some photos!!
-
5th January 2014, 05:59 AM #5Intermediate Member
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Sydney
- Posts
- 34
There's the main problem!
Try taking off around 0.5mm per pass, it's more time consuming but necessary with a hardwood..... esspecially timber that has hardened & cured for upto 100 years.
Pre-cleaning the timber is the first step, hit it with a high pressure water cleaner and wire brush on all surfaces to remove as much grit as possible before attacking it with any type of equipment. Then be prepared to replace lots of blades on whatever tools & machinery you end up using.
It will be an arduous process but the 'clean' timber you will end up with at the end of the process will make it all worthwhile!
-
5th January 2014, 05:34 PM #6GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jun 2005
- Location
- Helensburgh
- Posts
- 7,695
Pressure wash then buy a cheap hand held electric plane and a big box of blades and count that in the cost of the timber.
CHRIS
-
5th January 2014, 06:57 PM #7Retired
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Canberra
- Posts
- 1,820
Absolutely agree on the high pressure wash, degrease and use of a cheap electric plane.
The blades can be bought in bulk and slipped in very easily as they go blunt.
While the job is not the same, I sometimes get firewood chunks and flatten the bottom this way. Then I can put them through the bandsaw. Once they are in slices they are much easier to handle
Do it in the back yard with some goggles and ear muffs and it makes for some fun with the chips flying! (I did have a neighbour move recently without saying goodbye....strange....).
-
5th January 2014, 08:21 PM #8Jim
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- Victoria
- Posts
- 3,191
-
6th January 2014, 05:20 AM #9New Member
- Join Date
- Jan 2014
- Location
- Christchurch
- Posts
- 4
Thanks guys.
I will most definitely spend some time cleaning them up. By the looks of it, they were from a bridge so they may be a little better as far as grit goes??
Smaller amounts on each pass might be good also, I thought when he said 2mm, it was quite a lot at once, especially with this hardwood.
I have a friend who works at a hire place, might be able to hire their thicknesser, depending on how big it is, and what its blades look like.
I tried using a planer on this stuff when I built my first desk, it just bounces right off and makes a real mess of everything.
Cheers
-
6th January 2014, 10:45 AM #10Jim
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- Victoria
- Posts
- 3,191
Bridge timbers do tend to be better as they often were protected with tar - still you have to get through the first abrasive coat. Railway sleepers on passenger lines may also have had an admixture of toilet flushing.
Cheers,
Jim
-
11th January 2014, 09:29 AM #11Senior Member
- Join Date
- Dec 2012
- Location
- emerald
- Posts
- 162
I'm in the same position as you newaqua. I've got over 100 hardwood sleepers that I need to dress on one face. I think after weighing up all the options I'll go with a dedicated band saw mill to take a 10mm cut straight off the top. Not only is this the quietest option, but hopefully it will only be a one pass operation.
Similar Threads
-
Recycled Hardwood
By NCArcher in forum TIMBERReplies: 27Last Post: 18th January 2013, 08:39 PM -
WIP - Recycled Hardwood Bench
By NCArcher in forum THE WORK BENCHReplies: 138Last Post: 16th January 2013, 08:56 PM -
Where to get recycled hardwood
By hsc07ww in forum TIMBERReplies: 5Last Post: 12th December 2006, 04:00 PM -
Recycled hardwood
By bobmundy in forum ANNOUNCEMENTSReplies: 0Last Post: 5th September 1999, 05:57 PM