Thread: Recycled Australian Hardwood - Not the most descriptive I know

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.

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.

Ben that is a wonderful collection of timbers you dealt with!!

love to see some photos!!

Originally Posted by newaqua

He was taking 2mm off per pass, and it was struggling.

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!

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.

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....).

Originally Posted by Evanism

and it makes for some fun with the chips flying! (I did have a neighbour move recently without saying goodbye....strange....).

Don't forget the sparks

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

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.

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.