biggest woodworking job to date

hackberry jake · July 29, 2015, 12:52:35 AM

Thanks to @Larry, I landed the biggest paid job to date. Tongue and grooving about 2,000 square feet of hardwood flooring. I will have to pick up the rest of it when I drop off the first load of finished flooring. The customer also supplied the shaper cutters for the job.

WDH · July 29, 2015, 07:25:10 AM

You better get cracking.

PC-Urban-Sawyer · July 29, 2015, 08:42:37 AM

Quote from: WDH on July 29, 2015, 07:25:10 AM
You better get cracking.

Better hope the wood don't get cracking...

Herb

yukon cornelius · July 29, 2015, 09:02:19 AM

That is a good job! you are going to have a heap of wood shavings after that!

Larry · July 29, 2015, 09:32:06 AM

Makes me tired just looking at all that lumber.

Glad its you and not me.

21incher · July 29, 2015, 01:59:14 PM

That should keep you busy for a couple of days. Are you doing all 4 edges.

hackberry jake · July 29, 2015, 03:47:57 PM

I am just doing the long edges. The biggest pile in the back is rough cut, the other three piles are 3",4", and 5" blanks ready for the shaper. There is 6 different species. Red oak, white oak, red maple, black locust, walnut, and elm.

GAmillworker · July 29, 2015, 10:07:17 PM

That's a lot of work to do on a shaper.

Is there not any small molding operations near you?

We run quite a bit of flooring and 2k sqft in those widths is around 8k LnFT of material. With our molder we do all four sides at one time and it would take an 8 hr day to run that material.

If we were processing it like we do the rest of our flooring with cutting ends square and bundling that would take another 8hr day. This is what ours looks like bundled usually in packs of five.

hackberry jake · July 29, 2015, 10:59:04 PM

A lot of this is low grade with pith cracks and large knots that need to be cut out. Also large crooks and quite a bit of cupping. There is a lot of hand work. I spent most of the day today jointing one edge straight and ripping to width. I set up two table saws, one for 5" widths and one for 3" widths. I saved all the 4"ers and re-set one of the saws for 4" and ran them. I am beat!

Tomorrow will be face jointing and planing....... :

mesquite buckeye · July 30, 2015, 12:23:36 AM

Are these for separate floors or will they be mixed up on one floor job? ??? ??? ???

hackberry jake · July 30, 2015, 03:28:55 AM

They will all be on the same floor... Well it's a two story house so I guess I'll be two floors

mesquite buckeye · July 30, 2015, 11:18:13 AM

That's gonna be one fabulous floor. ;D

We'll be needing pictures. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

hackberry jake · July 30, 2015, 03:44:19 PM

I set up the feeder on the jointer for face jointing all of the flooring blanks. It took a little bit to get it set just right. The first time I had the wheels parallel to the bed. But the indeed table is lower than the outfeed resulting in the first wheel barely grabbing the material. I then angled the leading edge of the feeder slightly downward. This resulted in the center wheel having the most down pressure, which worked out really good. I have seen other YouTube videos of feeders on jointers but most put all three wheels over the outfield table. I tried to use minimal pressure to keep the feeder from bending the blanks straight as it went over the jointer.

https://youtu.be/9y7GMYT124U

And then into the planer.
https://youtu.be/HhdNA1gWaNM

WDH · July 30, 2015, 08:56:01 PM

That planer is really hogging off the wood. How much are you taking per pass?

hackberry jake · July 30, 2015, 10:03:21 PM

Quote from: WDH on July 30, 2015, 08:56:01 PM
That planer is really hogging off the wood. How much are you taking per pass?

Close to 1/4" per pass (or at least in the high spots) on some of the boards. And some of the boards aren't cleaning up at 3/4". The thickness of these boards vary quite a bit. The owner of this lumber knows there is a lot of thickness variation. He quit using this particular sawyer and started using Larry. I didn't get any of Larry's lumber, but I'm sure it is much tighter tolerances. I wish I would have gotten his lumber so I could give him a hard time though ;D

YellowHammer · July 31, 2015, 12:00:03 AM

You've really got it going on 8) and congratulations with the big order.
Nice everything, and those "old iron" planers can really chew the wood.

You're missing the trailer with most of the chips ;D

How much of a curve can you joint out?

Thanks

Brad_bb · July 31, 2015, 12:48:18 AM

Is it all Hackberry? ;D

hackberry jake · July 31, 2015, 04:00:56 AM

Quote from: YellowHammer on July 31, 2015, 12:00:03 AM

How much of a curve can you joint out?

Thanks

That depends on the length. If it is a long board with severe curve, you will eat up then ends to where they are too thin. That same board cut in half will come out just fine.

Quote from: Brad_bb on July 31, 2015, 12:48:18 AM
Is it all Hackberry? ;D

Mainly oak. Some other species mixed in. The red maple is especially hard and especially beautiful!

VTwoodworker · July 31, 2015, 05:56:01 AM

What horsepower do you have on the planner? I picked up a PM180 similar to yours and I want to replace the 3 phase motor with a single phase one. The three phase motor is 5 HP and I am curious if I could replace it with a 3 HP.

Your planner looked really good sizing the flooring and I would like to be able to match that performance.

Thanks

Wayne

hackberry jake · July 31, 2015, 10:42:57 AM

It is a 3 hp single phase machine. It is rated for a 7.5 hp motor, and I was planning on putting a bigger motor on it, but the three horse works fine so I think I will leave it be.

mesquite buckeye · July 31, 2015, 12:07:26 PM

It might groan if you go full width and hard. Or have you already tried that? ;D

hackberry jake · July 31, 2015, 02:11:55 PM

If these boards were 12" or wider, I'm sure the planer would fall to its knees with a 1/4" pass. If I start getting a lot of planer work that's over 12" wide in hardwood, I will upgrade the motor. For know it works fine. I used to have a 5hp 18" woodmaster planer and this 3hp seems much more powerful... I don't know why. I think the cutter head might be slowed down in the woodmaster to make it safer to run molding knives.

hackberry jake · August 02, 2015, 08:42:43 PM

Put in over 9 hr's today preparing the 3" blanks and then tongue and grooving them. I will be dropping them off around noon tomorrow and picking up some more blanks.
The truck looks pretty loaded down.

yukon cornelius · August 03, 2015, 09:49:59 AM

That is great! it looks to be going good

Larry · August 03, 2015, 11:26:38 AM

Cool! Are you half way there yet?

I went to an auction Saturday. Two 5 head Wenig moulders sold for $100 each. Not much risk buying a machine that will part out/scrap for 20 times the purchase price. The real buy was the Weinig 6 head Unimat in ready to run condition. Sold for $3,600. If one had a old poultry house with 3 phase power....