Milling Lumber

We have been busy milling lumber here the past few days.  My dad had a barn full of rough sawn maple that we picked up in a couple of loads.  Now, we purchase a lot of lumber from the sawmill and it is considered rough sawn too, but we found that some rough sawn is rougher than others!

My dad's maple comes from some trees a logger cut down for him.  They were rough sawn in the field with one of those chainsaw mills.  The pieces were curved in many directions and in all kinds of widths and thicknesses. 

We first had to cut the pieces at the curves and knots to end up with some straight and usable lumber.  Most of it was 10 feet long to begin with and some was 12 feet long. It was so rough that it had to be resawn to over 3/8 inch to get 1/4 planks.  It ranged in thickness from just under 3/4 inch to 1 1/2 inches.  The 3/4 inch boards planed smooth at 1/2 inch.

Most of the sawmill lumber we get is uniform in width and thickness and although it all has to be resawn and planed, the settings don't change a lot between pieces.  This wood we got from my dad was a totally different story.  Constant changes in settings for the equipment meant that processing this wood took a lot longer than normal.

I am happy to report that we are nearly through, and it is getting easier as we started with the worse pieces.  I am very happy to report that the finished product is beautiful.  This wood had been in his barn for 10 years or more and is absolutely dry.  It is very hard but it sands and works pretty good. We are exited to begin working with it.

Our first project will be our take on some very old asian style lunchboxes.  The small lunchbox will have three smaller boxes inside.  Two of these boxes are sandwich sized and they fit on top of a larger box.  This larger box is big enough to hold a drink and a banana.  These boxes are held in place by a sliding door.

The larger model will also have two sandwich sized boxes and a drink box.  In between these will be two boxes large enough for 2 sandwiches or an apple or orange.

The lunchboxes can be used for other things and one of our family members has requested a small one to carry a few extra diapers, wipes, and other baby stuff for a short outing.  Our son wants one for a toolbox for his smaller tools used to work on computers.

We will post some photos shortly.