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Machining prefinished salvaged wood.

Posted: Fri 27 May, 2022 9:01 am
by Not your average framer
I have various pieces of 3/4 inch think walnut from dismantling a side board, which was left in our flat by the previous tentant. It's really nice solid wood, but I have been tolds that the wood being previously finished with some sort of varnish is likely to blunt my planer blades and my router bits. I don't actually know if this is true, but if I am to glue this wood together to make display boxes and display cabinets, I will need to machine back the varnished sufaces to be able to create viable glue surfaces.

I don't want to use any visible fixings to construct these boxes and cabinets, so I am also thinking of using loose tenons as the method of contruction and maybe creating a template for routing the slots for the loose tenons. I am thinking of either using a Festool Domino Jointer, or alternatively just a normal router instead. I am still wondering if getting a basic Domino jointer might still be a more worthwile option as it could perhaps be used as an alternative to a Hoffman router by inserting hidden loose tenons inside mitred corner joints which are too deep to just join by underpinning.
Does anyone have any thoughts about this please,
Thanks,
Mark.

Re: Machining prefinished salvaged wood.

Posted: Fri 27 May, 2022 9:24 am
by vintage frames
A belt sander will shift all that old varnish. You could get one for around £50.

You're going off-piste again talking about a Festool Jointer. There's £600 -£700 just to join a few decorative corners.
What's wrong with 2 x band clamps and a bottle of good wood glue?

Re: Machining prefinished salvaged wood.

Posted: Fri 27 May, 2022 10:07 am
by Not your average framer
Hi Dermot,

The cheapest Domino Jointer I have been able to find in now about £850, but it is a fairly easy all in one solution. I fancy a hand held belt sander already and will very likely be getting one pretty sonn anyway as I want to be able to mount it as vertical sander, as this would be a great addition to my ongoing productivity and ease of working and flushing uo where deeper sides are added to cheap bare wood mouldings to produce deeper frames more easily than I currently produce them.

So yes, I like the Belt sander suggestion. Clarke make a really wide and powerful hand held trade belt sander, which I was already thinking of getting. I had not actually considered your suggestion, so thanks for a very helpful idea.
Thanks,
Mark.