Making Own My Floorboards

OK. I'm a newbie, both on this forum and in the wonderful world of woodworking!

I am about to start building a strawbale house near Armidale NSW. I live on a small farm and managed to mill some stringybarks (which needed to be removed) into 160 square metres of 6"x1" boards which I want to use as floorboards. I can get them professionally dried at the local mill, and DAR and tongue and grooved as well. However, I am playing with the idea of dressing and t&ging them myself. The reason being that they do seem to be a bit unequal in thickness and the local mill wants them uniformly thick.
What do people think? Doable? Are a thicknesser and spindle moulder the best machines for the job, or should I be looking at a combination machine? Should I forget the whole thing?
If you're mildly interested, you can see the blog for the whole project, including pics of the boards at http://web.mac.com/spennywenny3/Spen...e/Welcome.html
I'm looking forward to some insight on this, if anyone can help. Ta.
:roll:

160 square metres of flooring is over 1200 lineal metres of flooring so its going to take you quite a long while to do it. The mill will probably use a 6 sided moulder and it'll go through pretty quick.

Doing it with a thicknesser means each board may have to go through a few times to get to uniform thickness. The blades will likely need sharpeing after 50 to 100 metres of cutting so that will slow you down further.

Then when you do the t&g each board will have to go through the spindle moulder at least twice. You need a feeder on the moulder so add that cost into your sums.

Did the mill give you an estimate of the cost and if so, how does it compare to doing yourself, including the cost of any equipment you may need to buy?

Remember to factor in the time it will take and the risk of damaging some of the boards before you decide to DIY.

Having said that, I would probably still do it, but that is me.

Good luck...Your are going to need it.:2tsup:

Manufacturering T&G flooring with a 10 head Weinig moulder is hard enough. Let alone with a thicknesser and spindle moulder.

Here's what I'd do.

Sell the 6 be 1 inch Stringybark boards. Boards like that, once dried, would be excellent being utilized as furniture and other woodwork projects.

With the dough you get from the Stringybark planks go and purchase the amount of flooring you need, either recycled or new, depending on your taste.

This will gain many benefits all 'round.

**Some woodworker would be delighted to have boards that size (6" x 1") to be creative with.

**You will free up your time doing something much more productive towards your house building goals, other than the tricky task of trying to make floorboards.

**If what your proposing to do in regard to making floor boards, doesn't work out as well as you might of hoped, will put a dampener on your enthusiasm, which in turn, will have a negative flow on effect due to a drop in confidence, making you less likely to tackle other jobs as you proceed to build.

Start with simple tasks and build on your successes. Don't take on more than is necessary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dusty

Here's what I'd do.


Start with simple tasks and build on your successes. Don't take on more than is necessary.

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might nice way of putting it...

cheers utemad

Thanks, Make It Work. I suspect that the mill is much cheaper - about $275 per cubic metre. You don't end up with the nice tools at the end, though!

Thanks, Dusty. I suspect you're right, and I'm likley to just go to the mill. However, I haven't been thrilled with the service or attitude I found there so I thought I'd look at alternatives.
I'm keen to use these boards as they have come from my property, and I think there'd be something nice about walking on boards that grew about 200m from the house!

Hi spennywenn and welcome (we're almost neighbours I reckon - our place looks west towards the Pinnacles).

Who did you get to mill the boards initially?

If it was me I would give my best effort for a couple of hours and then just give up.

I have all the tools in the world to do the job and I don’t normally give up easily. BUT...

Good luck mate.

This happened 2 years ago.

My neighbour had 500 linear metres of ironbark decking board which he wanted to split into 2. He got a quote from the shop for around $300. I thought I have a good tablesaw, dust extractor and a good rip blade. It is too easy, I would help a neighbour, no worries.:2tsup:

Got to his place one night to load up the wood. Wow! 500m of ironbark is a lot.:oo: Spent the next 30 mins to load up some of it, got to my shed.

2 of us spent 2 hours and just managed to do just 10%. We gave it up after the first night. It just wasn’t going to work. He ended up getting it done at the shop.

And I had to sharpen my saw blade.

G'day, Vernon.
I reckon you're right about neighbours - we have a place just off the Bundarra Road just near Blackfellow's Gully and have a you beaut building site overlooking Mt Yarrowyck, the Pinnacles etc.
Mike Ryan did the milling for me, and he's just about a neighbour as well - just other side of pinnacle. Had a fairly decent sized Lucas Mill do the job.

Thanks, Wongo. Sounds like my style as well, except that I'd probably break the blade, stuff the boards I was working on and end a beautiful friendship.

Sad thing is, I'm still tempted to try it!

Go with your heart brother. You only live once.

But you've been warned.:U