This morning a friend of mine dropped off a load of free wood.
This is all Rimu from a kitchen refit on an old property. The builder was going to burn it but luckily my friend saved it for me. Included in this pile is a beam 7 inches wide by 3 inches thick and just over nine feet long! It will take a while to sort through but I have already dismantled the drawer boxes and thought I would share my process.
I don't have a table saw so I use a cordless circular saw and speed square to separate the drawer panels from each other.
After de-nailing, the scraps go into my kindling box or to await paint removal first. I run the drawer fronts through the bandsaw to remove the dovetail ends and the groove where the drawer bottom sits. I keep the drawer bottoms which tend to be cheap ply, hardboard or laminate although I don't often have a use for these.
This picture shows the cabinet sides with drawer runners. I wet one piece to show the beautiful colour.
Now, after de-nailing, I have a pile of scrollable pieces ready for milling on the planer thicknesser and sanding before use.
Obviously this has some splits and nail holes but I can often orientate the pattern to work around that.
I hope this helps somebody and inspires people to try reclaimed wood.
Rob