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Oak Harwood Flooring

Started by BC Woodworks, January 17, 2008, 12:18:11 PM

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BC Woodworks

I plan on milling some oak flooring on my Woodmaster planer/molder and Delta shaper. The long sides will be fairly easy to put the tongue and groove on. What is the best way to cut the tongue and groove for the ends. How about the relief on the back side of the board? Any comments will be helpful. Thanks Brad.

beenthere

Quote from: BC Woodworks on January 17, 2008, 12:18:11 PM
........ What is the best way to cut the tongue and groove for the ends. ? ........

Biscuits....
south central Wisconsin
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Larry

Some mills say the tongue and groove is not required for narrow strip flooring...definitely required for wider strips.  I put biscuits in the end to be extra safe...just as beenthere suggested.

For the back relief I cut ordinary knife steel as wide as you want your relief.  I put in three knives and use the standard gibbs...but I'm using a Belsaw.  I do the same on my casing also.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

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metalspinner

I just finished cutting hundred's of bisquit slots in the 5" - 7" wide flooring that teenswinger milled for me.  It takes just a few seconds per board.  I put 2 #20 slots in the 7" and 2 #10 slots in the 5".  There is plenty of lateral movement in the bisquit slots to align the board edges easily. :)
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

Don_Papenburg

I have used two sawblades in the table saw  to cut reliefs .   Put a spacer between the blades and make straight passes on each side to center a set of four cuts .  Or you can run the boards diagnal and make a wide crowned relief.
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

Handy Andy

  You said you have a woodmaster.  Don't know why you couldn't set up to do the relief with that.  I got the shelix style head, have the 3 blade cutterhead, wouldn't be hard to cut some short pieces of blade and set that up to do relief cuts.  Just have to do them on 3/4 stock before making the molding cuts for casing, should work great on the flooring.  Know a guy who makes flooring, he doesn't concern himself about the ends.  Just cuts them square.  Biscuits should work great if you think you need them.  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

woodmills1

The flooring I have made was put down without end cut T and G.  To make very square cuts make sure all of the boards are cut facing the same way on your chop saw.  For instance, groove toward fence, cut right hand end with board to left, then slide it to the right and cut left hand end.  Most chop saws will be just out of square, but this mathod will make all cuts be parallel and so they will butt up tight.  Alos make sure you rent the face nailer when you rent the flooring nailer.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

srt

I'm in the no need to t/g the end camp.  I was told by a flooring mill a while back that the t/r on the end was from way back when they didn't always lay a subfloor.  Don't know about that, but I can understand the logic.  If it were marrow boards (2 1/4) or less, I'd just do the butt thing.  For wider stuff, I'd want a biscuit just to help with the cupping thing .  I've made and laid a dozen or so floors, and never used the end match.

Faron

I have made floors both with and without end matching, and one with biscuits.  Those without are just as good as those with. If you are not real careful getting them made, the tongue and groove in the end will cause more trouble than it prevents.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Ben Franklin

Norm

Our floors have neither the tg ends our a relief backcut. They're 3 1/4"s wide and I've not had any trouble in any of them. If I was to go 5"s or more I'd suggest a end tg but the relief cut is unnecessary no matter how wide they are made.

I've read articles that suggest the relief backcut was more marketing than anything but keep in mind I don't warrantee my advice. :D

andybuildz

Its "almost" not worth making your own flooring. I guess it depends how much you need and how much time you have on your hands.
The thing is...cutting the T&G takes forever unless you have a substantial shaper.
You'll need to make at least  two passes to each side and the same for the relief cut for the back. the relief cuts aren't terribly important IMO if you have a dead smooth and even surface. the relief cut is more to help the boards to sit flat.

I installed on my own house ( http://www.cliffordrenovations.com/  (the Goose Hill Rd Project)
eastern white pine wide plank flooring with butt edges. No T&G or lap joints on any sides. I face nailed everything with rose head cut nails. Some rooms I glued and nailed them down to the subfloor (Advantech) just as an experiment to see what held best.
Other rooms I just nailed over red rosin paper. Its been several years now and nothing has moved, cupped or nuttin'. Looks perfect really.

I have a Williams and Hussey Molder shaper and have T&G cutter blades but I knew it just wouldn't be worth all my rime to do. I could go out and make more money doing what I do best and pay a shop to mill my flooring for me if need be....at least the large quantity I personally used. (about 3500 sq ft). sometimes it pays, sometimes not. In my case I needed no edging anyway : )

As far as the ends...like everyone said..you can use biscuits...probably the fastest and easiest. I'm thinking even construction adhesive would work but don't get sloppy with it....keep it low to the subfloor so it doesn't ooze out the top at all.
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"How people treat you is their karma, how you respond is yours"

solidwoods

End matching (T/G on the end).
North American Hardwood Flooring Assn says 2.25" gets end matched.
Plank flooring does not .
They define Pland as 3" wide and wider.

If you don't end match- Make a 1deg undercut on each end.  I like biscuits also.

To make your own flooring requires-
3 passes through the planer min.
Jointer 1 pass.
Table saw 1 pass.
Shaper 2 pass.  use a pwr feeder or holdowns on the shaper or the pattern will wander.

Is it worth it?  If you can woodwork and you need very much flooring  I'd say shoot Yes.  Especially if you are making wide and long rips (go price it).

Make extra and sell it to cover your cost?

I make "your logs to T/G flooring" $1.25 sq' been doing for yrs and people love it.
(I use a Weinig molder)
jim
Ret. US Army
Kasco II B Band mill
Woodworking since 83
I mill & kiln dry lumber, build custom furniture, artworks, flooring, etc.
If you mill, you'll be interested in some of my work in one way or another.
We ship from our showroom.
N. Central TN.

rbhunter

I do not know anything about tounge in grove flooring but I would think the tounge and grove on the sides would hold it in place because you would stagger the ends. Therefore the ends would not be able to move because you have a solid piece on each side.

Correct me if I am wrong or don't make sense.
"Said the robin to the sparrow, I wonder why it must be, these anxious human beings rush around and worry so?"
"Said the sparrow to the robin, Friend I think it must be, they have no heavenly father, such as cares for you and me."
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andybuildz

Quote from: rbhunter on February 08, 2008, 12:11:40 AM
I do not know anything about tounge in grove flooring but I would think the tounge and grove on the sides would hold it in place because you would stagger the ends. Therefore the ends would not be able to move because you have a solid piece on each side.

Correct me if I am wrong or don't make sense.
In theory that sounds right but the wide plank eastern white pine I put down several years ago has square edges and nothings cuped or bowed. Maybe a tiny bit of shrinkage but that had no significant effect on the flooring. Still looks great...and we're talking some planks that are about 20" wide-ish.
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"How people treat you is their karma, how you respond is yours"

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