milling old barn beams

[redpowerd]

i have a fake beam id like to cover with the outside surfaces of an old hand hewed beam. ive used hewed rafter beams for floor supports and posts, i just couldnt find a beam long enough for what i needed, so i made one laminated. now id like to cover it to match the rest of the house. i know theres gunna be some hardware that i miss, what kind of band should i get to saw thru some hardware and still keep set to the end of the beam? i know im gunna tear some blades up, i think i want to cut the surface boards 2".
thanks

[craigc90]

 I have cut a bunch of salvaged barn timbers into lumber. try to pull as many of the nails as you can. Dont wory to much about hitting a nail. the old hand cut square nails are pretty soft and dont hurt the blade as much as you would think. I just use Simonds Redstreak blades. They seem to hold up good.

[Murf]

I did the same sort of thing for a buddies new house, but I cheated just a little bit. ;D

Instead of trying to cut slabs off the beam, I cut the center out of the beam using a chainsaw from the top. Basically I just cut a series of slits down the length of the beam, then snapped the pieces left off with a hammer. Once the beam was roughly hollowed out, and the nails had all been located, I cleaned out what was left with an angle grinder fitted with a chain carving disc.

The resulting 3 sided, one piece wood cover was then slipped over the glue-lam beam and stuck in place with Gorilla epoxy glue. No nail holes or seams anywhere.

It looks so real the building inspector almost made him cut into the wall to see the glue-lam, luckily he had pictures of the construction and the creation of the cover.  ;)

[redpowerd]

im sure ill want to salvage the rest of the beam, rather than shovin it in the woodstove. guess ill just get cuttin and see how it goes. im sure its gunna be super dusty. im just worried ill get hallfway down a 20' beam and not be able to finish the cut.
thanks