Refried Beams

[jclvsall]

Hello FF!  Been a while since I posted.  I keep up with y'all though.

I have found a new project.  The first few loads of quite a few loads of barn beams arrived today.  I have even gotten to hook up the resaw attachment.

When I got to work friday we were to start cutting the 3 foot lengths of structural timbers, ie 2x4's 2x8's 2x10's etc.

These are reclaimed timbers from old buildings and barns.  The task is to slice a 1/2" thick slice off the exterior.  

When I arrived Dave says "we have problems we found nails in the timbers that were "denailed".  The metal detector rings in nail holes as well as nails.  I assume due to 100 years of rusting into the wood enough iron remains to set off the detector.

This means I am hitting nails left and right.

I am coming up with more questions than answers in my quest to find a blade to use.  As I research I am just ordering the cheapest blade I can find to get going.

Has anyone been down this road?  Any thoughts

I will add more pics later in the week of the Baker resaw attachment in action.


Brian

[Andries]

. . . .I am coming up with more questions than answers in my quest to find a blade to use.  As I research I am just ordering the cheapest blade I can find to get going.

Has anyone been down this road? . . . .

I know that Jake Dean has been milling "metal" logs - logs that were rejected from very large mills with sensitive metal detectors.
@customsawyer has become a pro at knowing when to sharpen and when to toss a band into the recycle bin.
Maybe he'll chime in?

[WLC]

No help on the metal, but some of those beams look to be hand hewn.  What a shame to resaw that history.  I bet someone would pay good money for some of that stuff as is.

[Nomad]

     I do a fair amount of work for a company that sells reclaimed lumber.  I'm quite familiar with "denailed" beams.  The owner is as well.  When she found out each metal strike cost her $25 her workers immediately became much more skillful at finding nails.
     Her clients like the hand hewn look.  Sometimes I'll split one lengthwise, or maybe just cut an inch or so off the face they choose to make a skin.

[customsawyer]

I agree with the others. The last thing I would be doing is taking ½" off of those. Split them yes. Their value is in the rustic look that they have. Rustic is hot right now and everyone of these customers will become a future customer to sell some nicer lumber to later. Right after the wife tries to get a spiderweb off of that "rough look". ;)
As to the blades to use I recommend old blades. I also resharpen them to a lower profile, usually a 4/30. This gives you a much lower tooth height. I don't change the blade every time it hits metal. If it is just leaving a line where the tooth was damaged but cutting straight, I just keep sawing. I'm also making timbers for a bulldozer to drive on, not lumber for someones house. Huge difference.

[Brad_bb]

My tip, buy a Garrett hand held security wand metal detector.  Then de-nail them again.  Use a drill with 1/8" bit to drill around broken off nails to loosen them.  Then use the Apex/Crescent nail puller you can buy on Amazon(old time nail puller). A dremel with grinding stone to re-sharpen the teeth as needed when you chip them. Keep needle nose vice grips handy as well as needle nose pliers, a few size of cats paw, hammer, 1/2 inch chisel that you don't mind damaging and resharpening.  Keep a compressed air blower handy to blow dust away as you drill.  

The first job I did with my sawmill was reclaimed beech beams.  My buddy and I spent 2 months denailing 120 beech beams from a factory.  We thought we were thorough.  We were pretty thorough.  We sawed the outside skin off the beams to go form twisted 10x10's down to straight 8x8's.  We still hit some nails, or rather broken off nail bits, but It wasn't two bad.  We probably went through 2 boxes of bands, hitting nails with half of them.  The dirt on the outside dulled bands quickly too.  It was worth it.  You will not get them all, but you should get most.

[jclvsall]

Thanks for the thoughts and wisdom.

Brad bb is the Garrett handheld less likely to catch nail rust debris than my regular Garrett metal detector?  

I like the dremel and vice grip idea.

As for "what I would do" with these beams I am doing what the money dictates in this instance.  The pallets of short blocks will be used for "dirty plank" paneling and cabinetry.  It seems a pretty smart use of those short chunks to me.  Not sure what they will do with the long beams yet.  I do know they want the hand hewn skin off of some of them to use for the look.

Here are some pics of the finished product from our test run last week as well as the resaw attachment for the 3665.



 

 

 

 

[Brad_bb]

I've never had a regular treasure hunting type of metal detector, but I'm guessing they are more sensitive.  We have holes with rust from a rotted nail and it either doesn't pick it up or so faint that you can tell the difference.
I'm using the Garrett super scanner V like this one.
Robot Check

[jclvsall]

The wand metal detector was the trick.  It is way less sensitive so ot only picks up actual nails.  Thanks a bunch!!!  That will extend my blade life tremendously.

Brian

[jclvsall]

Well we got 2 pallets worth of chunks denailed.  Here are the promised baker resaw attachment videos.

This is the crew working on the first 1000 feet of skins.

Dropbox - 20180320_112104.mp4

Dropbox - 20180320_125000.mp4

We only hit about half a dozen nails today using the wand.  

Brian

[treecyclers]

Good looking stuff Brian! I'll have to swing by later this week and drool on some of that stuff!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Not meaning to rain on anybody's picnic here but except for very rare and extinct species (Wormy chestnut is common here) I find it hard to understand why anyone would be sawing these old nail ridden beams into boards. Am I that far out of touch and there is really that big a market for boards from them? What is the primary use/market for them? 

   I have a log barn (background on my Avatar) we tore down and rebuilt and lots of those logs were almost feather light and I can't believe they are structurally sound for heavy duty projects. 

   I can understand splitting them into halves to use as decorative siding on some high end project but just cutting them into boards befuddles me. 

   Those in the know - please educate me here.

[jclvsall]

WV Sawmiller.  You hit the nail on the head... the entire thing is a contract job.  I dont have to move any product from this.  My customer is building said project.

Simple as that

   

  I can understand splitting them into halves to use as decorative siding on some high end project  

Wouldnt be doing it otherwise I can guaranteeee you that.  It is a pain.  But much better now that I got the wand as suggested here.
Brian

[Magicman]

Taking the 4 sides (skins) off of beams and using them for wall paneling is really not that unusual.  Restaurants, etc. pay big bucks for them, much more than the solid beams could be sold for.  It's all about marketing.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Oh, sort of like a Joe's Crab Shack where they decorate everything inside with old used clapboard siding and rusty corrugated roofing. 

   After you cut all 4 sides off, I assume to get the hewed portion, what do you do with the remaining core? Is there a use or market for it?

[Magicman]

Don't know but the 4 sides seem to be worth more than a solid beam in some markets.

[jclvsall]

I knew the gentleman who won the contract to tear down the old JP Stevens textile mills in Roanoke Rapids NC.  Where the story told in Norma Rae took place.  

He let us build a hanger for a project plane in the office wharehouse.  He was tearing all those old factory buildings down for the floors.  They were just square beams solid across each floor.  They bolted the machinery to them.

He hauled all the beams to somewhere down in Mississippi to clean and saw them.  Much of that was first cutting timber.

It took years.  

There has to be some serious market for it to pay that kind of man hours.  

Brian

[Kbeitz]

I was in that factory... They had some BIG A$$ beams....

[Don P]

There is quite a market for that kind of recycled wood, very often the story is worth more than the wood could ever be "sell the sizzle not the steak". Thomas Edison's laboratory floor is close by. I always wonder what he spilled on it :D

[moodnacreek]

Had 2 customers over the years that where into the barn beam/board business. They both bought wood miser's because you never have the size beams some body will buy.  It's not much different with new sawn beams. Another thing with the newbe's is they only want square beams, no rectangles .

[Sixacresand]

This week I have accumulated several circular bladed saw mark skins I milled off off old timbers.  I also have a dozen or so nail dulled blades to prove it.  

[jclvsall]

I was in that factory... They had some BIG A$$ beams....

Ok Kbeitz.  Now I am curious.  What were you in Roanoke Rapids for?  And yes they were huge.  I want to say they were 16x16s.  One old boy didnt take instruction well and kept going in with the bobcat and trying to pry them off the ibeams overhead.  He didnt want to wait on the crane.  Well one day one came down on him but first and nailed him to the seat.  He lived but I think it was without legs.
I see you are in Millville PA.  We used to kick Millvilles butt in soccer when I was in high school!!!  :D  just kidding.  grew up In Sullivan County Pa.
Brian

[Kbeitz]

There is not to many Textile buildings that I haven't been in in the eastern part of USA. My family was big in textile. We was mostly in elastics and bindings. I still own a textile machine shop. The textile trade pretty much left the states. This is a picture of some of the beams in Stevens mills.

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