I've been a little stressed out the last couple weeks trying to find wood for the countertops. You'd think it wouldn't be so hard to find sixteen used 2x6's, but after searching high and low, I just couldn't find enough of the same size boards to make it happen. Driving to Cart'M recycling on Sunday afternoon I decided to give it one final shot before I just gave up and bought some wood. Sadly, the wood racks were mostly barren, and so I'd pretty much surrendered to the idea of buying wood on Monday morning when a silver truck loaded to the axels with old 2x4's and 2x6s pulled in next to me.
The owner saw me eyeing his load and before I could say anything he offered, "I'll drive it all straight to your house if you want it?" It took me a minute to process and reply, "Hell yeah I want it!" Fifteen minutes later we unloaded over 100 2x4's, and he told me there was more where that came from. An hour later we were stacking another load, and an hour after that yet another. The source of our good fortune was an epic garage clean out which included all of this wood which originated from an old cottage his father had dismantled and painstakingly de-nailed, over 30 years ago!!
I'll admit, stacking a cottage of wood on a Sunday afternoon wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but how can you turn down something like that? So, with swimming and blackberry pie making both summarily cancelled, my long suffering girlfriend was put to work at 4pm planing board, after which we made the one seriously messy glue lam with a gallon of titebond II and every long clamp in the shop.
People might think I use salvage wood to save money, but the truth is working with scrap always takes longer and ends up costing more. So it must be better for the environment right? Maybe, if you don't have to drive it too far to get it sawn and sanded. The real reason I love salvage is because every project is a mini-adventure, a treasure hunt, an opportunity to overcome challenges and meet new people. These are the experiences that we miss when we go to the store and trade a buck for a product, and at the end of the day, after a hot shower, chewing on ribs in front of a roaring fire built from the off-cuts of the days milling, it's the stories we've collected and the places they lead us that make our lives meaningful.
The next step is to slice this giant block into 1 1/4" slices on a sawmill, and plane it down to 1" countertops. Then I need to figure out what to do with the rest of this wood!
The owner saw me eyeing his load and before I could say anything he offered, "I'll drive it all straight to your house if you want it?" It took me a minute to process and reply, "Hell yeah I want it!" Fifteen minutes later we unloaded over 100 2x4's, and he told me there was more where that came from. An hour later we were stacking another load, and an hour after that yet another. The source of our good fortune was an epic garage clean out which included all of this wood which originated from an old cottage his father had dismantled and painstakingly de-nailed, over 30 years ago!!
I'll admit, stacking a cottage of wood on a Sunday afternoon wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but how can you turn down something like that? So, with swimming and blackberry pie making both summarily cancelled, my long suffering girlfriend was put to work at 4pm planing board, after which we made the one seriously messy glue lam with a gallon of titebond II and every long clamp in the shop.
People might think I use salvage wood to save money, but the truth is working with scrap always takes longer and ends up costing more. So it must be better for the environment right? Maybe, if you don't have to drive it too far to get it sawn and sanded. The real reason I love salvage is because every project is a mini-adventure, a treasure hunt, an opportunity to overcome challenges and meet new people. These are the experiences that we miss when we go to the store and trade a buck for a product, and at the end of the day, after a hot shower, chewing on ribs in front of a roaring fire built from the off-cuts of the days milling, it's the stories we've collected and the places they lead us that make our lives meaningful.
The next step is to slice this giant block into 1 1/4" slices on a sawmill, and plane it down to 1" countertops. Then I need to figure out what to do with the rest of this wood!
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