Hello! Friendly reclaimed furniture man back for round two!

I am not sure if Instructables read my last post and decided to start a "Trash to Treasure" contest to sucker me into milling more of the fence posts I used in my first post on making a Mid-Century Modern Desk. Regardless, they succeeded in getting my to write my second instructable detailing a little more on how I turned those weather worn posts into furniture.

So, without further ado, let me teach you how you can also turn reclaimed wood, whether it be firewood in your backyard or fence posts (like me) into beautiful S4S lumber! All with tools that are found in most home wood shops.

Supplies

Recommended:

Don't do it - just go out and buy finished lumber
Seriously, it's kinda a pain in the butt if you go down this route...

Okay, here are some supplies:

Table saw
Plywood
Toggle Clamps
Screws + Drill

Optional:

Bandsaw
- Make sure it has enough depth cut to accommodate your wood.
Patience

Step 1: Evaluating Your Wood

Reclaimed wood can run the gambit of being everything from a nail studded 2x4 that more resembles a porcupine than lumber to fairly clean pieces of former framing studs.

For myself, I came across these fence posts from the 1800's via a Craigslist posting. That's original old growth redwood we're talking about! Being fence posts, that meant they were out in the weather for 5 generations and also riddled with fence staples and nails.

If your wood is reclaimed, know that you might need to spend hours pulling and chiseling out nails. If it's painted and pre-1970's, beware of lead as well!

Make sure that the value of the wood is worth the effort required to rehabilitate it. I.e. NOT pallet wood (kidding, not kidding).

Step 2: Prepare the Wood

As I mentioned, my fence posts were riddled with old nails, rusted barbed wire, and other metal. The first step in getting them ready for processing is ol' fashion elbow grease and a metal detector.

A metal detector isn't 100% necessary, but if you are dealing with wood that is particularly thick, it definitely saved me from ruining a couple $30 saw blades.

If you are one of the few lumberjacks reading this to learn how to mill logs/firewood into lumber, I would recommend that you split a little off to create some flat surfaces as shown in the photo.

Step 3: Jointer Jig (Table Saw)

There are many great and better documented videos on how to make jointer jigs. I am a simple man, and a novice woodworker. I prefer simple things. So while there are super customizable designs that allow you to taper legs, I found this video to the be most straight forward.

The idea is simple. You take the manufactured edge of a piece of plywood and use that as a "guaranteed" straight edge for rip cuts on your table saw. Glue/screw down another piece on top, attach some clamps, and now you can rip cut straight edges to remove curves in your wood. This is because your rip fence will be following the straight line of your plywood rather than the bumpy surface of your irregular lumber.

Note: If you are trying to cut logs into lumber, you might need to modify things depending on height. The easiest solution I have seen is to surround the log and have a spot where you can drive a screw into it to hold it steady.

Step 4: Jointer Jig (Bandsaw)

After milling FAR too many fence posts on the table saw, I decided to purchase a bandsaw. Least this way I could make one cut instead of two on the thicker sides of the post.

For this, I decided to go with a much simpler design. I simply cut a piece of plywood 1/2" shorter than the width left of my saw blade and screwed a backboard on that baby! This design is less durable, but considering I don't plan on becoming a 1-person lumber mill, it would get me through the project.

Step 5: Milling/Jointing

Milling is the process of making logs into lumber. Jointing is giving wood a straight, flat, edge. By using these jigs, you technically are accomplishing both! #twoinone

If you are using a table saw:

Shim your piece to eliminate movement with cutting
Align your piece to trim off undesired sections
Cut!

If you are using a band saw:

Screw piece onto sled to eliminate movement
Attach/clamp fence if your saw lacks one
Cut!

If you have a thicker piece and using a table saw, a square can help you align your two cuts. This is where you see having a bandsaw could be handy! As otherwise you have to spend a lot of time trying to be square and doing double the cutting!

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat

After you make cut two edges of the lumber, you can then use those as reference edges for the third and fourth. Since they are already flat/straight, this means you don't have to use the jig's anymore!

After which, your lumber should go from that dirty post on the left to some clean S4S lumber on the right!

Step 7: Build Some Things!

Now that you know how to clean up wood, go out there and create! Maybe look at some of my other posts. Like some endtables for an easier project or my mid century modern computer desk plans? Not that I would ever self promote or anything...