[Darby]

Hello Everyone

Never posted or used a chat room in my life a little intimidated. My name is Anita (log in name was already taken). My husband and I are buiding a home. We cut our maple trees down and took them to our local lumber mill had them cut to board lengths and kiln dried. We have 4 dimentionally squared (S4S) the boards and are now ready to tongue and groove. The final finish is 5" wide boards 5/8" thick (for the ceiling) and 3.5" wide boards 3/4" thick (for the floor). We were advised to go 3/4" thick but we eliminated some waste by going with 5/8" thick on the wider planks. Some of the planks you can see the rough still (less than 5/8" thick) these will go on the ceiling as I mentioned. My husband says we will put the bad looking side down. My concern is that once its tongue & grooved on the ceiling can it warp if it is not perfectly squared? Also we stacked our boards and just kept working away. Should I tongue and groove the boards right away? We will not install until late next fall. Also any reccomendations on process for tongue and grooving would be really appreciated. We have never used a router. Should we be clamping the pieces etc. The boards range from 1 foot in length to 10 feet. If I should be posting in a different forum please advise. We have been working on this since last fall. It is unbelievably hard physical labor and I don't want to make any mistakes at this point.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone.
Thanks for your input!

 

[challagan]

Wow, sounds like you got a lot of boards to process. Welcome to the forum. This will be a whole lot of work for a router. 10 ft will definitely be go long for a router table safely. I think at this point I would consider taking the boards to a mill shop and have them tung and groove them or invest in a shaper instead of a router and table to do the work. Some others may have some other ideas but that is what sticks out in my mind.

Corey

 

[Joe Lyddon]

Hi Anita & hubby...

W e l c o m e . . A b o a r d !!

Sounds like you're having fun in this section of your life! Yes, one day you will look back at this time and say "Wasn't that real FUN doing that?!"

I'm not an expert, but the Shaper came to my mind also... for that much work!

There was a similar thread posted not too long ago... maybe someone can find it...

You will get help here...

Enjoy!

 

[Darby]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Had a chuckle earier reading about a gentleman his wife was complaining about sawdust where she stores her clothes. I have 3 rooms in my house filled with lumber in various stages. In the end I will have about 1000 square feet of flooring. This was my bright lightbulb idea and everyone we know thinks we are crazy. I must accomplish this for us and to prove to others that we can achieve this. I know it will be beautiful in the end. I was warned by people in our local lumber industry to mark and count our pieces unfortunately there is only one company in the area that will tung and groove. Normally I would not argue over a few pieces of missing lumber but my husband cut the trees. We made 9 trips to the mill to drop off the logs and 4 trips back for pick up. We then brought 460 pieces into our home and have spent the last month working in the garage squaring the lumber. So yes if one piece went missing in this instance I would be upset. I have to do the tung and grooving. I don't know what a shaper is. We have a sears craftsman router and the tung and groove bit. You mentioned that 10foot length can be a safety issue. Do I have the wrong tool for this?

 

[challagan]

Hmmm...... Anita, you will need a router table and a router both. You will need a 3 HP router to do this work. The Shaper.... see this link:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G1035

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G4792

 

[bobj3]

Hi Darby

" late next fall "

I suggest you do is go and get a banding tool (plastic or steel strap) and bundle the stock up so you can pick it up and move it to a corner until next fall then in the mean time buy a shaper, 3/4HP should do the trick ( a hand router will Not do the job) or you can buy a router table setup with a new router and you a looking at about 500.oo to 650.oo for the setup.

The wood needs to put to one side then when your are ready for it put in the T & G but only do a bundle at a time.
Once the wood is out of the bundle it will bow,bend,warp out of shape and all the work you have done will be for not.

Banding Tool ▼
This is the I one recommend it has all the parts you will need plus some.
NOTE***if you use the steel banding besure to use cardboard under the banding on the edges, this will help and will not break the edge off and keep the black marks off the stock.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Steel-Strapping...ryZ67007QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://search.ebay.com/banding-tool_W0QQfromZR40

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ww...ls&operator=prodIndexRefinementSearch&L1=Band
-------------
http://www.grizzly.com/products/g0510z
http://www.grizzly.com/products/searchresults.aspx?q=Shaper+cutters&submit.x=8&submit.y=5
--------------------

Have Fun, it will be fun JOB if you get the right tools

Bj

 

[AxlMyk]

My Bro/Sis-in-law did the same thing with their home.. Only it was with pine..
A couple tips:
Go with the shaper and finger boards for the tongue and groove
Put felt under the floor boards to prevent squeaks
WEAR GLOVES when installing your new maple on the ceiling/walls.. The oils from your skin will mark the wood, and you will NEVER get the finger prints off it..

 

[Mike]

Anita, welcome to the forums. No doubt that you have picked a tough project. You can reach your goal, but perhaps other options might work better? Please consider the fact that pre-finished flooring has advanced to the point where it is super simple to install and has a finish more durable than anything you can do at home. Your maple would build an awful lot of nice furniture to furnish your home too. These things having been said, if you are still determined to continue here are some ideas which might assist you: When routing large amounts of flooring or moulding it pays to set up a special table to hold your router. I would start with the top being 15" wide by 8' long. I would build this from 3/4" baltic birch plywood and cover it on both sides with Formica. Build a simple frame from 2x4's using either half lap joints or pocket hole screws. Make the height of the table 5-10" below your elbows. This will give you a stable, smooth work surface for your stock to move on and be supported. Next you need to install a mounting plate in the table top. I would measure in 18" from the right side and center the plate from front to back. The Oak Park mounting plate is 11x11" and perfect for this application. Cutting this much flooring in hard maple will require a minimum 2-1/4 HP router and I strongly suggest a 3-1/4 HP model. Priced at $219 on sale the Triton is a best value but I prefer the Bosch 1619. I would go with the best quality bit set for making the tongue and grooves, Whiteside. Whiteside outperformed all other bits in the most recent comparison testing and are priced competitively. Build a fence from your 3/4" baltic birch plywood that is 36" long x 8" high. This will allow you to easily clamp a fingerboard in place to keep the material down to the table as it passes the bit. You will also want to clamp another fingerboard to the table to hold the material to the fence so you get a nice uniform cut. You can easily build a small vacuum connection on the back of your fence and hook it to your shop vac. This is a good idea even if you will be working outside since it will pull most of the debris away from the table and help prevent the chips from building up and causeing problems. Your fence once properly aligned with the bit can be bolted through the table top so it stays secure. These bolt holes should be 1-1/2" from each end. This set up will provide good support and control as you are routing the edges and by using the dimensions given will allow you to re-use the top as a Router Workshop table with some modification when done. I love not wasting material. If you have any questions on this please feel free to ask.