Ever heard the saying "Good Ash Is Hard to Find!" ??? Well, it ain't true! You could buy it, but its expensive. You could by a kit, but they only make them for a few types of 1940s and earlier wagons. OR!!! TADA!!! You could scrounge it, legally! On another website, they politely call it Re-Purposing Wood. In another era, I used to own and run an upholstery repair shop. Way back in the late 60s. Never thought about the wood much. Later on, I owned and ran a clock factory (early 80s). Fell in love with Oak, Ash, Cherry, Walnut. I went to Home Depot to see what hardwood costs. A piece 1" X 1" X 24" of red oak was $9.95! I looked at a piece of Douglas Fir 3/4" X 3" X 96" - $32.95!!! My house is over 100 years old and full of real 2" X 4" Fir!!! A few years ago, we had a plague of child arsonists running around and starting fires in our backalley trash bins. The City asked people to call a free city service number to haul away old couches. Well, wouldn't you know that some SOB dropped one next to our big trash container (pickup is once a week). I'd just bought a new Bosch Sawzall, and went to chop it up, when I discovered that this 8' couch from the 1970s was loaded with Oak, Ash, Mahogany, Maple and even Walnut framing! I cut off the upholstery, took off the springs and removed the staples (usually on one side only) and ended up with over $400 of real, kiln-dried top grade hardwoods. So we had warm weather just before Christmas, and my neighbour wanted to cruise the alleys around here for some eclectic junk. I told him that I'd hook up my trailer and go with him. We only cruised 6 backalleys, on December 28, 2011, and made 3 trips to collect 8 of 20 old couches. Over $2,000 worth of hardwoods. Took me 3 days to clean it up and another day to make a wood rack in my basement, WHERE, it has air-dried back to kiln-dried humidity content of between 8 to 12%! I make shop jigs with the really rough parts and I needed 16 1-1/2" X 3/4" X 43-1/4" hardwood bullnoses for one set of stairs, and 13 for the other set of stairs. I'm getting good with my router, and almost brave enough to use my wagon's aluminum mouldings as templates for real wood mouldings. And I don't need to buy T-nuts for a year, to make jigs with! I think I'll do a monthly run near moving day once the weather warms up. Plus I got about $10 bucks in change from these old couches - paid for gas and the sawblade!
A great idea that I never thought about, Norm. I know that the old couches have that stuff in them but I never think about that when I see an old couch by the road! Can't say you aren't innovative! Good idea and good score!
Mike, I found some sites where kids back in the late 1800s were shown how to make drills, lathes and saws from backyard junk. It made me wonder why our youth today can't take this stuff and make a living, a good one, just reselling 'couch-wood' to hobbyists.
But gee dad, that sounds like work! It's hard to bend over and remove staples with my pants on the ground! I might miss a cell phone call.
There's a Christian group up here in the notorious Winnipeg North End, that formed a custom bicycle workshop for kids under 18. The cops would give them about 200 of the stolen, unclaimed bikes they collected over the year, before the annual auction so that about 100 kids could go and build themselves a custom, unmotorized HOG! Well it went in overtime, the next year, they had another 400 bikes and it became a winner program! Some of them got to working age and went to work as bodyshop and welding apprentices. The gangs couldn't recruit up here anymore. They moved downtown about 10 blocks North of Andy's upscale neigbourhood.
That's pretty neat info Norman. If I see an old couch laying around I'll have to investigate. Call? They don't actually talk nowadays. Just texts, emails and Facebook.
Watch for old Pianos too! A lot were made in solid 2" and 3" walnut, cherry, birch, and mahogany - especially the backs that supported the piano harp and the front legs. The really old ones had solid plank sides, fronts and tops. I see about 5 or 6 every month for FREE on the Kijiji site here in town.
Stormin Normin these are things we don't even think about. Sadly most of that good wood gets crushed and burned. My wife and I talked about this yesterday as I took her to her doc 50 miles away. At our ages that's about as wild as our conversations get. We don't remember seeing much junked furniture and never any pianos in trash. I am not good with wood projects anyway. The more I measure and cut the shorter the pieces get. I am good at making toothpicks and wood shavings. I don't even know what kind of hardwood they used at work to make new trailer floors in flatbead semi trailers. But they'd have roughly 12' by 2X2" pieces of scrap off trimmed boards on each trailer. I used these for new top bows on my Model T touring car. Around the seats where top and apholstery tacked, I used air dried river willow trees. Wet em, bent em, clamped em. Not everyone can afford high dollar custom cut stuff.
Remember that Jack Benny show? In one show another comedian (guest) tells the audience that Jack is so tight that when he opens his wallet, the moths fly out and mothballs roll out! Well I'm not cheap, or easy, just frugal! Necessity is the Mother of Invention, and I'm getting more creative every day!!!! I wonder if our governments will ever tax us for the freebies in Life???
I wonder if our governments will ever tax us for the freebies in Life??? If you make a profit off that free wood you owe the government income money. And you may need a license to dismantle and process it. Plus a special permit in case it is hazardous waste. And a special commercial license to transport products for resale. A salvage permit and disposal fee. A permit to store it in a residential neighborhood. An entertainment tax because you're having fun. :banghead3: Oh Rochester !!!-Yes Boss?
We don't have anything to worry about in the USA. They wouldn't do that to us. This is a free country. It's those Canadians who better be careful.
Well, I noticed a couple folks in the "Welcome Wagon" threads talkin' about their teardrop trailers. So I went diggin'. Check out these free plans! http://www.bobsteardrop.com/Other_designs.htm The Popular Science one is from a 1946 article! Free Wood, Free Plans, and for us folks with handskills and a few parts, the only tax, would be the license and State sales tax on a home-built trailer! Money doesn't grow ON trees, but FROM trees! I'm gettin' excited about the CouchWood!
