Turning oak floorboards into floating shelves

candor

Hi all,

I have some old oak floorboards (120mm 19mm T&G in various lengths) that I'd like to use for floating shelving. I have some hand and power tools (hand planes, drill, jig saw, circular saw, chisels etc) but nothing like a planer thicknesser or biscuit jointer. I'm trying to keep the cost low, hence using the boards I have.

How would you make them? I'm thinking of gluing a double layer of the boards together but I'd like to remove the laquer on the boards to leave a more natural looking finish.

Thanks!

recipio

candor wrote: »

Hi all,

I have some old oak floorboards (120mm 19mm T&G in various lengths) that I'd like to use for floating shelving. I have some hand and power tools (hand planes, drill, jig saw, circular saw, chisels etc) but nothing like a planer thicknesser or biscuit jointer. I'm trying to keep the cost low, hence using the boards I have.

How would you make them? I'm thinking of gluing a double layer of the boards together but I'd like to remove the laquer on the boards to leave a more natural looking finish.

Thanks!

Save yourself all the hassle and buy some planed softwood. You will find better use for the oak down the line. If you still want to proceed I think you would want to invest in a ( cheap ) belt sander.Also a few clamps will help glue the boards on edge to stop them moving under weight.

timfromtang

candor wrote: »

Hi all,

I have some old oak floorboards (120mm 19mm T&G in various lengths) that I'd like to use for floating shelving. I have some hand and power tools (hand planes, drill, jig saw, circular saw, chisels etc) but nothing like a planer thicknesser or biscuit jointer. I'm trying to keep the cost low, hence using the boards I have.

How would you make them? I'm thinking of gluing a double layer of the boards together but I'd like to remove the laquer on the boards to leave a more natural looking finish.

Thanks!

Greetings candor,
To remove your lacquer you can use a mix of wallpaper paste and caustic soda (commonly sold drain cleaner is usually caustic read the label).
work outside
wear rubber gloves, wellies and apron, protective glasses (nooooo stingy caustic in my eye oouuuurrrrghhh :-( )
have a hosepipe to hand,
buckets, paste brush, scrubbing brush, stick for stirring, etc

Follow the precautions on the drain cleaner label concerning water and caustic as there will be considerable heat produced when the caustic is mixed with water.
Basically as i recall, put about a pint of water in a bucket, add caustic until no more will dissolve, add wallpaper paste and stir with a stick until a nice spreadable and sticky consistency is achieved.
lean your timbers against a wall and apply the caustic paste to the lacquered surface,
wait 20 mins,
test a section with your scrubbing brush and a bucket of water for lacquer softening,
wait 20 mins,
etc,
when your brush removes the lacquer and paste wait a further 15 mins or so and then hose off your planks down the drain (drain cleaner right!)
a good scrub with the scrubbing brush and a bucket of water should now remove the remaining bitteen of lacquer.
the planks should now be stacked in a stickered stack somewhere inside to dry off.
Refinishing the surface will be necessary to a degree, however I have found that a quick scrape with a nice sharp cabinet scraper will often be fine when refinishing after paintstripping.
cabinet scraper is cheap, durable, effective, hand tool, imho :-)



Go for it with the hand plane when it comes to flattening the timber for gluing, you just need a good solid surface to support your board whilst planing and a sharp edge.


tim

candor

Thanks folks for the replies - In the end I went for birch ply shelves framed with iroko, turned out nice. I'll save the oak boards for a smaller project that doesn't require as much laminating.