Repurposing for materials a walnut and an oak table from a "junk shop".

[Tallbald]

It's been shared here that some scrollers among us repurpose abused, discarded and unwanted furniture as raw material for scrolling projects. With that in mind, my beloved wife Penny and I visited a "junk shop" and happened on these two unwanted pieces. The end table appears to be someone's old project and is made from a measured 14+ board feet of solid black walnut, a little over 3/4 inch thick. We paid $25 for it. The solid oak table looks like an early-to-mid-80's inexpensive designer style table popular as I recall back then. Measures out to over 5 board feet of solid oak almost 1 inch thick, for which we paid $20. Happy with the good luck. This makes walnut, cherry, oak, poplar and pine in our small library. Don.

[OCtoolguy]

Good find. Around where I live, even in that shape, I'd probably have to give $100 for the dresser and $50 for the table. Nothing comes cheap in So Cal unless you are on the dole. 

[Scrappile]

Great find and good for you.  As wood prices keep going up I will be doing this kind so thing also... I have my brother and Nephew scouting yard sales.  My nephew brought me a head board from a yard, all beautiful mahogany.  I still have a board and scraps from it.  He paid a couple bucks for it.

[Tallbald]

I just finished disassembling the oak table. All good and solid. Only things not usable to me were the short, rough corner braces with pocket hole screw holes up under the apron sides. I also salvaged about 1/4 pound plated, hardened steel Philips drive #12 wood screws, eight perfect 2 1/2 inch 1/4-20 slot head bolts and 8, 1/4-20 T-nuts. The walnut end table will be a little more ticklish. The maker hid screw heads under walnut dowel buttons glued and sanded flush. Some nails were also used to craft the piece and I'll need to take care disassembling as I study it for metal anything that would ruin planer blades. This is rewarding though for sure. Don.

[Norm Fengstad]

Great find and whatever you cut from the salvage there will be a nice history to it

[Tallbald]

I am not bragging here but rather want to show others maybe unfamiliar with rescuing or repurposing woods, just what a wealth sometimes can be found. I carefully disassembled the black walnut end table(?). It involved drilling out a dozen walnut dowel plugs to access slotted screws (so hatefully 1980's) and popping out some finishing nails. End result, remeasured with a tape measure which revealed over 23 board feet of 90%-95% usable walnut. And several square feet of nice 1/4 inch plywood. Large boards are 13/16 thick. WIsh I knew about the craftsperson who built this piece. Their work and design thoughts remind me of my own works in the 80's. No idea who they are or were but following my belief system I felt a desire to say a brief prayer for the craftsperson. If they are still with us a stranger's thoughts may be good. If they've moved on I want them to know I value their past skills and that they did well. Good things to everyone here and thank you for looking. Don.

[CharleyL]

You can do good repurposing lumber, but be careful to be certain that there is no metal left behind in the wood. Get a good metal detector and scan the wood carefully. Be careful of using old pallets, since some for overseas shipping are treated for bug infestations. Chemical spills from leaking cargo can get into the pallets too. Just be careful of your sources. I too repurpose wood, but I'm careful to avoid any that might be treated, have significant metal, or possible nasty chemical spills in them.

Avoid offers of old bowling lane sections. You won't believe how many nails are in them. There will be nothing useable after the nails are gone.

One of my best sources for short pieces of hardwoods are the drops from the ends of boards used by the furniture and kitchen cabinet industry. They frequently discard the last foot or two of boards to avoid cracks and damage. For small, possibly narrower pieces than the donor piece, you can sometimes do very well picking these up and re-sawing to smaller sizes. Make friends at the local cabinet and furniture shops and don't make a mess of their scrap bins. Leave everything tidy and better than you found it, and you will be welcomed back next time. They have to pay to get rid of this, so you are actually doing them a favor by taking it. No after hours visits either. Do them a favor in return by making their bins nice and tidy when you leave. 

Charley