Planing and Ripping.... Making Dimensional Wood....

I've been working on the trailer only 1 day and an evening or two each week as the weather is cold and wet... I covered the trailer with plastic and then a tarp to keep the water leaking into the shed away but still I worry about the moisture in the air. It seems fine but I am anticipating the weeks of cold sunny weather typical in January so I can pull her outside and weather proof the shed a bit.

So as I rebuilt the front of Katrina it became abundantly clear how inferior lumber is today as compared to the 50's when this trailer was manufactured. Because all the original 2x2 and 2x4 framing is nearly 1/4" larger then what is available now the front of our trailer is 5/8" narrower then original.  That really isn't much but was enough to require a lot of trimming to fit original parts back in...it will be interesting to see what affect it will have when I reinstall the outer skin.

So I "invested" in a sizing planer and bought some reclaimed rough cut 2x4's from a building material recycling center.  Then I planned them down and ripped them to the proper dimension.  The wood is clear and really too beautiful to use as framing material... The cost for 5 2x4's (with nails and some imperfections) was less then the big box variety which I don't ever plan to use again.

Here are the photos....

The Planner I bought...nice and adequate for my use

I used the hose from my shop vac to deposit the sawdust outside

Well most of the sawdust anyway; I planned off 1/16th of an inch at a time

After planning all the boards down to the same dimension I ripped 3 of them into 2x2's 

Here's the lumber I bought, I think in all 5 boards there were a total of 2 or 3 knots

It was fun to do this...much easier then any car body work I've ever done (and I've done a lot!)

Finished 2x2's - smooth and the perfect size to match the original

Beautiful lumber like this is impossible to buy now

The wood was much more dense then new wood as well, my table saw was working hard to rip these!

I

I could see planning some 2x4s and laminating them together to make a table....HMMMMM



Next up I'll be using some of this wood to frame the rear and starting my work on the Black/gray water holding tanks