Making flooring

[liftaddict]

Hi just got my Mark V serial #218351. Freed up the speed control sheave assembly. Took off the belt to test the bearings seem ok with no slop. I am soliciting advice on how to make 10-12 in wide flooring. I would like to tongue and grove it if it is possible. I have about 600 board feet of red and white oak which i milled from trees in my yard. I will be checking the dryness using the method described in the shopsmith website ( stove in man cave ) before i run it through the shopsmith pro planer.

My mark V has the band saw, two tables, and nothing else what do I need to buy to make this flooring.

Thanks for any help

[JPG]

Hi just got my Mark V serial #218351. Freed up the speed control sheave assembly. Took off the belt to test the bearings seem ok with no slop. I am soliciting advice on how to make 10-12 in wide flooring. I would like to tongue and grove it if it is possible. I have about 600 board feet of red and white oak which i milled from trees in my yard. I will be checking the dryness using the method described in the shopsmith website ( stove in man cave ) before i run it through the shopsmith pro planer.

My mark V has the band saw, two tables, and nothing else what do I need to buy to make this flooring.

Thanks for any help

Just a good rip saw blade(with arbor) and a rip fence can make the T&G, or a shaper or a molder and fence.

[beeg]

First off WHY do ya want boards that wide for flooring? You could use the saw function to do the tongue and groove.

[8iowa]

This past summer I milled hundreds of feet of baseboard, window, and door trim for my brother-in-law's addition to his house. Even though it is possible to do the tongue & groove with a table saw, it will be tedious if you have to do a lot of flooring this way. I would get the 1/4" tongue & groove shaper cutters, either from Shopsmith, or if they are not in stock there, from Corob Cutters directly. You can do this milling on the Shopsmith at 5200 rpm or get the speed increaser and do it at 10,000 rpm. Nick Engler explains both set-ups in one of the sawdust sessions. I would also round off the ends of the tongue with a block plane facilitate the installation.

I think 4 to 5 inch width would be better to avoid serious cupping of the boards.

[liftaddict]

ahh I don't know..... because I can? I think I can and I have regular tungue and grove everywhere else. Is there a problem with wide flooring?

[beeg]

My t&g flooring is 2.25". If ya have yours at 10-12" wide. It will/could cup.

[liftaddict]

I was thinking the rustic look but cupping does have me concerned. Is tongue and grove the way to go or just leave them side by side? They are going on 3/4 in plywood and I can secure them from the basement.

The milling was tedious i used an mini mill and a stihl 076 chainsaw.

I am confused at this point because shop smith tec support recommended using the saw and multiple passes to make the tongue and grove. These boards are 8 to 9 ft long that will be a real tricky cut ( at least in my mind ). 1/4" tongue & groove shaper cutters seems like the way to go. How should I construct the fence?

went to the corb cutters site they post this comment:"The knives sold on this site do NOT fit Shopsmith heads." They also post "Load any of these heads with three molding knives and attach to any standard table saw with a 5/8” spindle. " Must be the 1/2 arbors

[charlese]

Ten and 12" wide red and white oak will expand and contract seasonally more than you want for flooring. Oak flooring is put down by angle nailing through the edges while driving the board into the adjacent one. If you get expansion, the floor will buckle and if you get contraction you will have gaps that may exceed the length of the tongues.

Factory made oak flooring is made from properly dried wood and the width is normally 3/4" X 2 1/4". This way wood movement is minimized.

P.S. A lot of modern wood flooring is made and sold in "shorts". This way they can keep the floor boards straight grained, since longer lengths of straight grained wood is more expensive. If your boards have angled grain, this will exacerbate any uneven wood movement.

[michaeltoc]

I was thinking the rustic look but cupping does have me concerned. Is tongue and grove the way to go or just leave them side by side? They are going on 3/4 in plywood and I can secure them from the basement.

Since you have basement access you could use the wider boards and drive screws down the center to avoid cupping. Just be sure to have someone stand on the board to keep it tight against the subfloor. Whatever you decide, T&G is a must. While the primary purpose is to hold the "free" end as you nail down each board, it also keeps the boards aligned to each other.

[pennview]

went to the corb cutters site they post this comment:"The knives sold on this site do NOT fit Shopsmith heads." They also post "Load any of these heads with three molding knives and attach to any standard table saw with a 5/8” spindle. " Must be the 1/2 arbors

I think you were looking at the molding cutters, not the shaper cutters. Corob shaper cutter have 1/2" bore and fit the Shopsmith 1/2" arbor.

Another option for cutting the tongue and groove joints would be to use a router. On 10 - 12" boards, a hand-held router would likely be easier than a table set-up. But, as charlese mentioned, you'll get considerable expansion and contraction in such wide boards.

You haven't mentioned, but since you milled the lumber yourself, you're likely air drying the oak. That said, it's likely that the lumber will have a relatively high moisture content compared to kiln-dried lumber, and this will add to the movement of the flooring as it dries further during the winter heating season.

Like others have said, narrower boards would be the better way to go.

I'd use carbide tipped cutters, either shaper or router. Grizzly sells tongue and groove shaper cutter sets with 1/2" bore.