[AT] OT Barn floor question

[Robinson]

At 09:40 AM 10/21/04, you wrote:
>Thanks, Charlie -- and everybody else who has chimed in.  When I
>restored this windmill the FIRST time, I was led to believe that there
>were two woods that were preferred -- cedar and poplar.  I had both
>available, but chose to use poplar because it's a LOT clearer.  BTW-
>this advice came from a windmill historical and restoration group.  I
>figured they knew what they were talking about.  Well as it turns out,
>there probably isn't a worse wood to use for exterior work than poplar,
>and that's what I used.
>
>The whole thing fell apart in about five years.  Now I've got to start
>from scratch and do it all over again.  In talking with a wood worker
>this week, he recommended redwood or cedar.  I don't like either one.
>Redwood splits too easily, and cedar has too many knots.  I really would
>prefer teak or cypress.  Now, I'm talking BIG BUCKS!
>
>What I'm more likely to do is to use the treated lumber that Lowe's and
>Home Depot sell for deck construction.  There was no way I would have
>considered this material when I was employed at the university and using
>their wood shop for all the mill work --- no way to isolate the area to
>protect people and the environment from arsenic.  But I have a contact
>with a complete woodshop with filtered dust collectors on everything.
>If he'll work with me to do the resawing and other operations in his
>shop, then I may go that route.  I wanted some feedback on the synthetic
>stuff so I would know whether or not that's a viable option.  It sounds
>like it isn't.  I don't want the salt treated lumber either.  That's
>what I had in the floor of my trailer, and it didn't last.
>
>I notice that Home Depot is now posting a safety sheet by the bins where
>they store their treated lumber.  It's kind of a consumer's edition of
>an MSDS and gives all the precautions to be followed in working with the
>arsenic-treated stuff.
>
>Does anybody have a good source for cypress?  THAT'S what I really would
>like to use.  I doubt very much that I would ever find locust or Osage
>Orange in a form and in enough quantity to do the job.
>
>FWIW, the windmill is a Flint & Walling model 26 on a 35-foot steel
>tower.  Ten-foot diameter wheel, seven-foot tail.
>
>Larry
>



         Hi Larry:

         A friend of mine does a large amount of restoration mill work for 
the state of Indiana on historic sites. When he made a new water wheel for 
the mill at the old Metamora Canal site they had him build it out of black 
walnut. Yellow poplar (tulip) makes a good weatherboard siding even 
unpainted but in that case the edges are all protected. Otherwise I 
consider it an indoor wood. The three old barns here were framed (post and 
beam) with sycamore which was sawn here on the farm. It is fine for covered 
use but it will not weather well at all. They were sided with southern 
yellow pine shiplap siding. It is deteriorating badly now but has been 
there for 80 years or more.
         Last Sunday son Scott was moving some dirt for me with a large 
backhoe to eliminate a bank of dirt along the road south of my house across 
the little creek. The bank was about 3 to 4 feet high and he dug out the 
feet of several black locust fence post that my father and I put in there 
50 years ago. The part above the ground was gone but the stubs in the 
ground were quite solid. We are getting rid of the bank since it is 
impossible to mow when we mow the roads and is dangerous when working the 
edge of the field. I came a lot closer to dropping a my Super MTA off of 
there one day this summer than I really like. I had already planned to make 
a cut through it for an entry drive to what will be a horse lot with a new 
portable run-in shed. It just makes more sense to eliminate the whole bank. 
We didn't do all of it Sunday, it  runs about 200' and would require a lot 
of moving the backhoe for each little section. Scott is going to bring a 
tracked excavator home next week and he can just keep moving it along as he 
goes. He will also dig a well pit for us where we are replacing a hand pump 
with a regular electric water system. He is going to use it to do some 
digging for a neighbor as well.
         In the next few weeks he will bring home a small walking trencher 
and we will install some short  water lines to the horse stalls at the west 
barn and some drain tiles under the floor of the east barn (Cubfest was 
next to that one) which is getting 5 horse stalls. Still later he will 
bring home a big trencher and we will run some longer water lines to some 
pasture locations and install a few more field drains to get rid of some 
lingering wet spots.
         Osage Orange (hedge) sawed well on my saw mill when I was doing 
that but it was really tricky to plane. The blades had to be very sharp and 
the cut very very light or it would pull out chunks of wood sometimes as 
deep as 3/16". Much of it was almost a burl. It sure is pretty when it all 
works though. I don't know how long a really good Osage Orange post would 
last, I don't think any good ones put in during the last 200 years have 
ever rotted out yet...   :-)
         Cypress is not too common here but a good bit is brought in for 
board fences since it holds up well. I believe much of it may come from 
Southeastern Kentucky.

         Rambling as usual...


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net