Ever make hardwood flooring?

[2beast]

Has anyone here ever made hardwood flooring?
I may need a lot of flooring and I have thousands of BF of white oak lumber.
Seems like a lot of work, but work does not really scare me.

I have big saws, jointer and planer.
Although I have never used it, I also have a Powermatic 27 shaper with a powerfeed sitting on a shelf in my shed.

Any input appreciated.

[Cooler]

Has anyone here ever made hardwood flooring?
I may need a lot of flooring and I have thousands of BF of white oak lumber.
Seems like a lot of work, but work does not really scare me.

I have big saws, jointer and planer.
Although I have never used it, I also have a Powermatic 27 shaper with a powerfeed sitting on a shelf in my shed.

Any input appreciated.

You probably need the shaper.  I've never done it.  But here are the shaper blades:

https://www.infinitytools.com/floor-maki...tters-3186

You will propably want to have all the boards the exact same width for easier installation.  So you will have to stack the boards after sawing and planing and then run them edge up through the planer to get them all the same width.  

Then to the shaper.  

Or to a millwright already setup for this work to use your lumber.

[Wild Turkey]

I've been thinking about it.

LOML saw an "alternating width" floor she liked -- looked like 6" & 3" alternating.  

I'd set boards on jointed edge and sort by width, then rip and joint to size, then run through shaper.  

Lots of work and chips but what else have we got to do?

Might even justify some new tools



Grooves on bottom are my question.  After doing some reading I think they are mostly a holdover from the past that everyone is afraid to change.  I'm thinking that a layer of the slick plastic they lay under laminate might be a good idea.

But that decision is still a few weeks away

[Stwood_]

I can run the tongue and groves on my woodmaster (boards standing up) but I never really found an efficient way to do the end joints.
That would require a shaper, thus, you would have to have matching cutters to match the molding machine cutters.

[Cooler]

I've never understood the grooves on the bottom either.  They put them on the bottom of thresholds too.

This article explains the reason:

https://www.woodmagazine.com/wood-suppli...ve-grooves

4. The last (and most humorous) purpose of these grooves ensures that the installer knows which side of the flooring faces up.

[jasfrank]

Probably 35 years ago I made a couple thousand square feet of white oak flooring using a shaper. I used a 1-1/2 wide cutter for the relief cut on the bottom. Ran that with the stock fed vertically. I did not end match it as it was just 2-1/4 wide. Everything turned out very good. The customer loved it and told me his installer had no complaints. So yes its doable, but anymore I’d have it run on a moulder.

[mound]

Has anyone here ever made hardwood flooring?
I may need a lot of flooring and I have thousands of BF of white oak lumber.
Seems like a lot of work, but work does not really scare me.

I have big saws, jointer and planer.
Although I have never used it, I also have a Powermatic 27 shaper with a powerfeed sitting on a shelf in my shed.

Any input appreciated.

I made about 15 square feet of it once.. worked fine.. wouldn't want to go through all the milling trouble for anything substantial though.

[Big Dave]

Seems like a lot of work, but work does not really scare me.

I have big saws, jointer and planer.
Although I have never used it, I also have a Powermatic 27 shaper with a powerfeed sitting on a shelf in my shed.

I guess being the off-season, you've got a little extra time on your hands...

[Peter Tremblay]

Has anyone here ever made hardwood flooring?
I may need a lot of flooring and I have thousands of BF of white oak lumber.
Seems like a lot of work, but work does not really scare me.

I have big saws, jointer and planer.
Although I have never used it, I also have a Powermatic 27 shaper with a powerfeed sitting on a shelf in my shed.

Any input appreciated.

I obviously haven't done it, Greg.

But I think the issue isn't so much the milling of the stock it is the finishing of the floor.

Factory finishes are more durable than anything that is commonly used for woodworking.

It would be the finish quality/durability that I'd consider to be a stumbling block.

[dg152]

Peter, I'm just thinking out loud and wonder if one couldn't pre-finish the boards much like those I bought from Lumber Liquidators to install in my house.

This idea of making flooring from scratch is intriguing. The OP has all the white oak for the project but, as others have pointed out, he will need a shaper. This might also be the opportunity to buy a drum sander.

Before starting, I'd want to figure out which steps to proceed to ensure that all boards are consistent with each other. Could be a fun and satisfying - if not exhausting - project.