In for a penny...

My $200 trailer has become a bit more expensive:

Wood for bed $100
T & G shaper cutters $94.00
2 X 2" 3/16" steel angle $25.00
Welding $45.00
Bolts and nuts for bed $16.50
8000 pound hitch jack $45.00
Used half-shaft $171.50

What did you use for wood to replace the floor? I see my floor isn't looking new either any more....

--->Paul

Today I'll bolt down tongue and groove white oak, planed to 13/16". Trouble is I came up short on the oak, so will have to run a couple of strips of cherry down the middle for decorative effect. I drew the line at using walnut.

Cherry is surprisingly resistant to rot as long as it isn't exposed to hot water.

The trouble with oak any more, my sawmill guy tells me, is that nobody wants to sell him anything but 8' logs. They get more on the lumber scale for short logs when selling by the foot.

Sigh.

--->Paul

I picked up about 400 feet for cabinets this summer -- air dried for two years -- from a mill along Hwy 7. The price started off at $4.00 a foot. I drove out of there with it for $1.65 /foot, but the guy wants a chance to bid on my woodlot if I ever decide to sell anything out of it.

The cherry I paid .35 per foot for -- in 1975.

Walnut should make an excellent hayrack, Paul. The heartwood is more rot-resistant than white oak and it is a strong, stiff wood. It also grows back much more quickly than maple, cherry or oak.

Anyway, the floor is in place on the firewood spreader, though a quarter of the bolts don't have nuts on them yet.

The pto shaft simply slid on and went to work. Those things turn fast, don't they? The gearbox seems to work fine. I see a potential safety hazard in the shaft stub on the spreader left by the removal of the beaters. It really winds up at an awkward height and might catch an unwary helper.

Pto spins at 540 rpm at close to full throttle. You can get & should have a cover/ guard over the pto. For the money, you did get that 1/2 with the cover, right?

Not familiar with cherry wood, but white oak is even slower than black walnut??? Wow, a whole lifetime watching all these black walnuts grow around here..... ;)

--->Paul

Pto spins at 540 rpm at close to full throttle. You can get & should have a cover/ guard over the pto. For the money, you did get that 1/2 with the cover, right?

Not familiar with cherry wood, but white oak is even slower than black walnut??? Wow, a whole lifetime watching all these black walnuts grow around here..... ;)

--->Paul