Cut Your Own Wood Flooring

The second cut will produce a piece that has two good faces but bark on two edges.

Cut your own wood flooring. Scc cut all the 8 ft planks into 4 ft pieces then cut about 6 of those in half again to 2 ft sections. Cut the last length to fit leaving a 3 4 inch expansion gap and nail it in place. We ll cut it off when we turn the planks into flooring. That gives you a guide of sorts.

Now cut the new boards to width by running the tongue side against the fence. A circular saw is sort of like a table saw just with the portability of a reciprocating saw. Cut it if necessary so the end is offset from the end of the board in the previous row by a minimum of 6 inches. In a past life i had thought of the idea of buying solid oak plywood cutting it into strips and using it as inexpensive solid oak flooring and i was told that i was an idiot and carpet was chosen instead a far more expensive option when i had already exhausted my budget.

Cut it straight through the center to make it manageable for your band saw. You can either pile those pieces off to the side and return them to the mill later to cut the bark off or deal with the bark as part of the milling process. Measure the face width of the existing flooring add the width of its tongue then set the table saw s fence that same distance away from the blade. Often when you cut like this the saw will cut out stringy wood.

Get your groove back. That piece is a keeper. This removes the groove which you ll re create in the next step. If that happens that would result in a pretty big gap.

Start by cutting a line all the way down where you want your cut to go. Put the first board of the new row in place. Set up the shaper or router table with a tongue and groove cutter. The saw will wander all over.

Put the end against a 3 4 inch spacer and seat the edge snugly against its neighbor. Don t try and cut from the top down straight through. Find a piece and lay it alongside the hole and flip it over. One of the most popular uses for cutting wood floor planks with this saw is cutting the planks lengthwise also known as a rip cut.

I sanded each board one by one top ends and knocked the sharp edges off the corners for a worn farmhouse feel. This makes it great for basic cuts or for a more skilled installer good for basic cuts for wood flooring as well. Run all of the flooring through the machine on one of the long sides and one of the ends. Adjust the fence and cutter height using a scrap piece of material adjust the cutter height and fence position until you have it set up correctly to run your flooring.

Make sure when you make the mark to cut off the wall side not the room side. Make sure to always cut the wall end of the wood so that you do not cut off the groove that fits to the tongue. Yes i did the sanding hence no photos of that step.