Maple flooring uses?

[ACobra289]

I am almost finished installing my prefinished maple flooring. It's 3/4" thick by 3 1/2" wide. I am going to have quite a few pieces left over. I will keep some in case I need to do some repairs on the floor in the future. But I was wondering if there was anything else that could be done with the leftovers. The pieces range in size from about a foot to 4 feet. I'm guessing that after planing (to remove finish and grooves on bottom) the pieces would be about 1/2" thick. So are there any uses for this wood other than firewood?

Thanks,
Bill M.

 

[DaveO]

Boxes, shop bench tops, just about anything that you can use 3" wide 1/2" thick stock for. Be careful with planning off the finish. Most of those factory applied finishes are hard as nails and will do a number on your planer knives.
Dave

 

[CarvedTones]

That is perfect stock for the projects in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Scroll-Saw-Art-Realistic-Pictures/dp/0806928972
Despite the name, many of the patterns can be done with a very small BS blade.

Picture frames, drawer faces, etc...

 

[NCPete]

like DaveO said, the tops of that stuff is pretty hard, aluminum oxide being a primary component of most prefinished floor finishes.

 

[CarvedTones]

Is the bottom unfinished? For the artsy use I mentioned (as well as for picture frames) you could just leave the finish on and flip them over; no one sees the back side anyway.

 

[JimmyC]

Bill,
I made my kitchen cabinets and countertops in my last kitchen. My cabinets were RO w/a maple inlay. For the countertops (not near the sink) I used 3/4" ply and topped it with Maple flooring, I had two L's and the flooring allowed me to form a herringbone pattern in the corners. It looked like butcher block and took a beating.

Jimmy

 

[cubicdissection]

Instead of planing that finish you may want to resaw it off using a cheapo blade you don't care about. 3" should be easy; just throw a featherboard right before the front edge of the blade and do 1/2 the height at a time, flipping it for the other. Set your fence to take off a 32nd and clamp a shop vac to the table right on top of the featherboard to suck up most of the dust. I'd wear a mask during that operation as the dust probably isnt something you want to breathe.

 

[ACobra289]

Thanks for the suggestions. I still have quite a bit of home improvement projects in front of me, so it will be a while before I can attempt any ww'ing projects. But I hope I can eventually put some of this wood to use.

Thanks again!
Bill M.