The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Wood working advice, please

Excuse my ignorance but I have very limited experience working with wood.

While sanding my bed wood I came across some areas that have small nicks like maybe chatter marks. Pictures here. The first 2 pictures show them with the sun to my back and the last shows them with the sun in my face.

My question: Should I sand these out or will the finish cover them? I'm afraid if I sand them out it will leave dips in the surface.

Thanks.

Tough call. They'll probably show through the finish, but how bad is the question. If you sand too much, like you said might leave noticeable dips, but how noticeable. You could always go ahead and stain it, polyurethane it and if it looks horrible, just sand it and re-do it. I would sand the planer marks off the top of the boards and be done with it.

Those are going to show no matter what you do. If you bought a "kit" of bed wood, return those for a replacement, the quality of those boards is not acceptable.

If you prefer, you can fill the low spots but they will never disappear. My suggestion for the least noticeable filler is sawdust from the same wood mixed with wood glue. You can harvest sawdust from scraps if you have any or by sanding the bottoms of the planks with a hand held belt sander that has a dust collection bag. Or you can do it by hand, but the best way is with a saw because sanding will leave grit from the sandpaper in the dust. Since most belt sanders have black grit you'll wind up with tiny black specs in the dust.

Mix the dust with ELMERS CARPENTER GLUE to a toothpaste consistency and use that to fill the holes. When dry it can be sanded smooth and stained or painted. It will show when stained but it will be the closest match you'll get.

But your best solution is to return the boards for replacements. Any carpenter would immediately reject those boards when buying lumber for a finished project.

Those won't sand out Cletis without leaving dips. You can try Czechman's method, it will work. Also you can try some Oak filler. Many woodworkers use Oak filler to get a smooth finish on Oak. The brand I use is called Wood-Kote paste filler. You can find it at most woodworking stores. It is alot of work to fill oak boards. Those craters are caused by soft spots in the grain or bad planner knives when the wood was run thru the planner. If you can't return the boards I would try the paste filler' especially if you are going to stain the boards. I would sometimes mix a little of the stain in with the paste filler to assure there would be no light or dark spots on the boards. Good luck, Coach Frank

my 2 cents l been a woodworker for over 25 years if the chips are shallow you can sand them but you have to sand a much larger area than the chips if the area is say 3"x3" you should probably sand 3"-4" on ether side of the chips and feather the area into the surrounding wood rather than just sanding the chipped area ideally you should sand the whole board The putty will surtainly fill and level out the chips but instead of the chips showing you just have the filler now,filler is no replacement for the wood even if you get the colour right the sun will bleach the stain out of the filler and in 6 months have a mess, boils down to what kind of a job you want sounds to me like a profesional job Then after sanding and it doesnt look right replace the board

The chatter marks in the wood are what is known as (planner outs)
Usually caused by dull planner blades. This actually is a defect in the product caused by the thickness planner machine at the mill. Sounds like a quality control problem by the supplier. The sawdust method will work, but you will still be able to notice a plemish unless its painted. Its a lot of money to pay out. I would agree with Csechman, return for replacement & maybe if they are reputable they will look after their mistake.
Also ask them if the wood is Kiln dried. Sometimes if the wood is not dry it will be hard to plane. Some suppliers will use a thickness sander which will avoid chatter marks. Moisture content should be around 18 to 19% for outdoor use.
Wood used for Furniture is usally 5 to 8% for indoor use. This would be to dry for a truck bed.

cletus, It sounds like someone planned your boards to fast, cut to much at one time, and had dull knives as mentioned. I'll probably be screamed at for this but if you cannot return the boards, or the shipping would eat up your wallet I would take the boards to a reputable cabinet makers shop and have them plan them down. You would be surprised how little they can take off and make them look much better and maybe get it all out.

Last year I decided to refinish the oak boards in my 37 which had been in the truck almost 10 years. They still looked pretty good but I took them to the cabinet man I used when I built houses and he planned those boards smooth as silk. Took off the old finish (saving a ton of work) and also it took out some blemishes. You could hardly tell he did anything to them. I would doubt you have to take off so much it would effect the fit or the strips or the side bed angle strip.
Just my .02

Yup Cletis,
What ya have are planer or molder tear-out due to dull tooling.
I would first try and return the offending boards for replacemenmt as mentioned above due to poor quality from the supplier, Im sure you payed good $ for the bed wood and I would hope the supplier will replace the boards that should have never been shipped to you in the first place.
From the looks of the one pic your lookin at removing .030 to .050 thousandths to remove the tear out, i personally would avoid filler on the bed boards due to the fact that for 1 it is going to show and be noticable and filler will not last due to the considerable amount of swelling and contracting that will happen out in the elements.
just my opinion
Tim

Thanks for all the response. It was just one board. Now that y'all have expanded my knowledge base I understand that this board never should have been shipped. I tried to call the supplier today but they were closed until Monday. I'll let you know what they do.

I'll bet since its just the one board they ship you another one free of charge and tell you to keep the one you have.....

That would be the right thing to do.

A replacement is supposed to be on the way. Thanks again for the advice.

...hey,Cletis, did you get to keep the bad board? If so use it to make June something! Maybe a shelf and she will let you put model trucks on it

yep, get a new board and have it done with

Time for an update I guess. Jim Carter's shipped me a new board but it was damaged by UPS. It took a while but I finally have usable boards.

I pulled the steel plate out of the '56 and decided to put the plate back in it.

My reasons?
1. I have a toolbox in the bed. When I pulled it up I found it is a gathering place for dust and leaves. I wouldn't want to put it down on pretty new wood and I like the toolbox.

2. The steel floor was screwed to angle iron that had been welded to the bed sides. These would have to be ground off to put the right angle strips in, then paint would have to be touched up.

3. Removing the tool box also revealed painted over rust pits on the front panel. This would stand out like stuff on a white chicken with pretty new wood. I could replace the panel but now we're talking a whole new paint job.

4. My fuel tank is a home made steel box with the filler in the bed. Of course it's in the space between two boards. I'd have to cut a strip and make new square holes in the two new ends. Or weld in a side filler.

5. I decided I'd rather put the time and money into the '54.

So I stripped the steel plate to bare metal and painted it black. I'll save the wood bed for the '54.

Cletis,
Ill be postin pics of my completed bed probably next weekend my truck has a 1/4" plate welded in for the floor.
My solution was to make wooden stringers and bolt to the plate to raise my wood 1/2" for drainage and am doing some different things that are not common but will look pretty darn good & I am also keeping my toolbox.
Tim

As a woodworker most of my life , the chipping or nipping on the end of the board is caused by a poor planner setup or dull knives, to clean this up we usually used a finish sanding table. this brought all wood to the same depth and most times allowed you too sand out most dips or high spots. if you get no satisfaction from the board shop call around some of your buddies will know a cabinet furniture maker that can
most times clean that up for you with a sanding table.

Just so you know Fred, this is a 12 year old thread.

jokes on me because I was hoping to start a conversation that bI could gather some info, on refinishing bedwood.

Fred, just a piece of friendly advise. It’s almost always better to start your own thread instead of dredging up an old one. Use the magnifying glass in the upper right corner to do a search on “Refinishing a Stovebolt bed”. Hundreds of threads on that subject.

Thanks still learning the computer thing as I go

Fred -- no tilt, no foul. We're just glad you found us. Thanks for sharing what you know. Please share more. Besides, it was nice to have Cletis join us once again in the Active Threads. I miss that friend.

John