Hehe. My Dad's friend needed a few huge oak trees taken down about 8-10 years ago. My Dad and a few guys helped him cut them down and took the trees (in pieces) to a lumberyard where they cut the trees into boards for my Dad. He got to keep all of the wood and it's been drying in the 2nd floor of his huge barn since. I bet he has at least 200 boards up there, and the smallest is probably 2cm thick x 20 cm wide x 4 meters long. Some of them are MAMMOTH. He has no use for them and told me I can take whatever I want. Now I just need to buy a planer 
Think 12 ft long corporate boardroom table. Resaw the 12 ft x 2 inch to two pieces ~ 1 inch thick, and bookmatch [mirror image woodgrain about length centerline] . Gorgeous if the grain is good.
Or instead make veneer and build several tables, sell them all for the same price as the solid wood table. 72 ft^2 of almost uninterrupted oak.
Or instead make veneer and build several tables, sell them all for the same price as the solid wood table. 72 ft^2 of almost uninterrupted oak.
Wonderful stuff. I'd contact some well respected furniture craftsman and see what they might recommend.
A custom sawyer could perhaps handle it, but nobody has stuff that large anymore. The tree probably dates back to the American or even French Revolution.
I'd definately use it for something exceptional - custom table or doors. Counter tops?
You could make one hell of an AV rack, even ripped to 18" wide, but it seems a bit of a shame to cover it with gear.
Tim
A custom sawyer could perhaps handle it, but nobody has stuff that large anymore. The tree probably dates back to the American or even French Revolution.
I'd definately use it for something exceptional - custom table or doors. Counter tops?
You could make one hell of an AV rack, even ripped to 18" wide, but it seems a bit of a shame to cover it with gear.
Tim
10 years ago my uncle bought a countertop during the demolition of an old general store, one solid piece of oak. He took it to the local lumber-yard in a small town on the great lakes which had once been home to several sawmill facilities. They still had large saws and planers in working order, and offered to buy the wood from him on first sight.
Kittle:
Speakers can be fine furniture. I don't know how much you have worked with wood, but it is NOT anywhere as stable as plywood or MDF. Depending on a few variables, the material moves a LOT. you would have to make it either thick or quite small overall, for a speaker cabinet to not work around quite a bit as temperature and humidity change. More than I would like to use for the purpose anyway. Now, an A/V component rack, that is an idea with potential, especially if done properly...AND it would be furniture
For the kind of money you could get for this stuff, you could probably build some niiiiiice speaker cabinets and cover with a $$ veneer, and fill with your dream drivers.
Like most else on the forums, this is all, only, my
Speakers can be fine furniture. I don't know how much you have worked with wood, but it is NOT anywhere as stable as plywood or MDF. Depending on a few variables, the material moves a LOT. you would have to make it either thick or quite small overall, for a speaker cabinet to not work around quite a bit as temperature and humidity change. More than I would like to use for the purpose anyway. Now, an A/V component rack, that is an idea with potential, especially if done properly...AND it would be furniture
For the kind of money you could get for this stuff, you could probably build some niiiiiice speaker cabinets and cover with a $$ veneer, and fill with your dream drivers.
Like most else on the forums, this is all, only, my
A 12 " by 12 " by 1 " thick piece of oak ( 1 board foot) will sell for around 4 dollars. Add a couple more bucks for the 2 " thicness and generally 25 % for anything over 10 " wide. So at 2 " thick by 3 ' wide you are looking at 50 dollars a foot. One of those would be a 600 dollar board.You can see that what you have will add up quick. If you don't pay attention to how you match the grain when you attach sides to top anything you build will rip itself apart. It will move too much for you to seal even if you build it right.
A couple of thoughts
Lumber of the dimensions you describe is virtually non-existant these days. It should be used for something that requires that sort of stock - block fronts, gooseneck moldings, etc... Using it for speakers, where those dimensions are not required, is just a shameful waste of a very rare commodity.
Resawing it to 4/4 just to book match it is a real waste too - it can be done much more economically in veneer, which is why it's been done that way since the 17th century.
Using solid lumber requires that construction techniques do not restrain any panel of significant width. This is exactly the opposite of the type of construction you need to use for speakers. Look at the underside of a QUALITY table - the table top is not fixed to the apron, it's attached with some sort of fasterner that allows it to contract and expand. Raised panels in doors are not fixed to the frames - they float in the groove of the frame.
Not only is the lumber you have very valuable, even essential, to some construction techniques it is completely wrong for building a solid box with sides restrained on all edges (i.e. a speaker).
FWIW
Lumber of the dimensions you describe is virtually non-existant these days. It should be used for something that requires that sort of stock - block fronts, gooseneck moldings, etc... Using it for speakers, where those dimensions are not required, is just a shameful waste of a very rare commodity.
Resawing it to 4/4 just to book match it is a real waste too - it can be done much more economically in veneer, which is why it's been done that way since the 17th century.
Using solid lumber requires that construction techniques do not restrain any panel of significant width. This is exactly the opposite of the type of construction you need to use for speakers. Look at the underside of a QUALITY table - the table top is not fixed to the apron, it's attached with some sort of fasterner that allows it to contract and expand. Raised panels in doors are not fixed to the frames - they float in the groove of the frame.
Not only is the lumber you have very valuable, even essential, to some construction techniques it is completely wrong for building a solid box with sides restrained on all edges (i.e. a speaker).
FWIW
Thanks a lot for such excellent knowledge and advice, it's very nice Wood, although it may be beach, I have to check again in the daylight. I just took these photos now because there are so many great answers here, to show what it's like.
Actually it's odd how people throw away decent oak around here in Oxford UK, there's a lot of nice Wood around, and oaks in excess of 6 feet in diameter. Last summer I walked through a field some miles from here, and found an oak tree that was over 200 years old roughly soared into large blocks and left all on the edge of the field, although i'm sure that is unusual.
The thing is, I can use some of these from the woods nearby seeing as one has cracked over the summer, but I'm not sure if I should sell the whole lot.!
Walnut is probably the choice for boardroom tables, although something tells me century old oak tables are even more valuable if they have 20 foot long boards stay straight at the joining over all that time. Now that's a table!
Actually it's odd how people throw away decent oak around here in Oxford UK, there's a lot of nice Wood around, and oaks in excess of 6 feet in diameter. Last summer I walked through a field some miles from here, and found an oak tree that was over 200 years old roughly soared into large blocks and left all on the edge of the field, although i'm sure that is unusual.
The thing is, I can use some of these from the woods nearby seeing as one has cracked over the summer, but I'm not sure if I should sell the whole lot.!
Walnut is probably the choice for boardroom tables, although something tells me century old oak tables are even more valuable if they have 20 foot long boards stay straight at the joining over all that time. Now that's a table!
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Actually, I'm sure it's oak, probably white or black oak or something like that rather than the typical thick bark stuff round here.
Here's another photo. It's worth mentioning the mysterious circumstances surrounding how I made this tree fall over. It was next to a path that had been very boggy since I can remember, and I think recently some drainage channels had been scored across the path. The area was still boggy so I extended the channel one day for fun. unbeknownst to me, the extended drainage unloading a trickle a bit beyond the oak tree did something to the roots on the far side. Two days later, it had fallen over. And here it is. So this wood has some sentimental value, I guess I should do something great with it.
Here's another photo. It's worth mentioning the mysterious circumstances surrounding how I made this tree fall over. It was next to a path that had been very boggy since I can remember, and I think recently some drainage channels had been scored across the path. The area was still boggy so I extended the channel one day for fun. unbeknownst to me, the extended drainage unloading a trickle a bit beyond the oak tree did something to the roots on the far side. Two days later, it had fallen over. And here it is. So this wood has some sentimental value, I guess I should do something great with it.
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Storage
Wow. Could be really spectacular. The knots do have a tendency to throw twists into the wood.
I'd get the stuff picked up and stored properly under roof in a well-ventilated stack(spacers between planks), before it begins to warp or weather. Some people will coat lumber with parafin or wax to allow the wood to breathe will drying, yet provide some protection.
Doesn't look like any of the oak from around here. Most midwestern US oak has a coarse grain where the "pores" are visible.
There are probably artists that would love to do a relief or carving using something that size, providing the wood is hard enough to hold an edge.
I looked up elm, but found more than I bargained for:
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm.htm
Tim
Wow. Could be really spectacular. The knots do have a tendency to throw twists into the wood.
I'd get the stuff picked up and stored properly under roof in a well-ventilated stack(spacers between planks), before it begins to warp or weather. Some people will coat lumber with parafin or wax to allow the wood to breathe will drying, yet provide some protection.
Doesn't look like any of the oak from around here. Most midwestern US oak has a coarse grain where the "pores" are visible.
There are probably artists that would love to do a relief or carving using something that size, providing the wood is hard enough to hold an edge.
I looked up elm, but found more than I bargained for:
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm.htm
Tim
Speaking of old English oaks and thier value check out this site. This guy is located in Pennsylvania but travels to Europe searching for old growth hardwoods.
http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/
http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/
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