I was pretty pleased with myself for scoring some nice reclaimed cherry for a couple of projects -- coffee table and TV stand. All the hardware had been removed and I checked the boards carefully before machining and there were no incidents.

My glue-up of the coffee table top was a tad awry and I took the piece to the local guy I use for cleaning up my mistakes on his 42" wide sander, only to learn that he never lets his machine touch reclaimed wood. Surprise!

I understand where he's coming from. I wouldn't want to risk a big buck machine on a $10 job either.

So now I'm doing my own cleanup with my 3x21 belt sander. It's gonna be a long night. I've gotta learn how to surface a panel with a hand plane.

Larry