Old coffee table tops

I’d say birch, hard to say from the picture, maybe maple.

-- Bondo Gaposis

cherry, maybe? Or alder?

-- Visualize whirled peas

Looks like cherry to me, but I’m no expert, (big understatement). A great source of quality wood that is well dried out and stable. We don’t have much of that here. If it’s solid wood it’s an antique otherwise it is veneered chipboard. Should make an excellent box, but I would also resaw it to 1/2” thick as this thickness seems to look best for most boxes, at least to me. The leftover from the resaw could be used to make in inner tray for the box. Sorry, I’m just babbling. Have fun.

-- Mike, American in Norway The four steps towards competency: 1. unconscious incompetence, 2. conscious incompetence, 3. conscious competence, 4. unconscious competence

Babble on. No problem.
Antique is an interesting word. Kind of like retirement.
It’s old enough to be solid wood, but hopefully not old enough to be antique, otherwise I just destroyed an antique!
I ran the first piece through the planer and got it down to 1/2”.
I cut up the rest of the top into 2.5” wide pieces and I’ll resaw/plane them down to 3/8” and 1/2”.
Thanks
Dennis

-- Learning to retire in Tampa, apparently it's not all that hard.

Yep. Exactly what I would’ve done.

Maple I say.

-- Perfection is the difference between too much and not enough.

Here is the result of the day’s work.

Approximately 22 feet of 2 1/4×3/8 boards.
Approximately the same amount of scrap after the resaw.

Now for some practice with the dove tail jig.

-- Learning to retire in Tampa, apparently it's not all that hard.

Do you live right in Tampa? I live in Lakeland and I bought a coffee table just like that for 2.00 at a community yard sale I love it here, not retired but that will do

-- Coach Mancuso

Yes, I live in Citrus Park.
I paid $20 and my wife laughed at me. She said I should have talked them down.
Oh well, lots to learn.

-- Learning to retire in Tampa, apparently it's not all that hard.

I agree that it is maple.

-- Danny, Located in Perry, GA, Forester, Wood-Mizer LT15 Sawmill

I’d listen to Mr. Mizer, he always nails it.

-- Richard, Hot Springs, Ar -- Galoot In Training