Cedar-strip planking widths?

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m.klunder
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Cedar-strip planking widths?

Post by m.klunder »

We have begun our student built "Nomad", and are finishing the molds. I am about to start ripping the planking, however the lumber we have (western red cedar) has come to us in 1 3/4" thickness x 7 7/8" (roughly). We will be dressing it to size. If we plane it down to 1" there is a considerable amount of waste. What would be an acceptable width for planking? Canoe craft says 7/8".

Please help before we fill up our dust collector with expensive shavings.

If you want to follow the school biuld, please check out the blog i've created for the project;

www.mjklunder.blogspot.com

thanks,

Mark
willo
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Post by willo »

If it were me I would rip the board into strips of 1inch. then dress them to 7/8 " and then strip those into 1/4 " This would yield more strips than you would get by dressing the whole board down to 7/8. The down side is the grain might not work out for you .
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Glen Smith
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Post by Glen Smith »

Mark, if the plank faces are rough cut I would plane them just enough to obtain a smooth surface. Then I would rip off the 1/4" strips, flip them over and cut them to half the strip width. I would use a circular saw blade in the table saw and get one with a very thin kerf for less wastage. I recommend this blade:

Image

Freud Diablo DO724X.
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Joan and Ted
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Ripping planking

Post by Joan and Ted »

Hi Mark - we often use wood with the same dimensions as you have. Ted says if you cut a piece 7/8" off the board you can then slice it into 1 and3/4" so you will get four pieces out of each strip.

Please let me know if I can help further - Joan
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frugal
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Post by frugal »

I had the same issue so I planed one edge of the boards so that it would be smooth against the fence when I ripped 1/4 strips x 1 3/4". Then I cut them down the centre. The I routed the bead on the cut edge follwed by a cove on the rough edge (what would have been the top or bottom of the board).

I used a finishing blade that I had that has a thin kerf to give me reasonablly smooth planks and minimal sawdust in the shop vac.

The only thing I would have done differntly is to cut the strips slightly over 1/4" and use a thickness planer to bring them down to 1/4"
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Glen Smith
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Post by Glen Smith »

The I routed the bead on the cut edge follwed by a cove on the rough edge (what would have been the top or bottom of the board).
Frugal, this would produce rough cove shoulders. Are you certain you didn't bead the rough edge and cove the smooth edge leaving both edges straight and smooth?
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frugal
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Post by frugal »

The way that we set up the router would produce smooth edges either way but now that I think about it beading the rough edge first would produce less waste overall.
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