cut strips from deck boards?

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hedgehog
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Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:47 pm

cut strips from deck boards?

Post by hedgehog »

would anyone recomend cutting strips from cedar lumber found at places like homedepot and the like? havent seen too much without tons of knots. :thinking
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Jim Dodd
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Jim Dodd »

Yes !
I cut a couple of planks this Summer from Home Depot. It's hard to sort, and they only had up to 12' planks.
I was looking for color variation, but they were decent planks, just short.

I can get 16' planks from Menards, and they let you sort.

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
RBAIRD
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Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:00 am

Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by RBAIRD »

Home depot was the only place that I could find any cedar
It just took a few trips to get all that I needed
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Cruiser
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Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Cruiser »

I will beat Jim to suggesting you try cutting those strips with a skill saw, it really easier than table or radial arm, I have tried both.

You can see Jims' post on the subject.




Brian
KenC
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Location: Oakville, ON

Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by KenC »

The "deck" aspect isn't the obstacle, its the quality of lumber available through the big-box stores ... I used clear deck boards from an independent lumberyard ... they even had them in 20' lengths, although at the time, I was hauling them on the roof of a Honda Accord, so had to get them cut down to 10'. They cost more than at Home Depot, but for some reason were still less than buying clear cedar in "rough" dimensions at other places.

I've been carving greenland paddles lately, and I've been having some good luck in the 4x4 pile at Home Depot. Around where I live, the 4x4s tend to be a darker colour and tighter grained than deck boards or any of the other dimensional cedar lumber. I pick them up whenever I see them. If you're going to be doing any features that don't require full-length strips, and you're looking for some colour variation, the 4x4 pile may be a good bet.
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Jim Dodd
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Jim Dodd »

Machining 20' 4x4s seems like a lot of work !
I'm helping my son build his first stripper.
It's 14' long and we used 14' 1x 8s. Needless to say we spliced nearly the whole canoe. It was a breeze with Bead and Coved strips. We did the splices between the forms.
I know I cry when I can't find full length planks, but splicing is not that difficult, so long as you avoid high stress areas.

I've looked at "Deck" planks, and they are usually too thick for my liking. Especially for smaller tumblehomed canoes. They would be great for large tandems.

I really enjoy plank hunting! I get soo excited when I find clear full length planks ! I sometimes ignore the cost !

Good Luck !

Jim

PS. Skilsaw for cutting strips RULES !

Image
Image
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Jim Dodd
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Jim Dodd »

Another skilsaw shot.Image

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
KenC
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by KenC »

Machining 20' 4x4s seems like a lot of work !
Especially with a circular saw. I mainly use them for paddle blanks, but wouldn't have any issue milling them down to strips for a feature that doesn't require full length. I am a kayaker, so there's lots of opportunity on the decks for features using shorter strips, and these are such a rich dark-brown colour, tight grained, etc. Nice contrast from the lighter coloured woods without adding any weight.

Image
With exception of some pinstriping, all contrasting patterns on the deck are cedar. The 4x4s I have are much darker and tighter grained than anything shown here, though, so would make a much more dramatic contrast.

I've also assembled a collection of 5/8" thick cedar fence boards, whenever I see one that is clear. They're not long, but again useful for deck features. Easy to machine too.
I've looked at "Deck" planks, and they are usually too thick for my liking.
Yeah, there's a lot of waste if you mill them down to 3/4" or less. I could probably have used some 1" strips on my Endeavor, but never thought that far ahead, and milled it all down to 3/4". Oh well, live and learn.

PS - next time I make strips, I'm going to try your method. Manhandling long boards on a lightweight table saw is a pain.
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Jim Dodd
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Jim Dodd »

Short video.
Image

Jim
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hughhallhh56
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by hughhallhh56 »

I am on my third canoe since last May. I tend to do things when I do them. Current build is a Ranger also. I have so far used deck planks for all of them. Specifically 5/4 by 6 clear. My source of cedar is unfortunately 3 hours drive away. Though I live in the heart of WRC country, I can find nowhere locally that I can buy. On the fortunate side, my source is a cedar specialty outlet that only sells cedar. There I can find just about anything but have found that planks offer the best quality and lengths. While I was there last week, I purchased pieces up to 18 foot.

I like the extra width of the strips. The narrower strips don't appeal to me as much. For the first two canoes there wasn't that much bending so I left them 1 inch. For this canoe I have set my router table to mill them to 7/8. Another reason to mill slightly narrower than the pieces you have is in case there is a little variance in the thickness of the wood.

On the down side for planks is that they usually have rounded edges so the first and last cut are usually waste. I too cut with a skill saw and don't bother to plane them.
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Jim Dodd
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Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by Jim Dodd »

Sometimes builders can't be choosers !

Just helped lay up some 5/8" strips, on my Son's solo. They are great going around the bilges, or high stress areas, but it takes a lot more !
Image

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
rmb0513
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Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2018 9:52 am

Re: cut strips from deck boards?

Post by rmb0513 »

I built mine out of cedar I found at Home Depot
It did take several trips to HD to get enough boards tho machine out my planks
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