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Rough/Smooth Cedar


Ehcalum

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I'be been pricing out and hunting down materials.  At HD/Lowes they have cedar boards, but the ones I could find are rough on one side, almost like they peeled bark off, and smooth/sanded on the other.  Has anyone used these or am I just looking in the wrong bins?  

 

Also would 3/4" stock be worth planing or ripping down 1/8" to 5/8?  I have a vintage craftsman benchtop jointer and a rockwell/delta 34-500 table saw (of which I need to get a 0 clearance plate.  Thanks!

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I am lucky enough to have a good relationship with a lumberyard and fence/deck yard, so I do not have to rely on the boxes, although a lot of the wood comes form the same mills, it seems.

If I'm not mistaken, in Kudzu's new scarfing video he describes buying rough cedar and planing it.

By all means get some 3/4" and plane it down.

I am weird, I suppose, but for my Kudzu craft I used 2x10, which I sliced into 5/8" slices. The 1 1/2 x 5/8 strips are then easy to rip down to 1" or 5/8". I also used sequoia, because I live where it does, and clear 16 foot long 2x10s ain't all that rare...

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I found a little lumber yard right by work that has some excellent offerings of good knot free rough cedar.  I used rough cut in some parts or another on all the boats I've built so far.  I rip them out on the table saw and use a power belt sander to smooth them up instead of a planer (hey, ya use what ya got).  Point being, it almost always easier to sand the "rough" off of a rough cut edge than it is to take out a table saw blade gouge and damned faster than scarfing.

 

In my area, the rough cut is notably cheaper too.  I picked up (4) 2"x6"x10' WRC boards just this Tues. out the door for $66.  The 2x4s were only $9 & $12 respectively for 8' and 12' lengths.  The 12' board let me do the entire Tadpole build with no scarfs whatsoever.  After spending $80 per 4'x8' sheet for special order Baltic from Menards, I found out that they keep it in stock there in both 5'x5' & 4'x8' sizes for $36 & $47.  Lesson learned.  

 

Look for some of the smaller shops and you might be surprised what you find.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just ordered a Shad kit and need to locate stringer/keel/gunwale lumber. I have seen the same rough-on-one-side cedar at Lowes...anybody know what species of cedar they are selling? It's simply labeled 'cedar' but they do have 1x 10' and 12' and some of it is pretty clear and knot-free.

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Depends on where you are, to some extent, but as far as I can tell, the boxes usually buy from the same mills as everyone else in the area. You can certainly find out the mill and do the legwork to determine the species.

If it's got tight grain and is dry, use it.

I've used sequoia on my Kudzu's because it was available locally at a great price, and it can be had clear in big boards...

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