I wanted something warm, but still new looking with UV protection and pretty happy with this so far.
I've been wanting to figure out how to do cedar shingles with the mill, and seemed like everytime I thought I had it figured out...... I was wrong. Finally asked someone who has done them and reading his message about half way through it came to me like lightning, and I never finished his message and ran down to the mill making a set up.
I had lots of slabs that had some dimension to them. The cedar up here tapers pretty bad, so to turn it into lumber there would be many short lengths and various widths so that was my reasoning by making shingles with the waste. First was to cut blocks to length, and squared. Using my compound mitre saw, that was pretty easy using the saw edge against the fence, and make the cut.
laid a 2x8" on the lift arms, and attached a 1" piece on the inside edge to prevent the block from traveling to the rail when the sawing starts. Next, I place a stop block squared to the 2x8". I kept adjusting the bed till I had the right size shingle, which is 3/8" on the butt and 16" long.
Once I had that, I placed a couple of screws underneath to prevent the whole thing moving back and forth, affecting the finished product. Now that my set up is complete that, I was ready to fly
It took about 30 minutes to get this pile done
Next was the packaging. I made a box to the dimensions of a stock bundle. Placed some bailing twine in the middle, and started laying the shingles in. hmmmmmmm some had to be trimmed in order to stay with the confines of the form and remain true to content.
Once tied, just tip the form over and ready to start another. Altogether I think it took about 1 1/2 hrs. per bundle.
The down side is you get covered from head to toe in sawdust. Impossible to do without a dust mask. I found that pulling the saw through as opposed to pushing worked best for me
because the block has to be held down as the saw is going through. The down side is that the heat of the saw passing is unbearable, and I use a welders heat reflective glove with cuff. The heat also, along with fine dust just bounces off your face and chest and to do this all day long, would be tiring and one needs to be alert at all times running a saw this way. I am not recommending this method will work for everyone but worked for me. It look dangerous, but the stop block accepts the saw due to being a 2" x 6" and screwed down. When the saw reaches the end, I just ease up a tad and one can feel the block free and I let the saw come to a stop before moving anything. I push the saw back, the block stays on the blade, and the shingle get's tossed to the side. The block is then flipped 180 degrees, placed against the stop and ready for another slice and so on.
