Producers of Cedar Strips

[Dan Lindberg]

I'm going to disagree with this - it's no more or less expensive than any other method/tool. As for the quality of the strip, that's entirely in the skill and care used to machine them, no matter what tool you use to make them.

Cutting your strips on a table saw, first is expensive, second produces inferior strips !

And for you Gary, Hi, how you doing, it's been a long time.

Dan

btw - I also use and encourage the use of the Freud Diablo blade when cutting strips

 

[Jim Dodd]

Skill is definitely a factor with Any tool ! There maybe craftsman who can cut perfect strips with a hand saw ! Not Me. I've tried pushing a 16' plank through a table saw, and ended up with terrible strips !!! The strips the Skilsaw method, for Me produces strips uniform enough, that I don't need to plane them !
Dan if you can buy a table saw for under a $100 my hat is off to you !
A good skilsaw 15 amp can be had for $80 in my neighborhood. A Freud 7 1/2" Diablo 24T for under $20.

Now if you have invested thousands of dollars in a power feed system, go for it ! Me I couldn't afford those tools, nor had the place to store them !

As most builders starting out, they can't either.

Not wanting to start an arguement, just stating it how I see it !

Jim

 

[garypete]

Dan,
I'm doing wonderfully because I've almost finished converting the third stall of my garage into a heated 12x28 workshop dedicated solely to building canoes. Could Life get any better?
AND: I have an exceptional opportunity to obtain a large quantity of clear white ash roughhewn 1x6s 20-long for gunwales. I'd like to share that good fortune with other builders in our area who would like some wonderful gunwale stock. Send me an email and we'll discuss it.

Gary
Rice Lake, WI
canoecraft@yahoo.com
715-205-2029

 

[Gary Willoughby]

I don't think it matters how you cut the strips as long as there the same when done. I have a resaw bandsaw with a 2" wide blade and than I run them thru a thickness sander. I make 100's at a time I use northern white cedar.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

The last Delta Contractor saw I bought was $100. (and Sears saws can be free, you can't give them away)
But that's beside the point, it's not about money, it's about working on a project that makes you happy.

For PO, before you start building, there is a bunch of learning to do and decisions to make. And only you can do it.

There are several methods and subsets of methods to building a stripper, and you have to research and decide for you which you like. And of course you also have to decide why your building it and what it will be used for.

For me, from the time I 1st saw/paddled a stripper and to when I started building was about 15 years, as the internet didn't exist then and I didn't know how to build it the way I wanted it. These days it's easy to learn the different methods and techniques use to build one.

Dan
btw - when cutting strips on a table saw, I don't push a whole plank through to cut a strip. I 1st cut 1.5 x 1.5 blanks and that is what the strips are cut from. They are a lot easier to handle and you can rotate them to hi grade the strips. You also need infeed and outfeed tables and finger boards to control the stock. The strips come off very uniform. No planing needed.

Dan if you can buy a table saw for under a $100 my hat is off to you !

 

[garypete]

Gary,
I was surprised to learn you are using northern white cedar until I saw your UP location. I used to deal with a UP mill in L'Anse for clear white cedar until they unfortunately closed a few years ago. I now get my white cedar in limited quantities from a logger in northern Wisconsin.

You're fortunate to have found a 2" bandsaw blade; it must keep your cut dead-nuts straight. I found using a thickness sander made excellent strips, but I had to unclog my drum sander with a sawdust eraser every 6-10 strips as the soft cedar stuck badly to the sandpaper drum.

Are you able to get local cedar longer than 10'? Most of what I find is 100" with a few 10-footers thrown in. I pay $3 per board foot for clear roughsawn airdried 1-1/8 x 6 boards. Does that seem a reasonable price?

 

[Jim Dodd]

The last Delta Contractor saw I bought was $100. (and Sears saws can be free, you can't give them away)
But that's beside the point, it's not about money, it's about working on a project that makes you happy.

For PO, before you start building, there is a bunch of learning to do and decisions to make. And only you can do it.

There are several methods and subsets of methods to building a stripper, and you have to research and decide for you which you like. And of course you also have to decide why your building it and what it will be used for.

For me, from the time I 1st saw/paddled a stripper and to when I started building was about 15 years, as the internet didn't exist then and I didn't know how to build it the way I wanted it. These days it's easy to learn the different methods and techniques use to build one.

Dan
btw - when cutting strips on a table saw, I don't push a whole plank through to cut a strip. I 1st cut 1.5 x 1.5 blanks and that is what the strips are cut from. They are a lot easier to handle and you can rotate them to hi grade the strips. You also need infeed and outfeed tables and finger boards to control the stock. The strips come off very uniform. No planing needed.

Or a new builder starting out with limited funds, can use a simple Skilsaw, with a fence clamped to it, and produce the same, if not better strips.
Early on I met a builder that had stripped up his first canoe in his apartment ! He had no place for a table saw and infeed-outfeed tables. But he could cut his strips on his strongback, with a skilsaw outside in the driveway.

I consider myself lucky to have learned this method at the start, as I started with very limited tools and funds to buy them.

Now days I have a heated, 26x30 shop. I also have a tablesaw, just don't use it to cut strips.

Jim

 

[Gary Willoughby]

Garypete
I get cedar from a local mill right now he is not cutting cedar. The mill cuts landscape timbers and the clear boards he would put in a pile the price was 85 cents a board ft for clear boards. he only cuts 100 inch logs. this last summer I was able to get a life time supply of 10 ft ash boards 10 to 12 inches wide clear for also 85 cents a board ft. I have not had trouble with my sanding belts getting filled with sawdust.