I have 1/2 x 10 inch plain bevel redwood siding on my home. I need to
replace some damaged boards, but can only find 3/4" siding. Anyone
have ideas about building a jig for a planer or jointer to bring the
thickness down to 1/2 inch? What I'm puzzled over is the thin edge of
the bevel is quite fragile and can split if handled roughly. Thought
I'd start with the experts. Any ideas would be helpful.
Mike in Oregon

Dust Boy wrote:
I have 1/2 x 10 inch plain bevel redwood siding on my home. I need to
replace some damaged boards, but can only find 3/4" siding. Anyone
have ideas about building a jig for a planer or jointer to bring the
thickness down to 1/2 inch? What I'm puzzled over is the thin edge of
the bevel is quite fragile and can split if handled roughly. Thought
I'd start with the experts. Any ideas would be helpful.

The easiest way to make up a jig would undoubtedly be to place a piece
of the siding on a backerboard w/ guides and lay the piece to be milled
other-end-to so it is then parallel to the bed of the planer and
supported it's full length/width.

Not knowing the precise profile, I'd be concerned if you take a full
quarter off, you'll end up w/ a paper thin side on the already thin
side which as you've noted, as fragile to begin with.

If there's much at all that needs to be replaced, you may want to
consider having some milled to match.

dpb wrote:
Dust Boy wrote:
I have 1/2 x 10 inch plain bevel redwood siding on my home. I need to
replace some damaged boards, but can only find 3/4" siding. Anyone
have ideas about building a jig for a planer or jointer to bring the
thickness down to 1/2 inch? What I'm puzzled over is the thin edge of
the bevel is quite fragile and can split if handled roughly. Thought
I'd start with the experts. Any ideas would be helpful.

The easiest way to make up a jig would undoubtedly be to place a piece
of the siding on a backerboard w/ guides and lay the piece to be milled
other-end-to so it is then parallel to the bed of the planer and
supported it's full length/width.

Not knowing the precise profile, I'd be concerned if you take a full
quarter off, you'll end up w/ a paper thin side on the already thin
side which as you've noted, as fragile to begin with.

If there's much at all that needs to be replaced, you may want to
consider having some milled to match.

Only need around 6 10' pieces. Thats why I thought playing around with
this could be a great savings over having some milled. Your suggestion
ahs given me some ideas. Since what I need is to beable to plane a
bevel edge. i:e: not taking so much off the thin side. Thanks for
your idea I'll work on it some more.

Mike

What do you mean by "damaged"? Since good quality heart redwood
doesn't rot, you may have dried and split boards from the effects of
sun and rain. Some cracks may be fixed by using a mixture of epoxy and
redwood sawdust to fill-in. If the siding is unpainted redwood, these
would certainly be more challenging though. The other thing to
consider is that the thicker 3/4" siding would be nicer than the 1/2"
for durability if the lumber quality is otherwise the same. 1/2" is
pretty thin for a 10 inch wide board.


Dust Boy wrote:
I have 1/2 x 10 inch plain bevel redwood siding on my home. I need to
replace some damaged boards, but can only find 3/4" siding. Anyone
have ideas about building a jig for a planer or jointer to bring the
thickness down to 1/2 inch? What I'm puzzled over is the thin edge of
the bevel is quite fragile and can split if handled roughly. Thought
I'd start with the experts. Any ideas would be helpful.
Mike in Oregon