Anyone ever milled lap siding at home?

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I did my house with poplar, very nice.
HIRE THE WOODMIZER with siding fixture. It's amazing fast!
Start with 1 1/8 boards, so they are robust.
Build a pair of the little tools for hanging siding.
Use stainless ring nails, with heads.
Don't nail through the board underneath.
Nail into studs.
WL
 
I did my house with poplar, very nice.
HIRE THE WOODMIZER with siding fixture. It's amazing fast!
Start with 1 1/8 boards, so they are robust.
Build a pair of the little tools for hanging siding.
Use stainless ring nails, with heads.
Don't nail through the board underneath.
Nail into studs.
WL

I have never seen clabboard siding that did not go through two courses. Nail about half an inch up from the bottom. A 4 inch to the weather is about 5 1/2 inch total. The cedar siding for sale around here is planed and rounded corners and of course dried.

I did buy one of those attachments to make the siding out of cants. I have yet to try it on a manual mill, the hydraulic one was frustrating getting the blade to go down just the right amount. Chances are my cants will move as 40% is turned into lap siding before turning. Then how to dry it. I am going to try the tilted resaw method next which is what I think you mean Woodmizer siding fixture.
 
I got it pretty dry before cutting the siding.
I made 1 1/8 boards, set the fixture and blade to do the split for two equal boards, and ran them through.
The fixture has its own feed wheels and the head stays locked in position and elevation.
It's fast. You can do a house worth in a day, I think. Feed rate is adjustable and is set about like regular cutting, I think.
I used 8" boards, but of course you can adjust to fit your logs. Set exposure as you like.
My sources say don't nail through the top edge, to avoid splitting.
Having the nail through the top edge does nothing for holding.
A headed ring nail can't be pulled out of a stud by warping wood.
My poplar is going on 20 yr old and remains in perfect shape. Pine on other buildings in fine too.
I built a trough out of 2X10s and poured in stain for dunking my siding. It's good to stain both sides and let it soak in.
I nailed some vertical battens to the ends of the tank, so I could stand the siding in them and knock off excess stain with a brush. It moves fairly quickly.
Of course you could stack and sticker green siding, which would dry pretty fast, then stain, but you'd have more warping.
I stacked and stickered for a while after dipping.
I think there were 600 boards, but not sure.
Poplar was the siding of choice for upscale colonial homes, often cut with a pitsaw, believe it or not. You can see it done at Williamsburg.
My siding is far superior to any I've seen in stores. No, not planed, but thicker and heavier.
WL
 
I also am very late for this thread, so this info is just to add to the knowledge base on siding. We used our Rip Saw (440 drive). Nice thing about a rip saw is that there is very little lost in the kerf as there would be with a chainsaw.20140526_121340_Moment.jpg 20140608_120657.jpg
 
I should add that the chain saw head is 044, (not 440), and the wood is Yellow Cedar, local wood off our property (Coastal PNW).
 
That's a RipSaw, driven by a Stihl 044 chain saw head. You can search the archives and see lots of info on them. You don't hear about them too much anymore. Very portable, very touchy with the setup and it cuts well when you get the setup right.
 

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