Flipping Bevel Cedar Siding

[Jeff Lardy]

I've taken the 3/4 x 10 bevel siding off my house, about 2000 lf. There is lead paint on the smooth side that I intend to leave as undisturbed as possible. We have good dust collection and are using half face masks with p100 filters. My plan is to build a sloped stationary bed for my planer at the appropriate angle and run the rough sawn side through the planer, after ripping a small amount off the bottom edge. I will put rollers in my sloped bed under the feed rollers to keep the siding moving and reduce the knife dips caused by stalling. I'm looking for ways to reduce snipe and improve production, as well as sources for accurate, affordable rollers. The material is quarter sawn and flat. After milling I plan to epoxy the nail holes and demolition marks and prime and paint. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Mel Fulks]

If the siding is flat sawn and was installed correctly it is "bark side out". If you use the other side it won't hold paint as well. I think I would have just painted it and called it "encapsulating" lead. Good luck ,but I think it is much more dangerous to you removed than it was up.

[John A langley]

It seems like an awful lot of work I think I Would buy Hardie board and be done with it, Mel makes an excellent point

[Jeff Lardy]

I should have explained that this is part of a larger project to upgrade my windows and add 3" of exterior polyiso rigid insulation, as well as a rain screen treatment, but I have a good handle on those details.

[Rich Enders]

Jeff,

You did not say how long the boards are, but if not too long, a sled may work better than a sloped bed with rollers.

[scott vroom]

If the siding is flat sawn and was installed correctly it is "bark side out".

OP: "The material is quarter sawn and flat"

[David Helm]

In this area of the country where most cedar siding comes from, it is generally installed rough side out. Paint holds better on the rough side. I would not plane the siding. Just turn it around and prime and paint.

[Mel Fulks]

Scott,I read it twice and still missed that. Thanks.

[scott vroom]

Mel, me too...lol. I first saw the words "sawn" and "flat".....and it registered as "flat sawn".

[Jeff Lardy]

To describe the boards a better way, they are clear vertical grain, and not cupped. The lengths vary from very short to 16'. There are enough defects from nails and prybars that I wouldn't get a very good rough sawn look after patching with epoxy. I too think a bed that moves would have some advantages, but I have so many lengths and so many pieces I would prefer a stationary bed solution.

[Peter Quinn]

Make the bed slippery, like melamine or UHMW plastic so stuff doesn't stick to it, skip the wheels, those are in the planer bed for rough stock and are generally set flush or close to the bed for finished planing. As for the rest, can you affix a HEPA dust filter on your dust collector and TS? You will be pulverizing lead after all, nasty stuff in any gray quantity when aspirated. Snipe may happen at the lead in and out but not much is going to help that.

[phil harold]

I approve of this message!

In this area of the country where most cedar siding comes from, it is generally installed rough side out. Paint holds better on the rough side. I would not plane the siding. Just turn it around and prime and paint.

[Pat Barry]

I was planning to do this on a small garage building with badly peeling paint over cedar siding. I spent quite a while going thru the material, sorting it into useful material and separating out the parts that I couldn't use due to cracking and splitting. Then I realized the boards were cut specifically to be put up in a particular orientation. The bevel angle and the bottom edge were cut with specific angles. Now you are planning to rip cut the bottom edges which is a good plan - be sure to get the proper angle there. That may fix the issue I had. The other problem is replacing the damaged and useless pieces. I found the new cedar was pretty expensive and I needed to replace quite a lot of it. I finally decided all the work wasn't worth it to me so I replaced it with another product.

[Mark Wooden]

Are you going to close the exposure down after making the siding smaller?

[Jeff Lardy]

Yes- my exposure will be reduced a little over an inch

[Peter Kelly]

Sounds pretty labor-intensive to plane down all that stock. Also, lead.

If replacement with new Clear or VG Heart Clear is too expensive, I'd price out the cost of replacement with other cedar grades (pre-primed clear finger-jointed, architect knotty, etc).

[Kieran Kammerer]

Sounds like an OSHA nightmare.