How to use DeWalt Planer to make clapboards taper more?

[Doug Hobkirk]

I am constructing a bonsai shed on the side of my house which has cedar clapboards.

The studs/ledgers attaching to the house will be 6.5" and 8.5" (top plate [?] for rafters).
I "should" cut through the claps to the barrier paper and sheathing, but I want this to be reversible for at least one year.
I want the shed to seal pretty well, so I need to fill in the triangular spaces on each clapboard.
I cannot simply use a foam filler or caulk because that would damage the paint (stain) on my existing clapboards.
I'd planned to trim the bottom 2" of some new claps (leaving 4" which matches my existing "exposure") but quickly realized that that would not work - the thin edge would protrude significantly.


Time for new thinking. I am still thinking for the vertical studs, use claps reversed but I would need to make them level. I have a planer. I could make a base of claps (6.5" wide) that imitate my existing house, use 2-sided tape to adhere 6.5" wide new pieces of clapboard to them, and run them through the planer until I reached the "base" layer.

But how can I ignore all the Sawmill Creek expertise? My questions:

Is the planer idea plausible? The new claps are hemlock and pre-primed (!). After planing and prep is done, I will prime and stain before installing. My planer blades have been used a fair amount but I am pretty sure they don't have any nicks and I have never had any problems planing. Or will hemlock clapboards just probably explode if run through a planer?
What is you much better idea? Neither I nor my band saw are good enough to scribe the 2x6's plus the T1-11 type sheathing (that's why I talk about 6.5").


And here are some pictures. In the probable case that I have not expressed myself well.

326303 326304 326305

Thanks

[Matt Day]

Why can't you scribe it? Compass and a jigsaw/circular saw should do it.

It's difficult for me to really wrap my head around exactly what's going on and the structure you're building.

[David L Morse]

Scribe a thin trim piece and apply to the outside?

[Roger Nair]

So if I understand you to mean you want to fill the space between studs mounted flat against the siding, then I think your taking the wrong approach. Would it be easier to apply say some sort of compressible foam tape to the stud or use some type of chinking that's non adhesive? The whole image of taping 6.5" pieces of siding and sending that thru a planer is a recipe for ruin.

[Prashun Patel]

I've used the DW735 to plane tapers before.

You basically hot melt glue or doubleside tape a batten under one side and then run it through the planer. You have to make sure it's secured well. if you have to make a few of them, you could make a dedicated cradle (with an appropriate heel) for it.

If your pieces don't have to be gluable-clean on the non-show side, then I'd probably just take time to set up a bandsaw to rip them all.

If your pieces are less than 12" long, I wouldn't do this.

[Doug Hobkirk]

OP here -
Maybe this will clarify for those that don't grasp what I am trying to do -
326314 326315

[Doug Hobkirk]

Why can't you scribe it? Compass and a jigsaw/circular saw should do it.

It's difficult for me to really wrap my head around exactly what's going on and the structure you're building.


Scribe a thin trim piece and apply to the outside?

I will be butting up against the clapboards with a 2x6, an external T1-11 piece of plywood, and an internal piece of OSB or plywood. And it is important that there is little air infiltration.

If I had a flat 6.5" wide strip, the stud and the two panels could but up against it, seal pretty well, and look decent (I will paint the edges of the clapboard pieces before I install them).

The only damage to the underlying claps would be the few screw holes I make through them into the studs of the house.

[Jeff Duncan]

Hey, your right down the street from me! Small world!

Anyway your halfway there, except you don't use a sled to run the strips….way to cumbersome. Instead you make up a jig which is simply a plywood, (or mdf or whatever), base that sits on your planer base and one side gets shimmed up to the correct angle you need to cut. Then attach a small ledge to the bottom of the out feed side so it cannot come back out when in use. Now you'll need to attach 2 side strips slightly oversize the width your running to guide the pieces through. These should be as short as possible as you may have to remove material where they align with the planer feed rollers, so keep them about 1/4" or even a bit less. Once you get the sled built you'll need to install it on the planer table and lower the cutter head until the feed rollers hit, I usually do this with the jig well clamped and the planer running so the rollers and head leave marks. Take the jig back out and using a spindle sander or belt sander sand out the area where the feed rollers and cutter head make contact. Take this area down enough so they have a bit of clearance when your at the height needed to run your stock. You want the rollers feeding the stock and not rubbing the jig.

Anyway that's how I run my angled stock. Kind of difficult to explain in words but it's not that tough to build. I'll try to remember and take a pic of my jig when I get to the shop tomorrow….might help to see it.

good luck,
JeffD

[Jerry Miner]

A simple taper jig for the planer will do this for you (as described by Jeff Duncan above). Maybe a picture will help:

326351

Run a length of clapboard through, then cut into lengths as needed. You will find, though , that planing painted (or primed) material is very hard on planer knives---the paint generates a lot of heat and dulls the knives. If you can remove the paint from the surface to be planed, you'll be better off.

[John Lankers]

Doug, if you want to go the planer route, don't do what I did. My hand slipped and hit a knife while I tried to remove double stick tape from the planer bed, I don't want to get into to much detail :eek:.

[Pat Barry]

Why don't you just stuff the spaces between the studs and clapboards with insulation?

[Prashun Patel]

I would add a rear cleat to Jerry's diagram so that the piece will be held tight to the rear of the sled.

[Curt Harms]

A simple taper jig for the planer will do this for you (as described by Jeff Duncan above). Maybe a picture will help:

326351

Run a length of clapboard through, then cut into lengths as needed. You will find, though , that planing painted (or primed) material is very hard on planer knives---the paint generates a lot of heat and dulls the knives. If you can remove the paint from the surface to be planed, you'll be better off.

I did something very similar to that jig. I first tried melamine shelving from a box store. That didn't last 4 boards, the melamine wore through. Next was some scrap strips of HP laminate, that worked fine to add a lower friction surface.

[cody michael]

i agree with the scribe a line on a trim board idea, that plus some foam from a door/window sealing kit should make a good seal.

[Jason Mikits]

Why don't you just stuff the spaces between the studs and clapboards with insulation?

+1 Or tape a piece of plastic to the clapboard wider than your wall, build your wall, then use spray foam in between the gaps and use a knife to trim the foam and plastic even with the new temporary wall. It trims easily. (You could also pull up the plastic on one side, tape it to the wall, and spray in the foam from the opposite side.) Then you can paint it. It would be a better seal and not stick to your clapboard siding.

[michael langman]

Maybe if you had some extra clapboard siding like what is on the house you could reverse it so it has the angled side set onto the angled side on the house. Then the flat side of the many pieces of siding you have added could be attached to a flat 2x . Just a wild thought..

[Ken Higginbotham]

i agree with the scribe a line on a trim board idea, that plus some foam from a door/window sealing kit should make a good seal.

ditto - sounds good

[Eric Schmid]

The only reason I could see for attaching anything between the 2x studs and the exterior of the house is if you are going to be using the house wall as the back wall of your shed. From your description it sounds like you are adding T-111 over the 2x studs which will act as the back wall for your shed. If that is correct, why does the air space between the back wall of the shed and the house side need to be sealed?

As you mention the proper way to do this is to cut the siding and integrate the framing (or just build a freestanding shed). If you are attaching over the siding instead, the less wood to wood contact the better, at least for minimizing rot between the siding and studs. The studs should be painted on all sides before installed.

How are you going to seal the roof of the shed where it meets the house wall? Or are you going to make the shed roof independent of the house's exterior wall?

[Doug Hobkirk]

EDIT - This is all wrong. It's out of order with later posts.
So I retract everything I asked here.


A simple taper jig for the planer will do this for you (as described by Jeff Duncan above). Maybe a picture will help:

326351

Run a length of clapboard through, then cut into lengths as needed. You will find, though , that planing painted (or primed) material is very hard on planer knives---the paint generates a lot of heat and dulls the knives. If you can remove the paint from the surface to be planed, you'll be better off.

The graphic is really helpful. Thanks for the time and effort.

BUT IT'S WRONG, isn't it?

I had planned something like that, feeding the clapboard pieces in crosswise (unless I am misunderstanding the illustration).

But then I realized that I'd probably have lots of with the knives cutting into the grain, so I started building a similar sled that's 4' long and cuts a long piece of clapboard before I chop it into 6.5" wide pieces.

My proposed sled is 48" long, 12" wide, shimmed up on one side 1.5" (subject to testing), And I planned to trim the bottom 2" off the clapboards to eliminate unnecessary sawdust.

[Doug Hobkirk]

+1 Or tape a piece of plastic to the clapboard wider than your wall, build your wall, then use spray foam in between the gaps and use a knife to trim the foam and plastic even with the new temporary wall. It trims easily. (You could also pull up the plastic on one side, tape it to the wall, and spray in the foam from the opposite side.) Then you can paint it. It would be a better seal and not stick to your clapboard siding.

I like this! This might just happen. Depending on how complicated and effective the sled is. And it'd be nice to return most of the clapboard and get $40 back.

[Doug Hobkirk]

i agree with the scribe a line on a trim board idea, that plus some foam from a door/window sealing kit should make a good seal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Written with a smile.

This still might happen. I really liked the idea of solving the problem with my clapboard idea, but it's not working out as easy or cheap as I was hoping.

[Jeff Duncan]

Graphic is pretty much what I'm talking about. Here's a couple, (crappy cell phone) pics I took of my jig, end view first…you can just see the strip on the bottom which provides the angled cut. This is the out feed end of the jig, the infeed is where you place your cleat to keep the planer from feeding the jig through.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/JDWoodworking/IMG_1423.jpg (http://s762.photobucket.com/user/JDWoodworking/media/IMG_1423.jpg.html)

then a side view….you can see where stock has been removed for roller/cutterhead clearance.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/JDWoodworking/IMG_1422.jpg (http://s762.photobucket.com/user/JDWoodworking/media/IMG_1422.jpg.html)

Hopefully it makes a bit mores sense now? You simply pop the jig down on your planer bed and run your stock through lengthwise as normal. Then you cut to length. This particular jig is what I use to make beveled glass stops for interior doors. But you can configure it to run different widths/angles of stock.

good luck,
JeffD

[Doug Hobkirk]

Graphic is pretty much what I'm talking about. Here's a couple, (crappy cell phone) pics I took of my jig, end view first…you can just see the strip on the bottom which provides the angled cut. This is the out feed end of the jig, the infeed is where you place your cleat to keep the planer from feeding the jig through.

Hopefully it makes a bit mores sense now? You simply pop the jig down on your planer bed and run your stock through lengthwise as normal. Then you cut to length. This particular jig is what I use to make beveled glass stops for interior doors. But you can configure it to run different widths/angles of stock.

good luck,
JeffD

Thank you, now I comprehend.

I was thinking "sled" that I would feed through with the clapboard adhered to it. Your idea is reconfigure the base of the planer so I just feed the stock through.

Interesting. That might be safer. Or more dangerous. I need to think and maybe experiment.

[Jeff Duncan]

Safer….if done correctly;)

The key thing is making sure the feed rollers are in full contact with the stock and not the jig! As long as that detail is maintained it's as safe as running stock through the planer normally. I've probably run several thousand feet of material this way over the years and never had an incident. Most of it having been run through a small Delta 12-1/2" planer I used to keep around just for this application. I should also mention that a little wax on the jig helps keep stock moving through easily.

good luck,
JeffD

[Jason Roehl]

If you're looking to attach a stud to an exterior wall, I'd cut back the siding on that exterior wall to allow the stud to sit flat. And, if you don't intend to remove the siding, then I'd at least try to slip some 15# felt strips behind the siding and folded around the inside corner you've created. Trim the siding back far enough to either slip the T1-11 siding into the gap between the end of the siding and the stud, or insert a trim piece.