New neighbor is building a nice house next door. Exterior walls and all the trim are fiber cement sheeting and 1x's. He gifted me about $1K worth of scraps. Got plans for lots of bird houses and other outdoor type projects. Just started playing with it today. It cuts fine with the correct blade. I cut 4 pieces of 1x4's, 12" long and clamped them up for the sides of a small box.
To fasten the corners going thru the face of one board into the end grain of the other, I tried:
Drilling a shallow pilot hole in the face and hammer and nail -- both pieces split
Drilling a thru hole in the face and hammer and nail --- end grain split badly
Drilling a thru hole in the face and half way into the end grain hammer and nail into the end grain --- end grain split
Drilling a thru hole in the face and half way into the end grain then a deck screw that only went into about 1/2" undrilled -- end grain split
I don't have a masonry bit smaller than 1/8" so I can't drill a complete pilot hole for the screw, but I'm guessing it would split anyway.
Got frustrated and quit for today
I've got a nail gun that shoots 15 ga finish nails (galvanized). Going to try that tomorrow. If that doesn't work, anybody got a trick for working with this stuff?
Thanks