Conference 7.286::home_work

    I don't know of any plans, but this mught be helpful.  
    I just bought a box of thin toungue & groove red ceder planks from Sundeen
    Lumber in Manchester, NH.  It is sold for lining closets but I
    lined an antique oak amoire that I just refinished.  I plan to put
    shelves in it and use it for sweaters.  I can't recall exactly how
    many square feet of ceder are in the box, but I'll check if you
    are interested.  I installed it with Liquid Nails, a construction
    adhesive marketed for putting up paneling. You could use these planks
    to turn any chest into a ceder chest (providing the chest has a
    reasonably good seal).  It seems to be nice quality wood too.  My
    daughter commented that my workshop smells like a hamster cage now,
    so I guess the ceder smell is pretty strong.

I've seen those same boxes of cedar planks at Somerville Lumber.  They are 
about 3" wide, and maybe 3/8" thick, milled with a tongue and groove.

Does anyone know where I could get some plain red cedar at a good price?  I'm 
making a blanket chest too, and lining it with cedar, but I've got to believe 
that if you can buy it pre-packaged and milled at Somerville for about $2.50 a 
bdft, I must be able to get a much better deal elsewhere.  I have a bandsaw, so 
I can resaw thicker stock to make thin boards for lining.  Does Palmer-Parker
have it?

Paul

>if you can buy it pre-packaged and milled at Somerville for about $2.50 a 
>bdft, I must be able to get a much better deal elsewhere.  

     I think the price of the pre-packaged cedar is much less than $2.50/bd
    ft.  Isn't it around $24/16bd feet?
   

>     I think the price of the pre-packaged cedar is much less than $2.50/bd
>    ft.  Isn't it around $24/16bd feet?

The packages I saw were about 20 square feet, and were about $24. (I *think* 
they were 20 square feet anyway, maybe it was 16).  But considering that it's 
only 3/8" thick, of which two can be resawed from a 1" board, that's about 10 
board feet for $24 or $2.40/bdft (or 8 board feet for $24, thus $3.00/bdft)

Paul

>The packages I saw were about 20 square feet, and were about $24. (I *think* 
>board feet for $24 or $2.40/bdft (or 8 board feet for $24, thus $3.00/bdft)

    You're right.  So maybe you can make it yourself for less money.
    
    >But considering that it's only 3/8" thick, of which two can be resawed
>    from a 1" board, 

	Can you really do that with a band saw? (Slice a 1x4 into 2)?

>	Can you really do that with a band saw? (Slice a 1x4 into 2)?

You betcha.  A lot of people consider resawing to be the primary function of the
band saw, as opposed to cutting curves.  With the saw I have, I can cut a 1x6, 
and if I bought an extender block set (a mere $39.95), I could cut a 1x12.  For
this chest, I'll cut the cedar in half, down to about 3/8", and I'll do the same
thing with some oak, and then glue the two together.  I'll then have a bunch of 
boards that are oak-on-the-outside-cedar-on-the-inside, out of which I'll make 
the blanket chest.

I could also, if I wanted, slice off 1/8" thick veneers.  I plan to do just that
with some exotic woods I got at a tremendous discount, and glue the veener to 
something cheap-but-strong, like maple.  That way, I'll be able to make an 
East-Indian Rosewood dining room table.  :^)

Paul

    Many years ago I ordered plans for a hope chest from a company called
    Furniture Designs (I think I saw them in Popular Mechanix).  Their
    pitch was that they sent full-size plans, which they did, which
    I used.  I was very happy with them and with the results.
    
    They should still be advertising in Workbench or PM or several of
    those mags.  If I can find one of the old plans at home, I'll post
    the address.
    
    Pete

    Addendum to .-1
    
    Furniture Designs
    1425 Sherman Avenue
    Evanston, IL 60201
    
    Catalog with 180 items is $2 (refundable with first order).  Plans
    range from $5 to $20, as I remember.

 Does anyone know if red aromatic cedar ,refered to in .1, is availble 
in a clear grade? I have found prepackaged stuff in quite a few places,
sold as closet liner, but it is all knotty. I plan to use this on a 
bathroom wall.


Thanks,
Jim

    Yikes, don't use aromatic cedar to line a bathroom (or anything
    else that size).  Not only will the cost kill you, that amount of
    aromatic cedar will drive you as well as the moths crazy.

    P F O'Connor stocks regular western red cedar (it smells nice too)
    in various grades.  But if you don't want knots be prepared for
    sticker shock. 1x8 clear T&G red cedar was $2.85/lft last time I
    looked.   My calculations show a 6x10 bathroom would run you about
    $1200 for siding.
    
    I used knotty red cedar in a bath.  Looks/smells great.  And you
    don't need a shower stall - water can just run down the cedar walls.

    Jim, when did you get that price?  I bought some 1x6 clear T&G red
    ceder about a year ago and paid $.90/lft.  Has it gone up that much
    since then?
    
    - Mark

 
     Grossmans had the knotty red aromatic cedar on sale a couple weeks
    ago at $1/sq ft, regular around $1.46/sq. ft. Currier has it at 
    $1.25/sq ft They also has some hardwoods around at around $3/sq ft
    (at this price I'm tempted to bevel some oak flooring myself).
    I don't remember the price of the clear red cedar, but it was high 
    and at Currier only in 3/4" thick. All the other paneling (?) I have
    seen comes prepackaged is T&G, beveled, 5/16" thick and some of it 
    edge matched (is that the right term for T&G across the width ?).     
 
     One likely candidate is some clear incense cedar at Builders Square,
    $25 for a 21 sq ft package. The package says this is the same stuff
    pencils are made of and that the smell will dissipate in time. It is 
    much more brown than red.
  


     I plan to do only one 8 x 8 wall. Anything I get I will likely
    seal. I didn't think the smell would be too overpowering for the 
    aromatic cedar and I like the look of the wood. I have a brochure
    with a bathroom lined with it. In the end I will probably buy what 
    I can find on sale at Grossmans or Builders Square.


    Jim F.

    re .11
    
    Sunday Globe PFOconner flyer a few weeks ago.   But I just noticed
    in yesterday's paper that the price had gone down to around $2/lft.
    
    Grossmans and Somerville have some cedar products now, too.  Good
    news for getting the price down.  

    I called one of the producers (George C. Brown & Co. Greensboro N.C.)
   of the packaged red aromatic cedar closet lining and was told that it
   wasn't available in a clear grade. The woman I spoke to told me that if
   I wanted clear I would have to use a different species. 

    This brings up another question I have always wondered about, why does 
   oak (at least in factory products) seldom seem to have any knots. Does 
   all knotty oak end up burned in wood stoves and kilns or does something
   in their respective growth process produce few knots in oak and many in
   aromatic (eastern and southern) red cedar.   

   RE .13
    I don't particularly like the smell, I just like the appearance of the
   wood. 
           

    Cedar has a different growth pattern than oak which accounts for
    the knots. If you've ever seen a live aromatic cedar and compare
    with an oak i think you'll get the picture. I have never seen clear
    cedar and have used a lot in different projects (1000+bdft).
    It looks real nice with a clear finish but dont count on the finish
    to seal in the fragrance tho it will lessen it a great deal.
    
    -j
    

    re. knots
    
    The center of an oak log actually has a lot of knots.  Sawmills saw the
    logs from the outside in, leaving a square center cross section
    that typically becomes a railroad tie, since it's so full of knots, as
    to be useless for furniture lumber.
    
    Bob