Milling Shake Shingle Siding On A Home Owner’s Sawmill 

i agree and Boss lady not too shabby either .

Great information. Thanks! I live in Redwood country, by the way.

White cedar needs no finish, optional. I prefer to let it gray. My introduction to white cedar was a house sidewall sawn shingles,, the nails were rusted through and the house was shedding like an old bison in the spring. We removed all the shingles, stacked and saved most of them, cleaned the wall,, I have developed a strong preference for 30# felt ,(,flatter, fewer staples, better adhesion at the back) and something just south of 3/4s of the shingles flipped over and reused. Only one wall got the new stock. Haven't seen it in a couple of decades, but looked just fine 25 years after. The Quincy Marketplace in downtown Boston, built 1826,,as waterfront docks and wharves,, the foundation is cedar logs, a horizontal wooden raft buried in the mud.. That is a solid granite building sitting on top. This is 200 years later,, likely good for another 500 years. BTW Hemlock is NOT white cedar Two distinctly different species. Two distinctly different expectations of longevity. I know the names are used interchangeably in the northwest,,,, ain't so though. Eastern white cedar,,, hard to impossible to get anymore is a separate animal. Bundles per square? Up to the sawyer. 3, 4 and 5 bundles to the square all normal

Aren't wood shingles applied wet (dipped in water) to expand when installing? Thanks.

@@yopage No. They should be on site to acclimate, just as any wood product. Roof shingles are laid so there are at least 3 layers at any given point,,a 16 inch sawn shingle will have a maximum exposure of about 4.5 inches,, side wall shingling minimum double so about a 6 inch exposure. 18 inch shingles proportional about 5 inch max on the roof and 7 inch max on the side wall. Shakes,, which are split not sawn often 24 inch lengths,, 6.5 to 7 inch on the roof and up to 9 on the side wall. Spacing is often quoted as the thickness of a 6d nail (the most likely nail you are using for assembly) My take on it,, if the shingles are a bit wet, I use a tight spacing (no space) If the shingles are dead dry, I space quite loosely. Two nails per,, no matter the width and just above where the next course will cover,, Shingles selected so that no vertical seam is withing 2 inches of any seam within the last two rows for sidewalls and 1.5 inches of any seam within the three rows below for roofs. Stainless 7/16 X 2.0 crown staples work well just do not set the gun pressure too high, damages the shingle. A bit of a picky choosey job,, art,, keeps your brain engaged. Copper only for flashings,, cedar tends to eat steel and aluminum. A well done job in red cedar good for 40 to 50 years,, good job in Eastern white cedar 50 or 60 years on the roof double that on a sidewall. Expensive.

@@Sailor376also Ok, Thank You. I didn't think about the wood shingles needing to acclimate like say, wood flooring. You are right about how long the roofs last. I tore a cedar roof off a house in Seattle. If you've been there you would see that cedar roofs there have about 3 inches of solid green moss on top if they are not kept washed. Same with this one, about 35 years old. But I couldn't believe when I tore in that all the shingles were pretty and red like they had just been laid. There was no damage at all to any of the structure below. I think if these roofs are maintained, they will last a good long while.

Very true Mr Holman! People can be very critical of others when they hide behind typed words. These young ladies are prime examples of good people and a wonderful work ethic. Most people older than these ladies could learn alot from them.

We old timers called that a cheater bar. Works great, and with a bigger piece of pipe on a wrench on a tow ball nut, a much easier job on or off. Very good suggestion! 👍🏻

I completely shattered a large bench vise trying to remove a tow ball nut from a hitch receiver with a long cheater bar.

@@TheMonkdad Did you get a bigger bench vise after that? Shatter does happen.

Cupping is avoided by quarter sawing the shingles. I would expect all of the ones they are sawing from 6x6 blocks of heartwood will have serious issues with cupping. This part of why shingles were traditionally made from full rounds, which were split into quarters, the worked alternating split sides, and that produces 100% vertical grain until the width is small enough that the warpage doesn’t matter.

Jade did most of the actual work, but it looks like fun work to do and I can nearly smell the wood from here-

Leverage makes work smarter and definitely would ease loosening the clamp afterwards.

Jade is doing the sawing-

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw them. Unless it's painted as a siding but still its risky. Also no knots on the exposed area. They could prob hand split them faster if they hired a pro splitter. No setup and takes about 2-4 sec per shingle

I'm guessing Em did the camera for the action-shots of Jade and Grandpa, girls switched for narration-shots-

Wassup buddy glad to see you here. I watch you as well. Happy holiday weekend to ya.

@@larss592 😊👍 many many years ago i had a wood mizer. Was only a few years after the company started.

@@ccrx6700 Hah! Wish I had one before. It would have changed the direction of my woodworking.

Great suggestion. Boss Man.

aka grub screw

That's exactly what I was thinking.

@@aowi7280 Great minds think alike

@@irvinwittmeier5208 As long as their not grubbin' on the nubbins, it should work.

Same thought here. 👍

Beat me to it ... and with a cordless drill, quick work of it ... and will prevent the "Flipping" issue.

I have an older woodmizer shingle lapsider attachment, and the one I have does clamp the blocks on sideways instead of inline like theirs. Wonder why they changed it?

I always pre-drill also. A tiny 12v cordless is plenty. Keep joints at least 1 1/2" apart from course to course.

I always hidden-nail with 3 2" staples per shingle.