: Hello,

: I went to the lumberyard ALONE yesterday! I bought some 8-9 ft. Northern
: White Cedar boards- wide select. The widest was 13.5", the narrowest
: was 8". For wide select I have to pay $2.60 a board ft.rough sawn.
: Last time they came out at 7/8" planed with almost no knots. . . .
It eats on me because I
: reeeeeally want to keep working on it, but I am on a screen porch in
: Wisconsin where nothing will set up..glue or epoxy. Anyway, is this a good
: price?

To answer that with another question: If we say that this is NOT a good price, will you build with it anyway?

Seriously, though, without looking at the wood, or knowing how big the knots are or where they were located it is really difficult to try to grade the wood by long-distance. And the price of the wood is going to be dependant on the grade and the size. With that caveat, the prices sounds fair. You may be paying a premium for those wide planks, but it does not seem onerous.

If you could get a better price on boards that were 6 inches wide, then you should have taken it. After all, you are going to be ripping these things into 1/4 inch strips, so starting with a 13.5 inch wide plank is not necessary. In fact, you'll probably want to rip that in half, or in thirds before you start ripping your strips just so it is more manageable.

I'd take the 8 inch wide piece and rip it into two even pieces about 4 inches wide, which I would scarf together into a 14 to 16 foot board. I maight even take the 13.5 inch one, rip it into thirds, and make 2 scarf joints to give me a 4 inch plus board that was about 24 to 25 feet long. Then I'd rip these long boards into strips. the real long strips (greater than 20 feet) are obviously going to overhang the ends of the boat by a considerable amount. This can be a good thing as the excess is going to be so long that it won't be wasted.

Obviously, you have to have enough room to work with such long strips or the idea is useless.

As for your screen porch: While you are set up to rip strips, run a few common 1x4s or 1x3s (pine, spruce, fir, whatever is cheap at the lumeryard) through the saw. Get a few rolls of polyethylene plastic, your trusty stapler (same 9/16th staples wil be fine) and those strips, and cover the screens of that porch. One edge of the plastic is wrapped around a 1/4 inch strip, which is held against the side of a window. A few well placed staples holds it in place. Finish the other sides by sandwiching the plastic between the existing window and your strips. In spring you can just rip off the strips, bringing the staples and well-wron plastic with them, and trash the whole mess.

In a few minutes you'll have your porch winterized. Work when the sun is out, and it will get pretty warm -- probably 50 to 60 degrees. Add a space heater to extend the hours you can work there, or to raise the temperature a few more degrees.

An alternative to an expensive space heater is to use the radiant heat of a few 300 to 500 watt halogen lights. Aim them at your work, from at least a 3 foot distance. Those things get hot, heating the surrounding air, and they project a lot of their heat as infrared, warming whatever they are aimed at. As long as you cut down the air circulation by sealing the windows you should be able to retain enough of that heat to be able to work.

hope this helps.

PGJ