Architectural Designs

Smoothing cedar fence boards – surface plane? Or drum sand?

I am planning to rebuild a fence using common cedar fence boards. These are sold wet and rough. The last time I built, I cured the lumber for 3 months. I used a belt sander to smooth all sides. It came out really nice, but the sanding was no fun: 3 days of vibration, “sawdust-snowman”, inhaling cedar dust, cedar splinters in my eyes. At the time I told myself, “next time I am buying/renting a machine to smooth these boards”. I was thinking about a portable surface planer and rigging a vacuum exhaust. But I am not sure that the planer can handle all the warping cedar fence boards tend to have. Would a surface planner work for my application? I’ve also seen surface drum sanders, and I know these are specifically designed for this application. But it seems like there are only commercial (ie >$500) machines available? Any ideas?

Public Comments

1. James ~ Cedar knots are way too hard for your typical planar. Well, they are not too hard, but what will happen is that you will chip the blades and then it will leave all sorts of nasty raised lines on the boards. Otherwise the planar would be fine. Just plan on sanding a little and replacing the baldes afterwards. If the boards are wet, well, you only have the planar option. If the boards are somewhat dry, the surface sander is the best. I am unsure where to rent one, but I am sure you can somewhere, just keep looking. I would recommending surfacing the cedar with the surface sander.
2. My suggestion is that if you are buying the wood from a timber merchant they would probably put it through a 4 sider, to dress all sides in one pass, if they have a mill. If you are acquiring it from another source you may be able to get a mill to do it for you. Get on the phone for places in your area. Use the yellow pages.
3. I've run hundreds of board feet of maple and oak through a 15" surface planer and never chipped a cutter. The notion that cedar ( a conifer) is a hardwood is unfounded. Any planer should zip over a cedar knot. The problem would be popping the knot loose! By their nature, surface planers want to take the "warp" out of the board. Not a good solution for fence boards that have any curvature. I guess it's a personal thing, but I like cedar in its natural state. The only way I can think of to smooth the surface of a cupped fence board would be to use a flap wheel on a drill motor. That would be time consuming and very labor intensive. I guess I can't help very much here. Sorry.
4. Why do the fence boards need to be smooth? Cedar is rustic looking, so wouldn't the rough surface make a nicer statement? Not to mention cutting the work load in half.
5. warping or cupping?...warping to me means end to end curves...a planers rollers will take care of this as they pass through...cupping, side to side warp, means the planer and the sander will flatten these at the expense of final thickness...if warped either sander or planer...if cupped i would use belt sander to smooth and not worry about the cup. if your boards are thicker than you want then plane them all down to the same thickness and get rid of all cupping this way...