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A little love for the old stuff
I was clearing out an area at my home last year for a couple of firewood drying racks and found some remnants of an old split rail fence buried under a pile of debris. I found a couple of pieces of cedar that seemed like they had potential and set them aside. Last week I grabbed an old post on the way to the shop to see if it would work for a project. I needed to make a post for a low voltage lighting photocell and wanted to deliver something other than a 2x2 to the customer. Here is how it progressed.
I thought to share the experience, not because the piece is special, but because I don't often get an opportunity to work with the quality of cedar that this humble post contains. I have been building decks, fences and outdoor structures since the 80's and have watched the quality of this beautiful wood decline to the point that I find myself recommending alternative materials for outdoor structures. I work clear cedar primarily, but the material coming out of mills today is nothing like what I found under the crusty exterior of this old post.
The first step was to plane one side flat. Then I grabbed the track saw and made an edge at 90 degrees to the face. Now that I had two flat reference surfaces, I took it to the band saw to cut the back face. A little more work with the plane to smooth it out. Then to the table saw to cut the edges at 22.5 degrees. Back to the band saw to cut the curves. A little cleanup with sandpaper and a couple more passes with the plane for good measure.
