Lucas clapboard attachment

[chep]

I was approached by a local builder looking for clapboards. Lucas sells the attachment for under 300$. Has anyone used it? Feedback? Advice?
I generally saw hemlock and pine and feel like it would be a decent market. Considering the thickness of the clapboards you can get a lot from one log!
 I know the logs have  to be pretty decent quality. Should clapboard be dry or can they go up green?
Thanks in advance! 

[Don P]

Isn't it just a chock that stops the swing short?
Dry.

[longtime lurker]

Never seen one but I've seen the resulting product: it's okay for a rough sawn board. What it's not is an 1½" board that's been split through a resaw then run through a moulder, but that should go without saying. (Guess I'm trying to say something about customer expectation there, that's not on the mill but it's going to have that roughsawn/ rustic look)

Around here they would be laid up green, or only partially seasoned. One of the joys of that big overlap is it allows for wood shrinkage, like board and batten siding the idea was to enable fast efficient construction in a time when drying meant racking it out for a year per inch thickness. But them old guys also had stable old growth logs that didn't cup so much in drying too, so that may create some issues 

[47sawdust]

I would be inclined to put them up green.
They would likely be turning into potato chips if left to dry w/o some means of control.

[Don P]

The sun sees one face and it is well ventilated. It doesn't see the other face and it is poorly or non vented. I have made tater chips that way.

The traditional siding here was circle sawn 5/8x6 untapered tulip poplar. Give it a few months on sticks while you frame.
Around the 30's rabbeted and coved, molded "novelty" siding took off here. bevelled clap came in here in the 70's with western cedar. My own house is WRC in the rabbeted "dolly varden" pattern.

[chep]

@Don P yes it is essentially just a stop that you can insert into the lucas system. It only changes the vertical orientation of the blade. So when you flip the blade horizontally it stays flat. 
One question i have is that i dont see how you can take advantage of grain orientation as you move down through the log. You can only cut clapboards in one position.  One of the tremendous advantages of the swingblade mill is being able to cut on x and y as you move through the log essentially quartersawing/rift sawing the whole thing  capturing the best grain. But with the clapboard attachment you cant seem to do that. All the clapboards come off the same orientation.  
Does that make any sense?  There is only 1 vid ive found on the utube and its made by lucas and more just goes through the setup. 
Thanks for the input!

[Don P]

One of those back burner ideas is to make a set of stands for each end of the log. A large lag is driven into the heart at each end of the log and it is set in V's in the end stands, free to rotate. An index wheel lets the log turn in fixed increments. Make a series of horizontal cuts to true a faceted diameter then swing vertical, center over the pins and begin vertical slices, spinning the siding thickness with each pass. With a traditional clapboard mill the pieces are then broken off the core and lifted off the log. I think after 1/4 of the log has been removed that way you could begin swinging horizontal to release them. They are all vertical grain then.

[chep]

Don p yes that is how they seem to do it on a large scale. In the archives i found a cool old machine that someone linked at the fryberg fair that did exactly what you describe. 
I guess another way to ask my question is if flat sawn clapboards will hold together?  It seems like looking at all the wrc claboards on my house they are mostly quarter sawn

[Don P]

Most of the pine siding I've seen looks like mill run. It sounds like a conversation with the builder explaining everything that has come up in the thread and see what his ideas/expectations are?

[47sawdust]

Chep,
Their is a clapboard mill in Moretown,Vermont that saws nothing but ¼sawn spruce for clapboards.
Pretty fascinating to watch in action.

[240b]

my neighbor makes clapboards on the same kind of mill
 it seems as though maybe 30% tend to warp after install 
 1/4 sawn spruce clapboards are the gold standard.  our house is 125 yo, 
1/4 sawn spruce still holding excellently 

[Bruno of NH]

On utube there is a guy from Maine that made his own clapboard mill.
He makes clear white pine claps.
He goes to the Fyrburg fair every year and shows his homemade mill.
He air dries his claps.