Tapered Shingle jig

[prittgers]

Has anyone used the Shingle Jig made in Illinois?  I saw some tapered shingles shaped like salmon.  If they could be cut on the Shingle Jig it would be pretty cool.

[Magicman]

I know nothing about shingles, but look who finally came up for air.  Welcome Back !!!   

[DanielW]

You certainly could make them, but keep in mind that shingles need to be tapered wider at the bottom, and both real shingle mills and those bandmill shingle attachments alter which end of the bolt is cut thick on each pass, in order to go evenly through the bolt and keep the grain as straight as possible. So if you plan on cutting your bolts into the salmon shapes and then cutting the shingles from that salmon-shaped bolt, it's probably not going to work, unless you somehow can make them double-ended and butt together properly. Looks to me like those are unusually tall shingles, and possibly have a second shingle between the salmon-shaped ones, hidden behind the reveal of the next layer? Very neat idea and good work by whoever did it

Shaped/custom/decorative shingles are usually cut into their custom shapes individually after they've been milled. Usually on a jig or skewed conveyor, but in the case of those salmon ones I suspect someone did a lot of bandsaw/scroll-saw work one-by-one after the fact.

Those shingle jigs do certainly work, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

- Saw cut direction: All the old timers don't like shingles cut like on a bandmill, because they say the saw line going perpendicular to the grain and across the shingles (rather than along their length) means they're more prone to slight grain tear-out and are more water permeable. While there's probably some truth to that, I don't think I'd worry about it too much: Properly cut and installed cedar shingles can last 100+ years. Even if ones cut on a bandmill don't last quite as long because of the grain vs. cut direction, I still suspect they'll outlive the person who milled/installed them by a substantial margin.

- Choosing the right bolts and cutting correctly: You see a lot of poorly-cut shingles off bandmills, simply because folks don't realize how important grade and a clear reveal are. Ideally at a minimum, you want enough clear/knot-free area on each bolt for the reveal. If you're cutting a 16" shingle with a 4" reveal, that means at least 4" on either end should be knot free. In this case it's not impossible to find suitable bolts; usually you can do it by bucking your bolts up with the knots in the centre. Those salmon ones, however, look more like an 8" reveal on maybe a 24" shingle, so from a 24" bolt you want at least 8" on either end to be knot free. It's going to be harder to come by 24" bolts with no knots for 8" at either end. There are definitely folks who use shingles with exposed knots, and on siding it's probably not as concerning: Remember, you probably have 3 or 4 layers of wood there, so if a few knots fall out there's still probably some clear wood behind it. But it'll certainly be more prone to leak/draft after a few decades if the layers beneath also have knots or develop cracks that overlap. And your salmon won't look much like salmon anymore if exposed knots start to fall out of their heads. This would be a concern if you wanted them to last a long time. If you only expected a 30 year life or so, I think you'd be fine with a few exposed knots, and many/most of them probably wouldn't fall out within that shorter time-frame.

- Wood selection: A lot of woods can make decent shingles, and the better ones are not always the species you'd think. A white pine shingle that's knot-free and cut from old-growth heartwood is preferable to knotty, fast-growth, cedar sapwood. If you really want your shingles to last, you have to have a higher grade log selection and be pretty ruthless in what logs/bolts you discriminate.

- Speed: Those shingle attachments are fine if you have lots of time and are doing a small amount for personal use, but you can't make money off them, and you have to value your time at a pretty low rate to make them worthwhile. Look at a real-time video of one of those attachments being used (good luck finding one, because all the videos promoting them from the various manufacturers either gloss over or speed-up the cutting part). Then compare that to a regular shingle mill like the one in this video: Shingle sawyer - YouTube

Lots of folks see how expensive shingles are and think that it'll be a great money spinner addition to their milling: they can use the offcuts from their saw logs and sell shingles for $100/bundle. In reality, it usually doesn't work like that. The off-cuts from saw logs are seldom shingle-quality, and cutting them is so slow that you'd have made far more money to go find some more saw logs and mill them into lumber.

If you're considering this for your own use or on a small scale, or for some unique decorative shingles, I highly recommend buying the jig and having fun. You won't regret it, and there are plenty of worse ways to spend time/money. And those attachments can usually do lap siding as well, which you'll definitely find a use/market for. If you're hoping that shingles will be a lucrative money-spinner, however, you might be disappointed.