BANDSAW SHINGLE ATTACHMENT FABRICATION

[Polly]

  HAS ANYONE FABRICATED A GUIDE TO CUT SHINGLES OR SIDING FOR THEIR MILL PROVIDING YOU ARE NOT APPLYING FOR A PATENT WOULD YOU MIND SHARING THE DETAILS  THANKS AND  MERRY CHRISTMAS   

[Furby]

I have and would share, but it's pretty dangerous and can cause damage to your mill.

[Polly]

  I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN READING WHAT YOU CAME UP WITH SOMETIMES ONE PERSONS IDEAS WILL TRIGGER ANOTHER IDEA FROM SOMEONE ELSE AND FIRST THING YOU KNOW YOU GOT A USUABLE PRODUCT IF BILL GATES CAN DO WE CAN TO

[esteadle]

I didn't design this, I just thought it was a good idea.

I have a Timber Harvester 30HT25. It has a series of holes in a single line through each and every bed rail very close to the ears that hold the cants. I wondered what these holes were for, until I saw another T/H with what appeared to be a shingle / siding attachment on it.

A steel rod, maybe 5/8" in diameter ran down the length of the bed, through these holes in the bunks. On the end near the operator, was a "T" handle that one could grab and rotate the shaft 180 degrees. The T would lay flat either way it was flipped. On the shaft / rod, there was an offset cam after each bunk. When rotated one way, the T caused the cams to lift one side of the cant about 1/2" off the bed. When rotated the other way, the cams were out of the way and didn't affect the cut.

I figure this was the way to cut lap siding. Take a single cut with no offset to get a nice face, then throw the cam, take a cut and have a 1/2" thicker on the one side over the other. Then drop the cam, drop the blade to take the next cut, and you'd have another piece. Keep going until you get close to the pith, then flip the cant and go after the other side. To make a good run of siding, you'd want to use the same size cant every time.

[Polly]

  thanks for info i had thought about squaring up the cant and shiming up one side on the bed i did not know what size shim to use so half inch shim and then thickness on bottom would depend on width of cant on next cant i thought i could lay one of the shingles from first cut on bottom and put cant on top of it , i have got a bunch of three and half inch square  cants i am trying to think of a use for , thank you for the help and merry christmas to you and yours

[eamassey]

No, I have not tried this.  However, please post the characteristics of a wood shingle, and I would like to think about how to do it, and what machinery would be required.   How long is a wood shingle?  Are they tapered?  Angle, or thickness of thick and thin end?  Any special orientation of the grain?  Also, any problem with sawed shingles, I thought that they were supposed to be split? 

I found and bought an old "froe", the hand splitting tool for shingles.  This is one item in my maybe hundred item list, to hand split enough wood shingles to roof a small out-building - - - more or less as a demonstration project.

Finally, what wood species make the best shingles.  My childhood memories, 50 to 60 years ago, are that that there were a lot of wood shingle roofs, though all old, and they were all heart white oak. (I am in southwest Arkansas.)

[Polly]

    I do not know the shingle dimentions either ,i was at antique machnery  show in georgetown ohio last fall and their was a steam tractor hooked  to a shingle cutter  and they were sawing shingles i think one at a time ,i did not have my bandsaw at this time so i did not look closly at the shingles they had sawed out i to would like to more about this if anyone has more information please pass along  i had thought about taking a six or seven inch square cant  and trying to make some out of cedar  merry christmas to you and yours