"Plane" rough cedar to thickness on your tablesaw

When purchasing material for outdoor projects, you may find that instead of ³⁄₄ "-thick cedar, your supplier carries cedar boards almost ⁷⁄₈ " thick planed smooth on one side and rough-sawn on the other. If you don't have a planer, rather than going on a time-consuming search for ³⁄₄ " material, try this.

Cut the stock for parts over 12" long to width and length. For safety sake, combine shorter parts into a longer blank. Then position your tablesaw rip fence ³⁄₄ " from the blade and raise it to about two-thirds the width of the stock. Now cut the parts to thickness by first making one pass, as shown. Flip the parts end for end and make a second pass. Use the cut face as the back of the part.