Replies

1. 
   DonCanDo | Jul 25, 2005 05:21am | #1

   Jig saw.  At least it worked for me, but I only had to cut 9 of them.

   -Don

2. 
   MikeSmith | Jul 25, 2005 05:22am | #2

   if they are going to stick out ,say, 2' ? 

    cut them out of 4' stock.. hand pick your stock.. make sure it's KD...

    set up a pattern.... utilize  anything you can to make the shape.. ( like hole saws for part of the curve )

   cut the tails on a bandsaw and scab them onto the regular rafters... the tails  wag the dog.. get the tail spacing correct  and move the rafters  if you have to..

   exposed tails also implies exposed roof edge.. so you have to plan your eave detail and rake detail for best effect

    

   Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
1. 
   dubro | Jul 25, 2005 05:52am | #4

   I am cutting 400 of them,two by eights, three foot overhang, boards are eight feet, would a hand held band work?

1. 
   DougU | Jul 25, 2005 05:54am | #5

   Seen a guy on the tube that used the hand held band saw, seemed to work good for him.

   Doug

1. 
   dubro | Jul 25, 2005 05:59am | #6

   Never used a band saw, used a jig saw on about 15 tails and swear it was going to take all day.

1. 
   Piffin | Jul 25, 2005 06:35am | #8

   I have about forty 4x8s onmy place and it took about six hours with a bosch jigsaw.With something as thin as 2x8 I would uses the pattern and the guided router bit. 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   ANDYSZ2 | Jul 26, 2005 03:34am | #9

   I bought a portable band saw on clearance just for that purpose and set up in my wood shop and tried to cut with it: way to heavy and way to much wandering.

   I like using a good jig saw with a long thick blade and a 3x21" belt sander to finish it out, if there are straight cuts I will try to cut with the circle saw first.The belt sander does a good job of evening out any flex cut from the jig saw and also closes the pores on the end grain so that it won't retain water.

   ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.

   Remodeler/Punchout

1. 
   buildit4you | Jul 26, 2005 03:58am | #10

   I'm working on a job where the general contractors men built a pergola out of 3" x 12" cedar and they put a really nice detail on the ends. They made a pattern/ template and cut them out with a router.  Since the stock was a full three inches they had to flip them over to complete the cut. When finished they cleaned the cuts up with a porter cable hand held spindle sander. It looks real good! In the case mentioned here, since they are 2 x 8's only one cut would be required. Hope it helps!

    

   PLP

    Good times, riches and Son of a _itches

   I've seen more than I can recall.

   J. Buffett

2. 
   MikeSmith | Jul 25, 2005 06:24am | #7

   dub.... the decorative part typically consists of  one or two straight cuts and one radius..

    try to make the radius a section of a hole saw... punch them out with a drill press.. then finish  with your straight cutsMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

3. 
   gdavis62 | Jul 26, 2005 12:00pm | #13

   Rough them with a jigsaw, cutting outside the line, leaving the finish work to a router.  Finish with the router and your pattern, using a top-mount bearing pattern bit.

   I did a job with about half your quantity, and used the jigsaw with long Bosch progressor blades.  Mine were 2x8, maybe 5 feet long, with a radius corner end.  The jigsaw cuts were splayed from blade bend, no matter what technique I tried, and so I had to beltsand to get the ends true.

   I set up the router for the last dozen, and wished I had started that way.Gene Davis, Davis Housewrights, Inc., Lake Placid, NY

    

    

3. 
   IMERC | Jul 25, 2005 05:39am | #3

   make a pattern...

   close cut with a jig saw...

   finish cut with a router and pioleted bit..

    

4. 
   PaulC | Jul 26, 2005 04:09am | #11

   would it be suicidal? i don't know. but i think i saw something similar done with a full size band saw on a wheeled base, and the lumber (a stack) clamped to a bench.

   Amateurs talk strategy, Generals talk logistics.

1. 
   IMERC | Jul 26, 2005 08:14am | #12

   tried the band saw vs the jig saw today...

   the Bosch with a Progressor blade is faster..

   less work to and easier on the back.. 

1. 
   Piffin | Jul 27, 2005 06:31am | #19

   Hard to beat a Bosch Progressor 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   IMERC | Jul 27, 2005 06:46am | #20

   cut the corbels with the Progressor and cleaned them up with the router on that pergola... 

5. 
   hammer1 | Jul 26, 2005 12:31pm | #14

   Getting a jig saw to cut thick material at 90 degrees isn't easy. The blades always wander. Can you fake the tails? On a few pergolas I've built, I added the decorative tails to a ledger. This allowed me to work with short pieces and a combination of a hole saw in a drill press and the band saw.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

   
1. 
   4Lorn1 | Jul 27, 2005 12:56pm | #21

   I think I have seen a variation in what your saying.HO was building a custom house and wanted fancy rafter tails. Had a post and beam roof in mind. GC, a really good carpenter suggested that drop cord trusses would be a lot cheaper seeing as that the HO really didn't want exposed beams inside. 2x4 material at the tails wouldn't offer much to work with.GC came up with the idea of using short lengths of 4x6 cut to fit around the tails and flush with the wall. They had them them carved. They found a talented carver that would do a unique rustic animal motif for each piece. Something like twenty in all. Only the last foot or so was carved with the balance of the nearly four feet just having the bottom edges relieved with a 5/8, or so, chamfer that stopped a few inches shy of where the carvings began.The carvings looked like a cross between NW American Indian, possibly with some Polynesian influence, and medieval castle gargoyles. I thought they were quite nice. Handsome in an in-your-face sort of way. The help thought they were ghastly and nightmare like. HOs, a couple of 60s hippie-made-good types really liked them. Said they would protect the place.They had the truss company only make tails on every second truss so the carvings were 4'OC which made it look more like a post and beam job.They looked very nice and added a custom touch. Seeing as that they were under the overhang the carvings were protected but still quite visible.

6. 
   JerBear | Jul 26, 2005 01:28pm | #15

   Heavy duty router (3-5hp) with a long guided pattern bit. That way you know the pattern is always going to be exactly the same with no variation since you are always going off the same template.

1. 
   dubro | Jul 26, 2005 11:41pm | #17

   Just bought three horse router, carbide bit and am going to make the jig tonight.  I think that might be most consistent, and can almost dummy proof it for an average carpenter.

1. 
   Treetalk | Jul 27, 2005 02:19am | #18

   Norm used a band saw on wheels to cut 4" stock.2" stock...template rout.

7. 
   AdamGreisz | Jul 26, 2005 10:19pm | #16

   I prefer to use the jig saw to make the cuts close to the line. Then clamp 8-10 pieces together and use sanders (belt, random and triangle) to make the cuts uniform.

   I have used this technique for many trellis' and occasionally for rafter tailers and decorative corbels.

   I love the look. It screams labor intensive.

    

   Wood is Good

   Adam Greisz

   Owen Roberts Group

   10634 East Riverside Drive # 100

   Bothell, WA 98011

   http://www.owenrobertsgroup.com

8. 
   RobinWoody | Jun 06, 2021 04:47pm | #22

   When I was a carpenter's helper, I admired the skills of roofing carpenters. They effortlessly made intricate notches in the rafters of a frame house, knowing only the dimensions of the roof. This puzzled me.
   In those years I tried to replicate their work, but I was repeatedly unsuccessful. Then a senior carpenter took me to one of the roofs and helped me mark and cut the rafter system with a carpenter's angle and best carving axes