Thread: Stale beds

I am redoing my deck and have a bunch of 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" by 32' stakes from the railing that I'm going to use to make stakes beds using the 18 qt. dish pans. My queston is would it be better to leave the stakes that size, or would it be OK to rip them in half (3/4 by 1 1/2)? By cutting them in half I could make twice as many beds.

Thanks

Harold

I don't know how many rails you have but ripping something that small already is going to be a real pain and could get very dangerous. If you have plenty, leave them alone and only put about 8 per pan.

bttmline is correct. It is a pain to do but I had a bunch of rail left over also and I ended up ripping them in half because they were easier to work with and gave me more stakes. In my opinion in the stake bed world more is better.

TREATED WOOD? Is that not toxic material?

Wondered about the treated wood myself before I put mine out. Then I did some research without listing pages here is the summary.
Pressure Treated? | www.***************

Originally Posted by bttmline

I don't know how many rails you have but ripping something that small already is going to be a real pain and could get very dangerous. If you have plenty, leave them alone and only put about 8 per pan.

If you do it right it is not a pain or dangerous. A table saw with a fence is the easy and correct way to do it. NOT dangerous at all. I cut wood down to 1/16 in. all the time and that is not a pain. Using any other tool would be stupid.
As far as the pressure treated wood - I would ask the lake manager or state authority. No one here is going to give an educated answer. Not even me. I would not use it. Yes there are dangerous chemicals in them. Adding the wood to a lake would add the chemicals. Hence the reason would use particle masks when cutting it.

Cedar or pvc would be a better choice. Even un-treated wood in the water without the 21% oxygen content of the air takes many years to degrade. People use salvaged logs from rivers all the time that has been there for 60-70 years.

This is just my opinion.

all your docks are built with PT lumber...