Can You Plane Rough Cedar?

Cedar is a softwood, easy to mill but you need to put the correct end of the board into the planer so you cut with the grain for a smoother surface. You can see the grain direction on the faces by looking on the edges of the boards.

How do you smooth rough cedar?

Smooth Cedar

If you do need to sand it with a power sander, use an orbital sander with 100-grit sandpaper. Keep the sander moving, using circular motions to flatten and smooth the surface. Don't allow the sander to remain in one place. When the surface is consistently smooth, stop sanding and proceed sanding by hand.

Can you Plane rough cut lumber?

If you're an aspiring woodworker who wishes to move on to more advanced projects, there's only one path. That's learning how to flatten rough-sawn wood. ... It takes an investment to flatten wood, though. You can't pull this off without a jointer, surface planer and table saw.