I would use dimensional ipe of 3 1/2" thickness for the 4x4 posts if it was available locally and not cost prohibitive. Since it's not then I'm trying to get the look of the ipe using what's available which is
3/4" thick ipe and PT or redwood.
Do you need the center? Wouldn't a box column of 1x ipe be plenty strong to carry the load? If not, how about a steel post, boxed in with the ipe?
Around here (east coast mid-Atlantic USA) PT costs a fraction of what redwood does, if you can even find any. Since it's going to be hidden by the overlay, I'd go with the PT on cost basis alone. Plus, I have no experience with redwood in the ground, but IME PT posts far outlast cedar. (Note my experience based on the old CCA PT, not the newer stuff)
I would use dimensional ipe of 3 1/2" thickness for the 4x4 posts if it was available locally and not cost prohibitive. Since it's not then I'm trying to get the look of the ipe using what's available which is
3/4" thick ipe and PT or redwood.Well there is that. LOL.
Have you considered galvanized chain link fence terminal posts and cover them with Ipe? Those are relatively cheap, don't warp, and don't rot.
I'm glad you've had a good experience with it.
I suspect that, as it says in a couple of the posts on the WoodWeb thread, that the species you are getting in the midwest are different than what we are getting locally.
What we get is extremely oily and the oil bleeds to the surface soon after it is worked or wiped with denatured alcohol or acetone.
We've tested isocyanurates, various epoxies, West System, TiteBond III, etc. We've tried the Timesaver with 60 and 80 grit and we wiped with both denatured alcohol and acetone. We were unable to get a bond that we could trust for gluing up for width or thickness.
The last job we did was 4000 bd ft for a roof top screening job in Manhattan and we just decided that we couldn't afford the exposure of gluing up. So we paid beaucoup bucks to get the stuff in thicknesses and widths that we could use without gluing up.
I like Ipe and it gets used a lot in city work because it has the same fire rating as concrete and steel. It's also damned near as hard and hard on tooling.
Regards,
Tom Watson
I have worked with Ipe quite a bit and find that the glue that "looks like" and "screws like" a "Pocket Hole Screw" works pretty good. :~)
We even thought about using sliding dovetails to join the sticks up into panel widths.
Once you start thinking like that it's time to do some more thinking.
Regards,
Tom Watson
LOL ROTHFL I used to very often WAY WAY WAY WAY over plan or engineer like that. You really need to walk away and think about something else for a while at that point. I would like to see the Sliding DT though. ;~)
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