oh this piece was a nightmare, you don't even want to know what i went through, lol. BUT ill tell you anyway. all i can find anymore is 4/4 cedar, rough cut, no one around me caries less thicknesses and they want to charge to much to surface it. so being that i love how cedar finishes i bot some anyway, i don't have a planer or jointer. I wanted 1/2" but no more than 3/4 in. when i went to sand (using a belt sander with 3 different grits mind you) the first side, i didn't notice that there was a bout a 1/4" of rot on the back side, with no planer or band saw what is a guy to do. OH I KNOW, take the table saw blade as high as it can go, and use it as a make shift band saw, well even after cutting through and flipping it, i still had about 2-3 inches that the blade didn't reach, so i broke off the rotted pieces, then using a chisel scraped down the middle that the table saw couldn't reach, then with a power hand planer i finished off the rest, yea this was a PITA to do. and i have a total of 6 more boards all 4/4 at 4 feet long to deal with, at least they don't have rot, only what remains of the first board.