Newly cut White Cedar

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zonefour
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:35 pm

Newly cut White Cedar

Post by zonefour »

I just bought about 80 board feet of clear, straight grain Wisconsin White cedar fresh from the mill for $120. In the process I am afraid I not only found some beautiful wood, but also put a halt to my progress for the next few months (plus winter).

The guy at the mill said that before milling, the log had been sitting for two years.

The boards (slabs?) were cut this week to a thickness of 1-1/16th inches. Width is anywhere from 6 inches up to over a foot. Length of most of the boards is 14 feet.

Here's the question. When is it safe to start milling this stuff?

Are there any questimates on how long I need to wait for the wood to settle down to the point where I can strip and cut the B&C, or are there too many variable? Of course I don't want to believe that I should let it sit for one year per inch of thickness, but of course I don't want my Endeavour to have 20 degrees worth of rocker due to warping.

Since I'm building in a non-heated Green Bay, Wisconsin garage my building window is about 2 months (I would place an emoticon here, but I couldn't find one that properly expresses how I feel about Wisconsin winters) so I would like to do as much of the set up work as I can before it gets #%$@% cold. Then next Spring I can do the actual building.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Scott
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Glen Smith
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Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Post by Glen Smith »

I once bought some freshly cut white cedar boards. I found they were a bit wet so I spread them out, stacked with stickers on the shop floor and waited one week. Then I put one board through the thickness planer and water was spraying out of the planer. Since the boards were useless in this condition, I took them outside and stacked them with stickers in between. I made a large "X" on one board with a piece of chalk. I had a tarp to cover the stack of boards when there was a risk of rain and every day I would change their locations in the stack. Once per week, I would put the board with the "X" on the bathroom scales to check its weight. Every week the weight diminished. After 4 weeks the weight wasn't changing anymore so I attempted to plane one board and it worked out very well.

Some people build a "hot-house" with plastic drop cloths and some 1" X 2"'s and install a fan at each end. This helps the boards dry out faster. Another solution would be to look around for someone who does kiln drying of lumber and pay them to do the job but kiln-dried lumber is stiffer and harder to bend. However, if you would have purchased Western Red Cedar, chances are it would have been kiln-dried and builders use that wood for boats every day.
roger bebee
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:27 pm

Post by roger bebee »

Further to Glen's idea of the small hot house, a guy I know who owns a mill suggested the same thing only he said add a dehumidifier. The other thing I would watch is you may have to flip your boards over regularly to minimize cupping
good luck
Roger
zonefour
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:35 pm

New Clear Cedar thanks

Post by zonefour »

Thanks guys.

How much quicker do you think the tarp/fan/dehumidifier set up would be than the stack it outside method? It has been pretty dry in N.E. Wisconsin this summer so I'm assuming continued dry weather. (I can almost hear the thunder now)


I went with the white cedar because it cost about 1/4 of what clear western red would have cost. I bought myself more work and time, but I'm building it for the fun of building it...right? I have a couple of canoes that keep me on the water when I'm not making saw dust so I keep telling myself I'm not in a hurry, I'm not in a hurry, I'm not in a hurry.


Thanks again
roger bebee
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:27 pm

Post by roger bebee »

To the best of my knowledge, and guesstament ,I would think this method would be 4 times faster then regular air drying . See if you can stack and wrap it in the sun to help speed things up , just keep a close eye on it, to make sure its not,cupping warping or splitting from to fast a dry. What you have created is a minni kiln. See if you can borrow a water content gauge, any wood shop or mill or lumber yard should have one, and ask them what % water content you should be looking for.
Happy stripping
Roger
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Jim Dodd
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Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:08 pm
Location: Iowa

Post by Jim Dodd »

A local small time mill, set up a solar kiln, using plastic and fans. He used it for drying hard woods. Many of the planks I saw were split. He said that it was from drying TOO fast. Just food for thought !

Good luck

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
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ealger
Posts: 387
Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2004 5:14 pm

Drying Limber

Post by ealger »

Ed Alger
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