|
|
Value and Uses of Eastern Red Cedar
Question
Forum Responses
For your large piece just seal the ends and set it off out of sunlight and weather. You can plunge cut the back with a skill saw so what checking there will be will be to the back. The heart wood is about 50% MC green so it dries quickly.  From the original questioner: I coated the ends well on the large piece and its stickered on top of the 3/4 pile. I've dried a small amount of short cedar in this room before and it came down to 12% in a short while. What moisture content should I reach for before selling it, is air dried MC ok? Any ideas on a retail price/board foot if I don't plane it? I used a new blade when sawing this large ERC trunk so the sides are fairly smooth.
From contributor A: Green off the saw up to 12 feet I get $0.80 a board foot up to 8 inches wide, 8 to 12 is $1.00 a board foot. If I dry and plane then it is $0.45 a board foot more. If less then 3/4 thick then I just drop the rate a little so a 1/2x4x4' would be $0.60 a board foot or $0.78 a board. From the original questioner: If I reach 10-13 MC would this be stable enough for interior wood projects (in case a buyer asks)? Being it is a softer wood a higher MC might be more normal. Do you like to use a soap/water lube when sawing your ERC? From contributor I: Here are a couple of reasons you can/should use air dried ERC. The wood has very low shrinkage values and is pretty stable, so even if it dries more in use it has little effect. If the wood is kiln dried the smell, which is part of its value, is driven off by the heat of the kiln. From contributor A: ERC requires very little lube but I use the same dish soap and pine oil mix I use for every thing else. I saw it with a 10 degreee 0.045 WM blade. When I build with ERC if it is an outside project I just use wood stickered outside and do not worry about MC. It changes very quickly with the humidity but moves very little. Inside projects I skip plane and place inside of my office for a few days and it will stabilize. I have built some fine detail work without any checking of the MC and it turns out fine. 
Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
|
