# cedar chunks



## Getalong (Jan 6, 2008)

First post and here we go. After cutting trees down on christmas vacation and turning them into lumber that is drying, I am constantly looking in the woods on the way home from work for fallen trees that might be made into lumber. I passed a house in the country that had just cut 2 cedar trees down and stacked the 18-24" long by 8 -15" diameter logs in a pile. I stopped and asked if I could buy them and instead he give them to me because he was just going to burn them.  

Now I have 7 chunks of cedar and need advice on what to do. Should I fire up the chainsaw to square them up, then air dry or chainsaw the pieces to 1" plus thickness boards to dry?

Any help or feedback will be appreciated,

Thanks


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Welcome from Illinois. One good thing, they are not going to rot while you stew on it :no:. What do you like to make? Cedar does rip easy with a chainsaw. It would not be to hard to slab them with a chainsaw and then plane them flat. If you have a heated/dry place to put the slabbed wood it will be ready to use in a few weeks, cedar air dries fast.


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## Getalong (Jan 6, 2008)

Thanks Daren,

Would I need to put strikers in between the boards? I am not sure what I will make with it yet. I also have leftover from the sawmill a 13" square by 80" piece of ash from a 10 foot log that had nails in one end.
I was thinking of ripping it into 4 equal pieces, letting them air dry and making them into the top of a workbench with casters this fall. I bought 2 new chains for my saw today, any thoughts on this?


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

Getalong
In 2005 the lower south had 2 huricanes back to back and droped many trees. I went out and cut 2 ceder trees into 8ft long logs and brought them home. They were about 20 inches across. anyway I hung them up in a tree about 4 feet of the ground for a year to let them dry. Then I took them to a guy i know with a portable sawmill and we cut them into 1 inch slabs. They have been stacked in my shop a year now and they haven't split yet. Some day I am going to turn them into 3 hope chest for my three daughters.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Getalong said:


> Thanks Daren,
> 
> Would I need to put strikers in between the boards? I am not sure what I will make with it yet. I also have leftover from the sawmill a 13" square by 80" piece of ash from a 10 foot log that had nails in one end.
> I was thinking of ripping it into 4 equal pieces, letting them air dry and making them into the top of a workbench with casters this fall. I bought 2 new chains for my saw today, any thoughts on this?


Last questions first. If you are going to rip ash with a chainsaw...good thing you just bought new chains :laughing:. It is plenty hard (so are nails :huh Ash will make a mighty fine work bench. If you put stickers (spacers) between your cedar slabs they will dry better/faster. Cedar is a very forgiving wood, you could even just stand short pieces like that up on end against the wall out of the way. They will dry.


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