Drying 6x6 & 8x8 eastern red cedar beams

[schwanee]

Hey guys, I am typically drying live edge slabs, but might be drying cedar beams for a customer. Has anyone had good success with this?

Can you air dry?
If so, for how long?

All I have found in the literature is that cedar is typically kiln dried from green.

I'll soon have a vacuum kiln, so that would be an option as well.

[RaizT1]

I happen to have the same question. Did you ever get an answer to this? I'm hoping to put up a garage soon and wondering if I could use freshly cut cedar for my posts.

[Cedarman]

Saw your beams and sticker in an airy place , but do not let the sun shine on them.  They will air dry to about 12% in a few weeks except in cold winter months.  They should not bow or bend.  If they saw straight , they should stay straight.  Heartwood should be about 25 to 28% green, sapwood pegs the MC meter.
You might get 1/8" shrinkage in 6" of post.  Normally very little checking unless you dry too fast.
I have logs in my house that were growing 3 days earlier and no problems whatso ever. Built it in 1992.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I would use the post as soon as you need them.  As stated, the little drying they do, because their green MC is low, does not cause much shrinkage, so using green for a post is fine.

Be aware that only the red colored wood has some decay resistance, but not extensive today.. White streaks will rot soon.  So, do not put into the ground, but mount on a concrete pillar and keep them as dry as possible.

[kantuckid]

Generally speaking ERC is the easiest of all woods in my experience to air dry for any use, including making cabinets/furniture, etc.. The more challenging aspect of using ERC is to SEE! the defects such as very thin cracks(meaning mostly 4/4 or such for shop use, not beams) before they bite you during construction. When i pull my fingers from this keyboard its back to a ERC pantry cabinet and all the defects it's required me to work through. Yesterday I was cruising along chiseling the door hinge mortises and bingo a big split from a very light hit on a thin edge area. it splits (from impact not so much seasoning) looking at the stuff. 
Also planers pull grain away from the wild grain areas around the typical knots in cedar, even in light cuts. 
I've slabbed ERC in 6/4 up to the capacity width of my LT15 and zero splits. 

[kantuckid]

Generally speaking ERC is the easiest of all woods in my experience to air dry for any use, including making cabinets/furniture, etc.. The more challenging aspect of using ERC is to SEE! the defects such as very thin cracks(meaning mostly 4/4 or such for shop use, not beams) before they bite you during construction. When i pull my fingers from this keyboard its back to a ERC pantry cabinet and all the defects it's required me to work through. Yesterday I was cruising along chiseling the door hinge mortises and bingo a big split from a very light hit on a thin edge area. it splits (from impact not so much seasoning) looking at the stuff.
Also planers pull grain away from the wild grain areas around the typical knots in cedar, even in light cuts.
I've slabbed ERC in 6/4 up to the capacity width of my LT15 and zero splits. The entire ERC industry commonly saws it into cants/beams for further use which is itself very instructive to the thread.