kiln drying ERC

[xlogger]

I sold some 10/4 slabs to a guy that has a small room with a DH and electric heater in it. He plans on drying it right away. It was just saw up from a year old log, so it's pretty wet I would think. I've cut lots of cedar but never dry any. He wants to start on building his project soon. Will this hurt the cedar? It will be 8/4 after he plans it down.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The hotter it is when drying the more odor that will be evaporated and the less the wood will smell afterwards.  The best aroma is when the drying temperature is around 80 F.

[WDH]

It is the fastest drying wood that I deal with.

[sandsawmill14]

i have never made an effort to dry cedar before using it. it usually lay around dead stacked  anywhere from 2-3 days to a year or longer before i get to my project though. my experience is that erc is the most forgiving of any wood i have ever worked  with

 
this cedar was sawn about 2 weeks after logs were cut and was dead stacked about a month. it will get a white looking mold or somthing on it but once its planed it looks fresh sawn 

[xlogger]

Thanks all, he going to have some glue joints. That what I was just a little worried about. I know some people just about take it right away and seal it up with no problems. I did one mantel and poly it and it bent on me. I think I make a mistake of only putting poly on 3 sides.

[Cedarman]

Cedar does dry very fast.  Kiln drying at high temp will boil the oils off.  That is why kilns that do dry mix with poplar.  Straight kiln of ERC will peel the paint off the kiln walls. 
Air dry for month during the warm months works well.
Air dry will get you to 12%, sometimes as low as 10 if the air is very dry for a week.  We still dry a lot in a drying room with heat supplied with an OWB.  Temp is never over 100 and usually 90's.
Green heartwood is usually 25 to 28%.  Sapwood pegs the meter. 
The moldy looking stuff between dry boards is the cedar oils condensing not mold.  If you look closely, you will see that they are tiny needles.  When exposed, they evaporate.

[sandsawmill14]

thanks for explaining that cedarman there have been many discussions about those white needles and i had no idea so i guessed it was some kind of mold. now i know

[Carpenter]

Thanks Cedarman for that information.  I just put a green load of ERC in my solar kiln.  So, I hope it doesn't peel the paint.  I don't have any poplar to mix with it. 
     Normally I don't kiln the ERC, two weeks in the summer is pretty good for out door use.  And, most of my ERC sits around a few months before being used anyway.  But, I need some siding for a job and I needed it two weeks ago, which was when we started logging.  So, I'm trying to rush this a little.  This will be the second load of ERC I have kilned.  The first dried alright, but seemed to have more tension than the air dried cedar.  It may be that that particular load had more tension in it, I really don't know that the kiln had anything to do with that.  But, this summer I had to buy some 1x12 cedar from another mill, because I was out of logs and out of time to complete a project.  His 1x12s were really nice and flat, so I asked him how he got them to dry so nice, and he shrugged and said they went straight into the kiln.  So, I thought it was worth a shot to kiln some.  I guess if it peels the paint off of my kiln walls, I'll just paint them again. 

[Cedarman]

It all  depends on how hot you get it. Stay at 100 degrees or less and you will be fine.  It is when they kick it up to 160 that the oils and water all go off together that makes a mixture that condenses on the walls.