Drying cedar for the first time

Mfrost459 · June 19, 2020, 05:36:58 PM

I have some cedar that was cut down a couple of months ago. It has been air drying and the MC is down to 15%. Have never dried this before, I don't think it will take much to get it dry. Just don't want to take it down too fast. It will be dried in a 20 ft container kiln with a Nyle L53 unit and we also use a Nyle booster heater to get the temp up quicker when it needs a boost.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

doc henderson · June 19, 2020, 07:07:01 PM

ERC is easy enough to dry and will make you look like a pro. enjoy it! and welcome to the forum. @WDH @YellowHammer @Southside

Southside · June 19, 2020, 08:16:19 PM

I would set the dry bulb at 120, wet bulb at 75, and final moisture at 10, then let her rip. Finish off with a HT cycle, 160/75/3 and it should be in the 7 - 8% range when done. ERC is very forgiving. You won't have any danger starting at 15%.

YellowHammer · June 19, 2020, 09:16:12 PM

Cedar is pretty easy as SS says. There is one little gotcha with it. If you dry 8/4 or thicker too fast, it will stress the white portions of the board and cause checking. It won't hurt the red sections, but will cause damage to the white wood.

At 15%, it shouldn't be a problem, but it is always a good idea with cedar to ramp up the temps moderately. which the L53 will do on its own.

Mfrost459 · June 20, 2020, 02:19:55 PM

Southside could you explain what you mean by 160/75/3. I am supposing this may mean dry bulb at 160 wet bulb 75 for 3 day. This would sanitize wood and set pitch. Not sure if this is what you meant.

Southside · June 20, 2020, 05:16:56 PM

On my 200 I can set the dry bulb, wet bulb, and final moisture limits, I am presuming you have a similar capacity with the 53.

So what I was saying is for the heat treat cycle set the dry bulb to 160, the wet bulb to 75 and the final moisture to 3%. When you get to 160F actual temperature leave it there for 24 hours and you will have sanitized lumber.

I then leave the lumber in the kiln to cool down to ambient temperature before I remove it which allows it to settle back in and reduces movement.

The HT cycle will remove 1 - 2 more points of moisture so plan that during your drying cycle.

Mfrost459 · June 20, 2020, 09:30:00 PM

Thanks for the explanation. I thought the first two were dry bulb and wet build. These can be set on my L53, just don't have a setting for final MC @ 3 %.