Milling Cypress

[SWAMPRAT]

I fell a cypress tree this past weekend for a neighbor.  He was going to use it for firewood.  I finally convinced him to give me the tree in exchange for 2 cords of seasoned oak and hickory to burn.  Now I hava a 20" cypress tree sitting in the yard.  I have squared the sections with my Chainsaw mill, and now I am wondering what to do with the sections.  I want to have it milled into 1/2" to 3/4" boards so that I can use them in my home to waynescoat my walls.  Can Cypress by kiln dried? How long should it take.  And should I mill it first, or dry the cants and then mill the boards?

I am trying to find a mill here in Louisiana that will do the work.  I already have a cabinet shop locally that will plane and tounge and groove the boards for me.  I hope this project works out, I would love to invite my neighbor over in a year or so to see what he was going to let go up in smoke.

I noticed after miling the sides off of the logs that the tree has very little sapwood.  at the base (20") the heart is 17", is this common with this species?

[Tom]

Red Cypress the size you describe will contain a lot of heart.  A lot more than a white cypress of that size.

You may have gotten more boards from the tree if you had let the mill doing the sawing, square the log. Were you able to save much from the outside of the cant?  You may wish that it would still roll before this is all over with.

I've found that cypress will produce a thinnr board without splitting than pine or oak.  Finding someone who will bother with rough cut thin stock is a chore. I'm glad you have someone already.  I wouldn't cut it less than 7/8's if it were me. By the time it dries and is machined you will be lucky to get 3/4 out of it.

Cutting 7/8's on a bandsaw mill is easy.  The kerf is usually taken from the board side of the measurement on the mill so the miller need only use the true scale.  I would recomend that you find a thin kerf bandsaw to do the job.

The Cypress around here is air dried except for one company that has a kiln. www.floridacypress.com  They may talk to you about schedules, I don't know. You are in a state that produces a lot of Cypress so finding the information shouldn't be too difficult. I once knew a broker out there who could have helped but can't find his name for the life of me.

[SWAMPRAT]

from the stump up 71/2 feet I have not touched yet, the rest of the tree was rather limby and I have already squared it off, the I dont think I wasted much of anything on the slabs, as I left a bit of bark on the cants, I did not take them all the way down to perfectly square timbers, I just took off enough that they would not roll around my trailer.  The base of the tree is 22" X 7' long and 17" on the tapered end.  It is a really pretty piece of wood.  Thanks for the info.  I called Jimmys Cypress here in LA, They recomended finding someone with a WoodMizer to come over and mill it on site since it is just one tree.  Is there any way to find a local wood mizer owner??

[Tom]

Boy, that one is easy!!

You notice the Woodmizer logo on the sawmill topic?  They are sponsors of the site. If you click on that logo, it will take you to their web page.  There is an 800 number on there somewhere that goes to sales.
I went and found it for you;
 [Toll Free in U.S. • 1.800.553.0182] 

If you will call that number,  they will be glad to give you a list of numbers of Woodmizer owners in your area.  Heck, some of them might even be members here.  Ya never know. :D

Good luck with the log.  You will enjoy the lumber, it's pretty.

Did you check out the member map?

[SWAMPRAT]

Thanks Tom,  I called Wood Mizer, and sure enough, there is a guy 25 min. from the house that has a portable mill.  I called him up and set up for him to come out next week.  Looks like this project is going to be easier than I had expected.  

Any thoughts on drying, air/kiln? How Long?

Thanks again for the help

[Tom]

Start it off air drying right away. The thinner you cut the boards the thinner the stickers and the closer they are together (1"is typical at 18" intervals). Sticker it under a shelter (open pole barn or the like) with a very good air exchange.  No sun!

Start now to make your stickers out of dry wood.  Don't use green stickers.  They may stain.  A good rule of thumb is to not let two wet pieces of wood touch each other.

You will be 6 months to a year before you should consider using it inside and even then it should be acclimated to where it's to live.

[SWAMPRAT]

Another Cypress Question.

I came across a peice of land near the house that has been clear cut for development.  Piled for burning are all the trees from the land (cut over a year ago).  there are between 10 and 15 whole cypress trees mixed in the tops of the piles, (no telling how many below)  The land owner has given me permision to take what I want as long as i dont scatter his piles around.  Is there any disadvantage to milling trees that have been cut over a year ago?  Will they need the same amount of drying after milling as green wood?

I want to store the logs in the feild behind the house till this summer (6 mo)  do I need to cover the logs?  I love the look of Cypress, and want to take care of these trees until I have time to mess with them.  Any info greatly appreciated.

I am learning alot from reading the post here.  Wish I could offer more to the folks here.  Thanks again.

I dont have the time or the resources to mill all of the trees right now, and would like to cut the trees into 10-12 foot sections and store them in my feild behind the house till I have time to mess with them.  Hate to see cypress go to waste

[Tom]

Go Gettem'

The sap wood of cypress will begin to rot after a few months in contact with each other or in the ground.  What you will be looking for is a log that has heart and is big enough that you can get usable boards out of the heart wood.  You may have to discard the sap wood.  

The Heart wood is very rot resistant and should be ok.

The dry sapwood will be hard to cut and hard on blades too.  For this reason you may want your sawyer to slab deep and go after the heart wood.  You could salvage some of the dry sapwood by cutting 2x material for inside of the structure, if the sapwood isn't deteriorated.

You're almost always better off to cut a log as soon as you can get a mill to it.

Don't cover logs or boards with tarps or the like.  Air can't move and it forms a greenhouse for molds, mildews and Rot.

If you mean covering by a pole barn or the like then that's ok and preferred for the boards, not necessary for the logs unless you are considering storing them for months.