# Cedar Milling



## dallasm1 (Feb 16, 2009)

I was catching up on my milling this weekend and decided to slice up a piece of cedar that has been laying around. I was very surprised to find this beautiful grain. I just had to share it with everyone! 


















A friend of mine called up and asked me to come and pick up some cedar that was getting in his way, so a half day and one very overworked trailer and I now have this pile of cedar....


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## dustytools (Feb 16, 2009)

Very nice score on the Cedar!!


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## polexie (Feb 16, 2009)

Nice pics, good job, got a nice pile of cedar right now. Gonna mill it all?
The coloring and grain came out very well, it will darken? You already know where you will use those slabs for?

Thanks for sharing,

Lex


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## Ironbark (Feb 16, 2009)

That looks great. Wish we could smell it too


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## dallasm1 (Feb 16, 2009)

polexie said:


> Nice pics, good job, got a nice pile of cedar right now. Gonna mill it all?
> The coloring and grain came out very well, it will darken? You already know where you will use those slabs for?
> 
> Thanks for sharing,
> ...



I am not sure if it will darken or not. I do not have much experience with cedar except from the HD store. I do plan to mill it all. I have a large deck to build. This piece is just the butt of a 20 foot long tree. When I started to cut the cedar I was thinking of a cedar slab bench, with 4in thick uprights and long slabs for the seat and back. However, the grain is so beautiful I am not sure if I want to use on outdoor furniture. Any ideas?


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## dallasm1 (Feb 16, 2009)

Ironbark said:


> That looks great. Wish we could smell it too



The old 084 threw cedar sawdust out at a prodigious rate. The smell is wonderful!


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## KD57 (Feb 16, 2009)

Nice cedar!! It smells so good, I burned some this weekend in the fire pit.


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## BobL (Feb 16, 2009)

Nice pics showing nice wood, I can almost smell it from here!


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## SilverBox (Feb 16, 2009)

Thats some good looking cedar, I hope the few logs I have downed now that I'm going to mill into siding turn out just as well.


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## Zodiac45 (Feb 16, 2009)

Beautiful stuff! You can take all your top bottom and side slabs buck em up and crack them into the best kindling in the world too. I use it every morning in the cookstove.


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## Brownpot Deaton (Feb 16, 2009)

beautiful grain contours!! down here, it seems all the cedar i've enoucntered is just full of knots and has a very distinct purple color with some red in it....put the smell is awesome....

we make very fancy "cedar chest" down here and sell them for about 400-500 dollars each, but we have a very serious woodworking shop...just an idea for what you can make thats usefull...keeps bugs out and clothes smelling good...


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## dallasm1 (Feb 16, 2009)

Brownpot Deaton said:


> beautiful grain contours!! down here, it seems all the cedar i've enoucntered is just full of knots and has a very distinct purple color with some red in it....put the smell is awesome....
> 
> we make very fancy "cedar chest" down here and sell them for about 400-500 dollars each, but we have a very serious woodworking shop...just an idea for what you can make thats usefull...keeps bugs out and clothes smelling good...



I was looking at these slabs again today. I did think of a chest or shoe cabinet of some type. Would you use the slabs complete or cut them into smaller width planks? The slabs are a solid 24 to 30 inches and I am afraid they might want to warp. The complete grain is beautiful so I would hate to cut it. By the way, the cedar we get up here is knotty when the trees are 12 in thick or less, but I always thought the knots looked great.


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## excess650 (Feb 17, 2009)

The slabs cut closest to the center of the log will be "quarter sawn, or nearly so, and the most stable. 

My wife has a large cherry, dropleaf table that her Great Grandfather made, and the boards are very wide. I have seen some other very old tables made with boards up to 24" wide. Knowing that most lumber these days is cut to dimensional 12" or less, these really wide boards are truly impressive to me.

That cedar sure looks nice.


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## Brownpot Deaton (Feb 17, 2009)

for our cedar chests, we cut them about 10" wide, slot the sides and then glue them together to create larger slabs (about 30" wide) for the sides, bottom, and lid, but as i said, that grain you have is sooo nice id try everything i could to use the whole slab.


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## DRB (Feb 17, 2009)

I think you will find cedar slabs like those very stable. I have milled a far bit of western red cedar and it is very stable. It does not seem to crack or check if it is nice and clear like you have there. I have a lot of clear cedar slabs that I don't now what to do with. I have always thought they wood make beautiful window frames.

Nice pile of cedar logs you got there. I would cut those into 1x8 and use it for board and batten siding. That way it will dry down to 7/8" thick.


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## dallasm1 (Feb 18, 2009)

DRB said:


> I think you will find cedar slabs like those very stable. I have milled a far bit of western red cedar and it is very stable. It does not seem to crack or check if it is nice and clear like you have there. I have a lot of clear cedar slabs that I don't now what to do with. I have always thought they wood make beautiful window frames.
> 
> Nice pile of cedar logs you got there. I would cut those into 1x8 and use it for board and batten siding. That way it will dry down to 7/8" thick.



Unfortunately I do not think that the 084/alaskan combination is good for cutting 1 by's as I lose about half an inch per pass... However, it is good incentive to start looking at a bandsaw mill ..... It is good to hear that the wood is stable. I have seen a door made from these wide slabs that has been carved by a traditional Haida carver, a truly awesome piece, even when it is weathered, it maintains an incredible beauty. How are you milling the cedar that you have?


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## Backwoods (Feb 18, 2009)

I mill a lot of cedar into ½” boards for interior siding. Wood from the cedar family is stable enough to mill into the thinner dimensions with out having problems during the drying process. It seems that if I am not cutting cedar thin I am cutting it wide 20”-24” for planter boxes, doors, gates benches any place where someone wants to make a statement.


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## RPM (Feb 18, 2009)

DRB said:


> I have a lot of clear cedar slabs that I don't now what to do with.



Let me help you out with those ..... like into my shop.


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Feb 18, 2009)

Nice stuff!


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## BobL (Feb 18, 2009)

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Nice stuff!



Yo! AWB - you're still here!  Any milling happening in your neck of the woods?


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## DRB (Feb 18, 2009)

dallasm1 said:


> Unfortunately I do not think that the 084/alaskan combination is good for cutting 1 by's as I lose about half an inch per pass... However, it is good incentive to start looking at a bandsaw mill ..... It is good to hear that the wood is stable. I have seen a door made from these wide slabs that has been carved by a traditional Haida carver, a truly awesome piece, even when it is weathered, it maintains an incredible beauty. How are you milling the cedar that you have?



This may sound kind of odd but I use my 365 with a 28" bar for my mobile setup often on very large logs and my 088 with 36" bar on my track mill mostly for cutting 1x8 and 2x6 for building projects. The 365 is much easier to pack into remote locations although if packing the saw and gear in gets to hard then packing out slabs is out of the question. I think that cutting free cedar logs into siding boards is well worth it. You would likely have a hard time to paying less than $1000 per 1000 board feet for cedar. Although I am not sure I would cut the prime but logs into siding? Move up the tree and then there is lots of siding.

first pic is of track mill
second pic is of mobile mill


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## DRB (Feb 18, 2009)

RPM said:


> Let me help you out with those ..... like into my shop.



Oh darn they are already in mine


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## dallasm1 (Feb 18, 2009)

DRB said:


> This may sound kind of odd but I use my 365 with a 28" bar for my mobile setup often on very large logs and my 088 with 36" bar on my track mill mostly for cutting 1x8 and 2x6 for building projects. The 365 is much easier to pack into remote locations although if packing the saw and gear in gets to hard then packing out slabs is out of the question. I think that cutting free cedar logs into siding boards is well worth it. You would likely have a hard time to paying less than $1000 per 1000 board feet for cedar. Although I am not sure I would cut the prime but logs into siding? Move up the tree and then there is lots of siding.
> 
> first pic is of track mill
> second pic is of mobile mill



I really like your setup. I have often thought of putting down some rails and a frame for the big 84 just so I don't have to hog that rig around. However very often I still have to go to the tree as I have many logs that my tractor can't even budge. In that case I just mount my superstrut guide rails and have at er.. I was thinking of slabbing all of the trees out, keeping the quartersawn sections for my decking and the flat sawn sections for siding. 
BTW, I love that cedar driftwood on the beach, that is BEEEOOTIFUL. Also the view looks just like ours from the beach here in Point Roberts. I often study the driftwood wondering what it would be like to mill it up, but for the life of me, I cannot tell the type of tree it is by looking at it. How did you know that it was cedar before you cut it? An expoloratory cut?


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## RPM (Feb 19, 2009)

DRB said:


> This may sound kind of odd but I use my 365 with a 28" bar for my mobile setup often on very large logs and my 088 with 36" bar on my track mill mostly for cutting 1x8 and 2x6 for building projects. The 365 is much easier to pack into remote locations although if packing the saw and gear in gets to hard then packing out slabs is out of the question. I think that cutting free cedar logs into siding boards is well worth it. You would likely have a hard time to paying less than $1000 per 1000 board feet for cedar. Although I am not sure I would cut the prime but logs into siding? Move up the tree and then there is lots of siding.
> 
> first pic is of track mill
> second pic is of mobile mill



DRB - that 2d pic of the cedar is wicked....clear cedar like that in 2x and 6 - 8" wide would run you at least $6-10/bft if you could find it to buy it - thats furniture / mill work grade. Wicked score! I'd gladly "help" you out with that. We do the Van. Island run a couple times a year and there abouts.


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## dallasm1 (Mar 1, 2009)

I built a prototype bench with some of the lesser quality slabs from the cedar log. The back of the bench is the slab with the pith running through it. I wanted to try some simple building techniques, as this suits my simple skills! I would like to build some more outdoor furntiture like this.








I double posted this in "What are you building with your Milled wood". I hope that isn't a nono or at worst a waste of peoples time looking at the same info twice. If so my apologies, I shall avoid this in the future.


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## Raymond (Mar 2, 2009)

:computer: I also have 4 or 5 large cedar logs (3' x 14' or better) I need ripped up.
I was hoping to find a local guy that would do it for half the lumber. You think that's possible?


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## RPM (Mar 2, 2009)

Nice wedged tenon.....how did you brace the back?


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## dallasm1 (Mar 2, 2009)

RPM said:


> Nice wedged tenon.....how did you brace the back?



Simple. This is the beauty of having large slabs.






http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=91658&d=1236022596

Right now on the prototype I am just using a few deck screws into the back but I am thinking of through tenons or dowels for the back.


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## DRB (Mar 2, 2009)

Nice bench.  How wide are those slabs?


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## dallasm1 (Mar 2, 2009)

DRB said:


> Nice bench.  How wide are those slabs?



I measured some chairs and benches and then I made the seat slab to 17in with 15in of seating area. The slabs are all a full 2in thick material. The back slab is as high as I could it as this wood was laying on the forest floor for several years, so there was an outer ring of punky wood. The back is about 24in. I didn't actually measure it as that is the most I could get out of the slab. One side affect is that I can not move it by myself. I think I will build some campfire benches without the back, just so that they can be moved about more easily.


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## Backwoods (Mar 3, 2009)

Since we see that you made a nice bench, my question is what are your plans for the log behind it?
Nice bench...


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## dallasm1 (Mar 3, 2009)

> Since we see that you made a nice bench, my question is what are your plans for the log behind it?
> Nice bench...



Isn' that a lovely chunk of big leaf maple? I am planning a large dining room table from it, but I am waiting for my skills to improve before I tackle that one.


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## dustytools (Mar 3, 2009)

dallasm1 said:


> I built a prototype bench with some of the lesser quality slabs from the cedar log. The back of the bench is the slab with the pith running through it. I wanted to try some simple building techniques, as this suits my simple skills! I would like to build some more outdoor furntiture like this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Nice bench!


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Mar 4, 2009)

BobL said:


> Yo! AWB - you're still here!  Any milling happening in your neck of the woods?



Howdy Bob! In and out a bit. Not much millin' here lately due to work and barn building. I'll get some pics of that up though.



Nice work Dallas!


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## Ted J (Mar 4, 2009)

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Howdy Bob! In and out a bit. Not much millin' here lately due to work and barn building. I'll get some pics of that up though.
> 
> 
> 
> Nice work Dallas!



hey Jerrod,
When did you move to Cedar Park?
I musta missed that thread!!!

Ted


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## Brownpot Deaton (Mar 5, 2009)

cedar park..dangit i must've forgot, i was there this weekend for a friend's wedding on lake travis....How do you like it there??? I personally didn't like the trafiic and drivers there especially the two toll ways i didn't know about and caused me to show up late to the wedding cuz they don't have any feeders....


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## BobL (Mar 5, 2009)

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Howdy Bob! In and out a bit. Not much millin' here lately due to work and barn building. I'll get some pics of that up though.



Love to see pics of the Barn. Still too hot/humid to mill here. Really itching to get out there and tryout the 880.

Cheers


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