What to do with this?

[chuck shaw]

Hey All,
This is really my first time posting here and was wandering if you guys & gals could help me out with some suggestions on what to do with a monster amount of eastern red cedar, It's all sized for fencing 5/8" thick x 6" width x 8' lengths also have a few hundred 2x4x8' boards. here's a picture of this wood. After plaining it would only be around 7/16" in thickness so I would have to glue up boards to make 3/4". so any suggestions?

[Mike Wilkins]

The thinner boards, after planning, makes great bottom boards for a blanket chest or small keepsake box. Or you could put a tongue and groove edge on them and make closet linings.
The 2 X 4 boards could be made into a cedar blanket chest like the ones made by Lane. Still see these sometimes.
Congrats on the acquisition.

[Cody Colston]

I would use the 5/8" boards to panel a room or closet or as siding over sheathing for a building. The 2/4's can be used for any number of projects...outdoor furniture and blanket chests come immediately to mind. You would need to re-saw and plane some of them to 3/4" thickness and then glue up larger pieces as needed.

I wish I had that ERC lumber.

[Yonak Hawkins]

If I had that much cedar of that thickness I would consider myself well endowed with material to make gifts well into the future. I would make things like bird feeders, bird houses, whirly-gigs, clothes hangers, etc.

[Kent A Bathurst]

The view from the heretical side:

I would cut a 5/8 board and a 2x4 into 6" pieces, and make a tour of eh major Indy fence companies - see who wants to buy about 3/4 of that stash.

The mind boggles at the length of time to consume it yourself - unless that that species is all you want to work with for a long time............

[Mike Null]

I used similar material to build a fairly large shoe rack for my wife. That was 20 years ago and it still looks good. Didn't put a finish on it.

I wish I had more and I'd be building tool storage and small boxes.

[Roy Harding]

DSC00336.jpg DSC00155.jpg DSC00093.jpg 100_0066.jpg

These are all WESTERN red cedar - but I think you get my drift. (Is eastern red cedar also known as "aromatic cedar", or "Tennessee cedar"?? - if so, then lining of closets, boxes, chests, etcetera is an excellent idea).

[John K Jordan]

I use it a lot here on the farm on barn and out-buildings - have about 15 logs in a pile waiting for me to fire up the sawmill. ERC makes great siding. I run it vertically, rough-sawn, coat of boiled linseed oil if exposed to rain.

I also like it for outside covering for doors since it is pretty light. I put ERC boards over 1/2" pressure-treated plywood, framed on the reverse with oak boards for strength at hinges. I have several such doors on my barn that are so stable I latch them with residential locksets and they still "snick" shut after at least 6 years.

A guy down the hill has been selling porch/yard swings made from cedar for decades. He sells every one he makes.

Another guy I know made and sold hundreds of little cedar coopered buckets. Good for bird houses, routed signs, foot stools, boxes, benches. Some people sell little boards of cedar to put in clothing drawers or with a hole drilled with a string attached to hang in a closet, based on the false assumption that the cedar smell will keep moths and bugs away.

You can also sell bundles of cedar to people for camp fires. They like the smell.

JKJ