Roughing red cedar

[Fred Perreault]

I have turned a lot of red cedar, but it was always to finish. Does anyone have any experience rough turning red cedar and letting it dry in some form before finish turning it? I am curious as to how the cedar reacted to the drying effort.... cracking, and such. I have obtained a great deal of red cedar and much of it is large diameter. I was hoping to rough out a bunch of it and then having it to turn to finish later. Thanks........ May 2014 treat you all well :-)

Ahhhh... the serenity of the Cape in Winter

[Steve Mawson]

Don't know how it will dry on the Cape but in Nebraska I have roughed out quite a few. Then did the ancor seal and put in a paper bag for several months, then out of the bag and put on the shelf until I could get to them. A few small cracks around some of the knots but nothing that did not turn away. Rounded over the edges as well. Have had some tight cracks show up later around some of those knots again. Didn't seem to distract from the piece too much. Usually rough about 10% of the diameter.

[Chris Studley]

I've found in red cedar to be fairly tolerant. I use a little watered down glue on the end grain. I spent a week in Eastham(love the area) this Summer and I noticed how much cedar there was around, no doubt you have a bunch...

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have turned Juniper a bit, never very large ones, found that they do like to check and split very easily, the nice smell and also the red color disappears in time, depending the amount of light that gets to it, I still like to turn though, sure makes the shop smell nice :D.

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[Fred Perreault]

Leo, nice looking juniper pieces.

Chris..... if you make it back to Eastham let me know and we could spin something if you have time.

[Jack Riley]

I was lucky enough to obtain some logs from Red Cedar trees blown down by straight line winds. Fortunately, the logs keep well and I can take my time roughing out needed blanks. One must make sure that precautions are taken so as not to breathe the oils into the lungs. Red Cedar smells great but, is rough on the COPD!