I just ordered some 1/2" & 3/4" x 6" width and 2"x8"x8' eastern red cedar, green.
I'm planning on using it for deck planters and the like.
How long should this material be air-dried and how much 'shinkage' should I expect?
Would stainless steel screws be the right choice here?
Also, any tips on air drying this would be appreciated.
ThankX Ron
In General, Softwood specific, Estimating times.
On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 13:08:56 -0500, "Ron" scribbled:
The typical answer is one year per inch of thickness.
As for shrinkage, eastern red cedar is one of the more stable softwoods, with 4.7% tangential shrinkage (i.e. along the flat-sawn side of the board) and 3.1% radial shrinkage (i.e. along the straight-grained or quarter-sawn side of the board). These numbers are for shrinkage from green (or at the fibre saturation point, 33% moisture content for eastern red cedar) to oven-dry. Numbers from Hoadley, "Understanding Wood", p.74.
Total shrinkage will depend on your final equilibrium moisture content. With a typical 8%, total shrinkage will be 3.6% on the flat-sawn side and 2.35 on the quarter-sawn side of the board. Calculations based on formulas in Hoadley, p.76.
Assuming you boards are flatsawn, you can expect about 3/16" shrinkage on the width of 8" boards and about 3/64" in thickness for the two-inch boards. The shrinkage in the 6" boards will be proportional to this.
As these are based on averages, YMMV
Probably the best choice
When you are stacking the wood, place stickers between each layer to allow for for circulation and put weights on top of the stack so it dries flat.
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