I was helping a friend cut firewood off his property when we came across a dead cedar tree about 8" in diameter. He gave it to me knowing my interest in woodworking. I cut several sections into 2' lengths and left them sitting in my basement, where they've been for the past ten years or so -- until today.
I made a simple sled out of scrap 3/4" plywood and set the bandsaw fence so the sled just cleared the blade. I then used a carpenter's hatchet to flatten a side and clear off any protruding knots. After that I screwed it to the sled so that just the amount I wanted to remove was protruding. The portion left of the square gives you an idea of how much will be removed by the pass. One of the things I liked about this cedar was that it was mostly red and had very little sap wood.
With the log fastened securely to the sled I sent it through the bandsaw. I have a 3/4" resaw blade with carbide teeth. These are spaced unevenly at 2-3 TPI. It makes short work and leaves a very smooth cut. Really like that blade.
Next step was to remove the screws, rotate the log 90 degrees, reattach and send it through again. This left me with two perpendicular faces, and meant that I could begin milling the log into boards. No need to use the sled any longer.
I estimated the thickness so that I could get the most from the logs. This worked out to be 1-1/4" thick planks. I'm sure I'll resaw these again before they're used. This is just a convenient size for storage and that I can later split into 1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" thicknesses without much waste. I did leave one at 2" thick in case I wanted it for turnings. I left each board with one live edge.
After all the large sections were planked I went back through the cutoffs and sawed some 1/4" thicknesses as well as several 1/32" pieces of veneer. Here's the result of the four logs.
Not a bad batch of boards for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. Now I just gotta figure out what I'm going to do with it! No idea yet what I will be making, but the cedar is there when I'm ready. One side benefit is that my shop has the wonderful smell of fresh cedar now.
I made a simple sled out of scrap 3/4" plywood and set the bandsaw fence so the sled just cleared the blade. I then used a carpenter's hatchet to flatten a side and clear off any protruding knots. After that I screwed it to the sled so that just the amount I wanted to remove was protruding. The portion left of the square gives you an idea of how much will be removed by the pass. One of the things I liked about this cedar was that it was mostly red and had very little sap wood.
With the log fastened securely to the sled I sent it through the bandsaw. I have a 3/4" resaw blade with carbide teeth. These are spaced unevenly at 2-3 TPI. It makes short work and leaves a very smooth cut. Really like that blade.
Next step was to remove the screws, rotate the log 90 degrees, reattach and send it through again. This left me with two perpendicular faces, and meant that I could begin milling the log into boards. No need to use the sled any longer.
I estimated the thickness so that I could get the most from the logs. This worked out to be 1-1/4" thick planks. I'm sure I'll resaw these again before they're used. This is just a convenient size for storage and that I can later split into 1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" thicknesses without much waste. I did leave one at 2" thick in case I wanted it for turnings. I left each board with one live edge.
After all the large sections were planked I went back through the cutoffs and sawed some 1/4" thicknesses as well as several 1/32" pieces of veneer. Here's the result of the four logs.
Not a bad batch of boards for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. Now I just gotta figure out what I'm going to do with it! No idea yet what I will be making, but the cedar is there when I'm ready. One side benefit is that my shop has the wonderful smell of fresh cedar now.