drying small slabs?

[imagineero]

I'd like to make cutting boards out of some of the trees I take down. I think it would make a nice christmas gift back to regular customers, and I've thought about doing it a few times. Shame to put everything through the chipper, and we do come across some nice trees from time to time that are coming down.

I've cut some before, but they always crack. The size of the piece is generally about 3' in length, and half the diameter of the tree, with no pith. I'll usually just make a couple rip cuts mind of like radial milling and end up with real nice grain. I only really want to get 3 or 4 boards out of a tree so I can be pretty picky about which part of the tree they come from. Width is usually 2~3' and thickness is about 2". I'm hoping for a finished board about 1 1/2", 2 1/2' long and 2' wide. Planning on making 50 or so of these a year and don't want to put a lot of time/effort into it.

Will a small solar kiln do what I want? Should I just pay someone to kiln dry it? Is anyone likely to have a thicknesser that can handle this size, or am I goung to have to make something up with a router? How do I stop the boards cracking?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[buzz sawyer]

Quarter sawing the boards may help with the cracking. Are you painting the ends to slow down drying? I haven't seen too many cutting boards that size made from one board. Usually they are made of several narrower pieces glued together. That's the best way to prevent cracking.

 

[Dave Boyt]

Buzz is right about cutting boards made from strips. I would have the boards cut 1-3/4" thick to allow for shrinkage while drying and for wood lost in the planing process. Width should be no more than 10". After the boards are dried (solar kiln would work fine-- you want to be around 10% moisture content), plane them, then rip into strips (I like to make them square-- in this case 1-1/1" wide), then glue the strips back together. If you build a gluing jig, the process goes very quickly. A final sanding, rub in a food-grade oil finish, and you're good to go. Making them this way eliminates the chance that the cutting board will split apart the first time it is dropped or hit hard. Your idea is a good one, by the way. I'm sure your customers will appreciate the thought and effort.

 

[kimosawboy]

You might consider making a small kiln for yourself and heat it with a halogen lamp. I have a 6'h x 6'w x 8'l and I get temps of 100 with just one 500watt halogen lamp with the glass cover removed, when I turn on another lamp I get up to 135 which is a great temp to dry.
If you scale this down a bit you could probably get a decent heat out of one lamp.
Like the others have mentioned, paint the ends and go with the router sled to flatten once the board have dried. Either strip or solid pieces work well for cutting boards.
Show some pics when you have done one or two.
G Vavra

 

[imagineero]

I cut these couple weeks back, most of them have cracked already and the uncracked portions are too small to do anything with so I guess it's a bit late to do anything about it.

I was thinking maybe a small kiln in an old chest freezer? It's about the right size, and well insulated. Not sure it would stand up to the heat though. Maybe paint it black inside and put a glass lid on it. one fan on a low low setting, and a halogen globe? 2-3 days to dry a 2" slab? Sounds like it's going to use a lot of electricty!

Do I put the slabs in the same day I cut them?

 

[BobL]

There should be no need for a kiln if they are stacked and stickered right and you strap them down with something heavy on top.
This is what I use for small slabs

You also MUST seal the ends with at least a couple of thick coats of house paint or better still some proper end check coating.

BTW I notice your finish is very rough. Are you using ripping chain? It also looks like you are see-sawing your saw quite a bit. To improve the finish just hold the saw at the same angle all the way through the cut - it may take a bit longer but it will be nothing in comparison to the amount of time needed to improve the finish after the slab has dried.

 

[Jordan3605]

As BobL said above sealing the ends will reduce most checking problems.
I use a product called "AnchorSeal" http://www.uccoatings.com/products/anchorseal
When sealing the sooner the better.
Soon as the tree is cut down wax them ends.

 

[imagineero]

There should be no need for a kiln if they are stacked and stickered right and you strap them down with something heavy on top.
This is what I use for small slabs

You also MUST seal the ends with at least a couple of thick coats of house paint or better still some proper end check coating.

BTW I notice your finish is very rough. Are you using ripping chain? It also looks like you are see-sawing your saw quite a bit. To improve the finish just hold the saw at the same angle all the way through the cut - it may take a bit longer but it will be nothing in comparison to the amount of time needed to improve the finish after the slab has dried.

That looks pretty nice there, are you waiting a year+ to dry those? I'm hoping for a month turn around. Where do you get end check coating from? I tried the link in the other post but it failed to work.

It's rough cutting for sure. I don't have any kind of mill. The chipper we have only has a throat opening of 18"x30", so logs bigger than that have to be ripped smaller. To make quality chip the logs need to be fed with lengthways into the machine - turning them into rounds produces poor chip. So we generally will buck oversize logs down to about 36" in length, then rip them into 4, 6, or 9 pieces to get the desired 26" long by 18" wide by 30" high to get them into the chipper. I've had upwards of 1200lbs of noodles to dump after some larger tree removal jobs.

Seems a real shame to just put it all through the chipper, especially when you get a rare nice piece of lumber. Most yard trees are just rubbish, they grow too fast and full of defect. The tree pictured was somewhere around 120 years old, original forest grown on the back side of s slope down in a gully, blackbutt and very dense. Felt I ought to take something out of it, we don't do trees like that very often. Those slabs pictured are all only 1/4 log size x 36". I just ripped the logs in half free hand lengthwise, then ripped just one board out of each 'half'. We're cutting parallel with the grain, not across it so the finish is naturally pretty awful, compounded by the free handing. The chains are brutally sharp, and rakers set around 6 degrees on the bigger saws by the BobL method. With wood that dense and hard it's still a tough slog though. The saws only self feed the first couple cuts.

Shaun

 

[betterbuilt]

A month turn around is way to fast even with a kiln. If you look at your pictures the cracks are running back to the defects in the piece of wood. You can save yourself some trouble by only cutting select pieces. Start by choosing a knot free piece of log. I also choose a piece that there isn't a lot of stress in it. I look for a piece that's more like the first round in the picture. I'd select my piece of wood and put off cutting the slabs till a crack develops it should happen pretty quick if the sun is out. Once a crack starts I'd take two boards, one on each side of the crack. This will help with the cracking. These two boards will warp the least.

The next part is storage. Listen to the other comments seal the ends and sticker them right away. A month is way to fast. You really want them to air dry some before you start any rapid drying. I'm on more of a long term drying time table . My slabs get at least a year or more before I even think about using them. That's my 2 cents. Cheers.

 

[buzz sawyer]

I'm glad to see you want to save some wood from the chipper. I cringe at a local show where they demonstrate chippers by grinding up log after log.
One other piece of advice for the slabs. Cut the pith out of them - cut so the very center is removed. That will help reduce cracking. You can paint the ends with cheap latex paint. As for drying, I've always heard a year an inch. I've found that hot attics are good for drying.

 

[BobL]

That looks pretty nice there, are you waiting a year+ to dry those?

Yep. but patience is a virtue and you only need to do this for one year and before you know it you will have wood coming out of your ears.
But you will have to sticker the wood properly.

I'm hoping for a month turn around.

Then you will need a kiln. If you know someone with a kiln and you can put the pieces in with other stuff then go for it but remember that unless it's a complete solar job (then those thickness are not gonna dry in one month) electric kilns cost big $$$ to run and the wood has to be valuable to warrant the use of a kiln

Where do you get end check coating from?

Places like carbatech sell small amounts suitable for what you are doing but it's expensive so you might want to consider some latex paint.

It's rough cutting for sure. I don't have any kind of mill.

If you can weld it only takes a couple of hours to knock one up out of SHS
If you can't weld there are other options using wood.

To make quality chip the logs need to be fed with lengthways into the machine - turning them into rounds produces poor chip. So we generally will buck oversize logs down to about 36" in length, then rip them into 4, 6, or 9 pieces to get the desired 26" long by 18" wide by 30" high to get them into the chipper. I've had upwards of 1200lbs of noodles to dump after some larger tree removal jobs.

Sounds like a lot of work. My tree lopping mates just pump their trees straight through and always have large back orders for chips from city councils and mining companies.

Anyway like others have said good on you for rescuing at least some of these logs.

 

[Dave Boyt]

Why not set the best wood aside and hire a band saw mill to custom cut it once a month? Even at $60/ hr, it is cheaper than doing it with a chain saw when you consider time and wear & tear on equipment. Some mills even have a drying service.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Why not set the best wood aside and hire a band saw mill to custom cut it once a month? Even at $60/ hr, it is cheaper than doing it with a chain saw when you consider time and wear & tear on equipment. Some mills even have a drying service.

Good idea - and you get about 25% increase in yield due to the narrower kerf.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Looks very good Rogue60. I imagine that's a pretty hard wood? Do you ever resurface it?

 

[chads]

I made my wife a 18x14x1.5" board and she likes it but it's heavy.
I screwed up another board and I just cut it down till I had something solid. I had her try it out at about 10x10x5/8" final size, she really loves it.
I haven't seen her get the big one out since.
Unless you need a large cutting board it may not get used much.
Chad