heres my plan drying wood

[bigjohn1895]

well i already started this venture but here is the plan
i have had alot of checking issues with the red oak i have been milling
so i figured i would stack it all without stickers and paint the ends
it has been this way for a week there is no mold between the boards so im going to
try stacking it in my garage with stickers tomarrow morning my garage is heated to 60 ish for a few hours a day then cooled
for the rest of the time im hoping this will act like a kilm in a way is there a flaw in my plan or dose this sound good
btw the garage is heated by wood but its forced air from the lean tube

 

[betterbuilt]

well i already started this venture but here is the plan
i have had alot of checking issues with the red oak i have been milling
so i figured i would stack it all without stickers and paint the ends
it has been this way for a week there is no mold between the boards so im going to
try stacking it in my garage with stickers tomarrow morning my garage is heated to 60 ish for a few hours a day then cooled
for the rest of the time im hoping this will act like a kilm in a way is there a flaw in my plan or dose this sound good
btw the garage is heated by wood but its forced air from the lean tube

It sounds like you should be fine. Keep in mind there has to be air circulation for the heat to to get in to the pile. Don't expect the drying to be even if you push the pile against the wall. I actually dry wood in my living room If I'm working on my house. I always rotate the pile moving the back boards to the front and the bottom boards to the top. I also flip them all. Another thing that helps is a ratchet strap or straps. I tighten it every couple of days. It helps you see that the pile is shrinking while keeping the warping to a minimum.

You might want to get the pile off the ground as high as possible. I use concrete blocks or 8x8's.

Best of luck. BB

 

[Timberframed]

What BB said.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'd want to find out why i was having so many checking problems to begin with, and correct them!

You shouldn't have those problems stacking your lumber outside, IF you do it right in the first place.

Personally, i wouldn't stack any "quality" green lumber together for a week! Wouldn't want to store it inside a closed building either...

DM

 

[VA-Sawyer]

The FPL ( Forest Products Lab ) did some research a while back on surface checking of Oak. They found that if the initial drying was even a little bit too fast that the checking could get pretty bad. They detemined that the fibers on the surface were getting torn from each other during the sawing process, which left millions of "micro-checks" on the surface of the board. These micro-checks acted like scratches on glass, they were weak points where the wood could easily split with any tension applied. If the surface of the board drys too fast, it will stat to shrink while the core is still too wet. The result is tension on the board surface across the grain and that causes the excess checking.
They found that if they planed the boards straight off the mill, and then started the drying process that the boards had much less checking. Of course green planing of Oak will cause a number of problems with the planer due to the high moisture and acid contents, but they can be dealt with if you take the proper precautions.
I will see if I can locate the origional article and link it.
Rick

 

[bigjohn1895]

well i think the checking problem is the fact that im on sand and the humidity is always lowish here i live in Michigan but im in the sand part

also after the last post im wondering if maybe the circle mill i got my previous boards from was tearing the boards from not being sharp enough

and dont worry my garage is open with lots of air movement its not a new airtight garage by any means more of a small barn

 

[Agoraphobia]

Hope you don't mind a long time lurker chiming in with something I've read but have no personal experience with.

Something you might try if you have the vertical space is drying it upright. There are several articles out there on drying wood just the way it stands that supposedly allows the water in the xylem to drain naturally. Anybody tried this?

Search wood drying vertical and you should find stuff.

 

[betterbuilt]

Hope you don't mind a long time lurker chiming in with something I've read but have no personal experience with.

Something you might try if you have the vertical space is drying it upright. There are several articles out there on drying wood just the way it stands that supposedly allows the water in the xylem to drain naturally. Anybody tried this.

Please chim in any time you want. Welcome to AS. I actually stand all my shorter Slabs. For me actually works out pretty good because I can keep an eye on them and they are easy to access when they are ready.

I try to air dry all my slabs outside. I have experimented in various spots on my property. My conclusion is that they dry best with a few hours of sun and lots of cross wind. I actuall have orented my stacks so the sides of the piles don't get all the sun. The sun for the most part just rises and lower over my stacks. I use tin(Steel roofing) over them all and I make sure that the tin acts as an overhang so the rain doesn't get on the wood. With slabs, the stickers have to be cut to the size of the slab or the rain will follow the sticker into the pile. I also try to give my stacks a few inches of gradient so if any water gets in it will leave on its own. With all that said I still have the best results from continually learning how to make things better.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I found that a small/medium Solar Kiln woked pretty good for me at reducing defect problems.
I built one when I was in Williamsburg, and will do so here as soon as I can find the right tree for the runners. The one I had in VA held about 2000bf and cost me about $700 to build. I was getting $.50/bf for drying service, so it paid for itself in the first full load.

I also learned a lot about dying wood from the FPL. Not all of the info transfers to small volume dryers, but they do tend to publish some info that works only in small scale as they try to figure out how to make it work at the commerical level. The best part about stuff from the FPL site is the fact that they are pure reseach so they don't have an axe to grind trying to convince the reader of their point of view. They have whole books in .pdf about drying wood and using wood. Try the site:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us Click on INFOMATION, then PUBLICATIONS ect, then list by Topic.

Rick