Question about drying

[BigOakAdot]

Hey guys I have a question about drying round cuts of oak. I free cut a few round slabs that are about 1.5" thick. I was honestly just giving my new 660 a try and ended up with some decent pieces.

They seem to be cracking pretty bad. Should I cut them thicker, let dry, and then cut them to desired thickness after they dry up? Could I paint them on both sides and then sand, or hand plane off the paint?

Any advice would help. Also, for you table makers out there what thickness do you mill your boards? I'm thinking 2" is good and once it's planned and sanded will be closer for 1.5". I will be milling walnut and I'm talking regular milling not round pieces. Thanks.

 

[rarefish383]

I don't think you can stop the Oak from checking. I cut my slabs 3" for benches. I use mortise and tenon joints on the benches, and I see where they are naturally checking, and center the check in the joint. That way if it starts to get loose I can put a black Walnut wedge in the check to tighten up the joint. I think this bench is a little over 3 years old and I put wedges in the natural checks, Joe,

 

[rarefish383]

Here you can see that the joints are not symmetric from one end to the other, but everyone that's ever seen it liked it better, when I pointed it out, Joe.

 

[BigOakAdot]

Did you paint the ends of those boards after milling? I did that with my cherry and it seemed to help with cracking. Def twisted a bit though....

 

[Dave Boyt]

Do a forum search for "cookies". There has been a lot of discussion. Slow drying helps some, but the fact is, they will shrink and crack. That just has to be part of the design. On normal lumber, end coating helps a lot, if you can get it before it starts to crack. The wedge is one of many tricks the old timers used to tighten up furniture as it dried and shrank. Nice bench, Rarefish.

 

[Grey]

Rounds/cookies are the absolutely the hardest cuts to dry, and Oak is very hard to eliminate checks, so you set yourself up with a really, really hard prospect. The only reliable way to preserve cookies is with PEG impregnation. Once they start to dry 1-24 hrs depending on temp and humidity, they will crack/check. Please refer to Hoadley's excellent book on wood technology
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Understanding Wood: A Craftsman's Guide to Wood Technology, Book