Air Drying Freshly Cut Lumber
George VondriskaDescription
Master woodworker George Vondriska provides air dry fresh cut lumber tips for your woodworking projects. A WoodWorkers Guild of America (WWGOA) original video.
Once lumber's been cut out of a tree, of course it is dripping wet. The moisture meter showed us this lumber that we've got behind us is at about 45 percent moisture so way up there. No way that that can be used in the shop. One really low tech way that wood can be dried is with air drying. So Greg is here, he's gonna kind of give us the low down on the air dry stack we've got in front of us. Yeah, you've got some nice lumber here. Now you're very anxious to get it used. You want to put it into a project, but you can't do it with the moisture you've got here right now. You've got a nice looking stack going here, You've stickered it at about every sixteen inches that will keep the wood flat while it's drying. So the stickers are the one by twos separating each row Yep, that'll allow air flow in between the boards horizontally. You've also got separation between your boards which is great that allows plenty of air flow in this. You can air dry wood inside or out. You happen to be in a shed here. It's perfect. You've got a roof overhead. You haven't stacked a bunch of stuff in front of it. You don't need to cover it with a tarp. If you cover wood outside with a tarp, you're still trapping in that moisture. You need to bring that up. You're better off putting a hard surface on it, and letting the rain come off of it. We wanna protect it from the elements, but airflow is key for air dried wood to dry. Airflow is absolute key. so you've got a great looking pile of wood here. You've coated your ends that helps keeps the ends from checking and losing moisture too quickly 'cause that's where you're gonna have your splits and checks and cracks. So you've done a great job here, getting this thing to this point. Now it's just a waiting game. Now one thing I found in a building like this is that if I'm concerned about getting enough air flow it's not a bad idea to even locate a box fan here and just help push air. I'm in a little bit of a dead corner here in this building, so pushing a little bit of air over this pile is gonna help keep that airflow a little bit more uniform. Now last step, how do we cap this off here in the building? We're gonna definitely wanna put up more stickers across here, and put a piece of plywood on top, and weight it with some cinder blocks. Anything you've got laying around to help keep these things flat. So as it dries, it's gonna wanna move. It's gonna wanna cup a little. You wanna keep all that pressure down on the top pile. You'll usually see the top couple layers have a little excessive cup or twist if you don't weight them. You've got the weight of the pile on the lower layers so you're in good shape down low. So definitely you wanna weight the top few layers. Well you keep talking about weight here, so I'm gonna ask you to give me a hand getting that heavy plywood and the cinder blocks on top of this pile, we'll finish this thing off. Not a problem All right what do you think? I think you're gonna have a great looking pile of wood. You should keep everything nice and flat so. One thing I wanna point out we've got all those stickers dead in line with each other. That keeps the weight going right down one over the top of the next one that's gonna help keep her flat. Absolutely, if you don't have a straight pile now, It won't dry straight. All right well that's good now we just sit back and wait.
<strong>Ticket # 42674 <strong>42672‬ Old air drying wood freshly cut lumber in the video the gentleman states the ends of the lumber is coded to slow down the moisture escaping to fast what is it that you coat the end of the lumber with, also you mentioned the moisture in the wood what are you looking for in moisture of the wood to work with is there a percentage range that you need to have so the wood won’t warp when you’re building your project?
I cut my own timber, White and Red Oak, Popular, Maple, Pine etc and mill to desired boards on my one man saw mill. Air Drying here in south east North Carolina is tough. Like today humidity is 94%. I do not have a kiln so best I can do is about 18% moisture. The lumber is mostly used for my own projects in/around my home. I always have problem with swelling and shrinking. any thoughts on how to control that? thanks
Did I hear you say to "coat" the ends of each board?
I have some Maple slabs that were fresh cut when I moved from Minnesota to New Mexico. I couldn’t stack them right away and they warped. I thought if I could soak them in water, then stack them with weight on top, they might straighten out. Has this ever been tried? Is there another way it can be done? Thanks, Ken
What methods can you recommend to remove the bark from sawn lumber, that will not gouge the live edge...there are drawknives that are sold for this purpose, yet you lose the "real" edge of the wood by doing that. And once the bark is off, what recommendations do you have for cleaning up the wood edge after it is dried....wire wheels, or are there better choices instead of this?
I have some racks in my workshop on the walls.....can I put fresh-cut lumber in the shop, stickered, in order to speed up drying (yet not go too fast in drying)? I understand that you never want direct sunlight on drying wood either....something that should have been mentioned in the video. Thanks
<strong>Ticket 18752 Can you share with me the style, make, and manufacturer of the moisture meter in this video?
I worked at a hardwood sawmill for many years and if anyone's interested here is a little tip for drying. The stickers between rows can cause staining that can run quite deep and ruin your wood for some "high end" projects so make sure they are kiln dry and use your router to cut grooves every half inch at 45 degree angles on both sides of the sticker. This will minimize surface contact while still providing the support you need to keep your wood flat and provides a little more airflow. Cheers
You refereed to a moisture meter. What should the meter read before you start using it. Different reading for different projects or what is the determinating factors
I want to know more about his article . Thanks.