OT: Storing/Drying wood

[randyjaco]

Sorry for the WAY off topic post, but I notice a few of y'all do a bit of wood working. I just scored a couple of hundred feet of Cherry wood that is partially dried and wondering what to do with it. First off, I live near Galveston TX, so it is hot, wet and humid. I have 2 options for storing this wood. One is stacked in the back yard under a tarp or up in my attic over the shop. I would prefer the attic but am concerned about the effect of the intense heat on the wood. These are 4 and 5 quarter planks and have been drying outdoors in Mississippi for about 6 months, so they probably need a couple of months more before they can become projects.

TIA

Randy

[GKman]

Paint the ends several coats. Stack outdoors with lath between so air can circulate. Keep rain and sun off the top with weighted sheets of metal. Maybe landscape fabric on sides to catch blowing rain and excess sun.

[Duffy]

Storing & drying wood

Sorry for the WAY off topic post, but I notice a few of y'all do a bit of wood working. I just scored a couple of hundred feet of Cherry wood that is partially dried and wondering what to do with it. First off, I live near Galveston TX, so it is hot, wet and humid. I have 2 options for storing this wood. One is stacked in the back yard under a tarp or up in my attic over the shop. I would prefer the attic but am concerned about the effect of the intense heat on the wood. These are 4 and 5 quarter planks and have been drying outdoors in Mississippi for about 6 months, so they probably need a couple of months more before they can become projects.

TIA

Randy

First of all, determine WHAT you want to do, and WHAT exactly you have. I just checked and up here 4-red face black cherry KD, is $9.40 FBM and $11.40 FBM 10" & wider. Potentially you have over $1500.00 worth of lumber. In your climate, stored outdoors, it will dry to about 19% moisture content. That is fine for framing and useless for cabinetwork. By all means, paint the board ends-ANY paint will do, it is to slow the loss of moisture from the ends, which causes checking. In Fine Woodworking, (Taunton Press,) there are several descriptions of dehumidifier drying systems for small batches of wood. Basically, you borrow a little dehumidifier, and build a lightweight, insulated box that has a partition full height, and almost full lenght down the middle. Pile the lumber, properly stickered, on both sides of the partition and place the Dehumidifier unit on one side. Run the condensate hose out of the box to a container. Close the box up and turn on the unit. The fan will drive the air around the box like a racetrack. In about 3-4 weeks it will be as dry as you will want. How to determine moisture content and follow the process is a whole other post. Good luck Duffy

[kendall]

Here in michigan I dry and keep wood in the basement, it always has good humidity, and a fairly constant temp so it dries nicely.
Tried it in the attic, but the humidity and air currents changed so often the wood was always in motion, it dried fast but wasn't stable.

If you don't have a basement, a large box placed in the shade is better than an attic I think.

Ken.

[Your Old Dog]

Ditto GKman. That's how it's done. Just don't skip the painting of the ends or you'll likely be drying planks that will only be good for firewood. But, on that note, cherry makes some of the nicest burning firewood there is as the colors it produces are quite pretty not to mention a nice fragrance.

The wood only has to be dried to the moisture content of the neighborhood it is going to be living in when turned into project. If you have it out doors with good air flow and shaded from the sun and rain it will normally take a little over a year to stabilize. What you can do with the ends of one of the boards is to cut (rip) some 3-4 inch long fingers about 1/4" wide and you'll be able to watch the wood gnarl up through the seasons. If this is done when the wood is first cut, it will knarl over the drying period and when the fingers become straight again it is ready to use.

[wierdscience]

GK has it right,roof metal weighed with concrete blocks is the best,make sure the surface you stack on is flat also.Make sure there aren't any nail holes in the tin,holes and salt rain make for polka-dot bleached wood and spotty patches of stain(fungus)

YOD is also right,it does absolutely no good to KD dry it down to 3-4% moisture,the humidity we have down here(TX-Fla) it will equalize in short order between 12-14%.Not to mention careful air drying will eliminate kiln losses due to excessive checking.

Some of the supposed hard and fast rules of wood drying don't apply down here.There is no need to bring the moisture content down below equilibrium since we don't use dry,fan forced heating indoors during the "winter" at least for more than a few days.Shrinkage is not our problem,expansion is.

I would not put the wood in the attic,they get too hot and would dry the wood too quickly adding to the risk of checking.

[randyjaco]

Thanks Guys,

I just realized that the carport has a high pitched roof with rafters that are well ventilated and and should supply ample support. It is a lot cooler than the attic because the rafters are exposed. That will also pass the SWMBO test 8^)

Randy

[kf2qd]

Different problem in the south.

I moved to south tTexas a year ago from northern Indiana. Up north the problem is that we driesd out our houses by heating them in the winter. Down here in the Sunny HOT south we dry out our houses in the summer by COOLING them. Most of the work done by the air conditioning is sucking the water out of the air.

Dry the lumber outside for a year. Then bring what you will use for the project inside (next summer when the AC is on) for a month and let it stabilize and then plane it and make your stuff and finish it and then enjoy it.

[Evan]

Our furniture is pretty much all solid pine. Hardwoods with only a few exceptions don't survive the dryness in winter. Inside humidity drops to as low as 20% and just about everything but pine, teak and jatoba () will check, crack, split, bow, warp, curl and fall apart. Inlays curl up like potato chips, hide glues on antiques turn to powder and parts fall off. Veneer resembles shrunken Mactac and wooden chairs become death traps.

Humidfying the air sort of works but can also cause a lot of damage. If you raise the humidity too much when it is really cold you end up with a thick layer of ice on the insides of all the windows, even double glazed and argon filled. That then melts and runs down the wall.

[kendall]

That sound a lot like most of the UP, and parts of the lower.
Air used to get so dry you'd have a bloody nose when you woke up.

Ken.