Drying rough cut hardwood

Whichester1 · Dec 31, 2013

I had earlier been told to place fresh cut lumber in a barn spacing boards with a 1" board and it would be dry in 1 to 1.5 years. Am now being told it has to be dried in a kiln.
Anybody else have any experience?

Thanks,
Bill.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 31, 2013

You need to "Sticker" it, first, no matter what else you do. Before kilns were invented, lumber has been dried to about 10% humidity, by stickering and air drying inside a barn. If you lay boards on top each other, willy-nilly, they will warp, mold and rot. In the old days Carpenters building fine furniture would wait 7-9 years, for the wood to stabilize, before using it. Main reason is shrinkage, as wood dries it shrinks, and the shrinkage is different depending on how you measure, and cut across the grain. Suggest you read the encyclopedia of wood, It can tell you more than I can type.

Richard G. · Dec 31, 2013

Need to know what kind of wood to give a good answer.
Richard

DeltaRed · Dec 31, 2013

Local yard/sawmill has "a BUNCH" of boards stacked .They eventially plane and ship it.I think Kiln Dried means that it is Quick dried to ship sooner and as a marketing ploy.Maybe It's a government 'regulation'?How did they dry wood before kilns? Jmho

Lamar Fudd · Dec 31, 2013

You can "sticker" it with lath-best and cheapest way. It needs at least one year to dry under roof. Also, before furniture is made, you need to rip the dried wood no wider than 4" and flip one of the rips over to reverse the grain.

55deere70 · Dec 31, 2013

"spacing boards with a 1" board"

I think he means stickers. Boards stacked single layer with stickers in between inside a barn will eventually dry enough to be usable. Kiln drying just speeds up the process by heating to wood in a kiln to "steam" the moisture out.

Josh in Pa · Dec 31, 2013

I"ve always been told that boards will dry an inch per year. I dried some 3x8 oak that I used for joists in my house. They shrunk 1/2" in the year that I dried them, and maybe 1/8 in the several years since they have been installed. This will work for construction lumber, if you are planning on furniture it will need to dry longer. As wood seasons, it shrinks as it dries, and expands as it gains moisture in a humid summer. After several cycles of this, it does not shrink/expand as much. Seasoned wood is just as good as anything out of a kiln, maybe better, just not as fast.
Josh

evilboweivel · Dec 31, 2013

stickers should be dry wood before you start
if high value wood is being dried then restack it with fresh stickers after 3 months, and 6 months PUTTING THE STICKERS AT A DIFFERENT SPOT EACH TIME or will end up with sticker stain
also seal cut ends of boards to retard the drying process and elimante/control splitting

Bonnan · Dec 31, 2013

My personal experience agrees with Josh on Pa.
Friend and myself have a small sawmill, cut over 5000 bf since retirement. We sticker (1/2 inch), stack outside, cover and let dry for at least a year. Friend makes furniture; I use to restore barns etc.
Much better outside where the wind can wash thru.
Tried one large lot inside a barn and it was discolored badly.

donjr · Dec 31, 2013

Pop got back from deepest, darkest Germany in early 1946. He bought a lot in the village I grew up in, and went up to my G-dad's and cut some timber, took it to the local sawmill and put it up on the barn floor with lathes in between the boards. It was all green, sawmill cut, rough oak. He built the home I grew up in in 1948 with it. To this day, the whole home is all full sized timber except for two additions to it. When the roof was replaced about fifteen years ago, the roofers doing the job cussed it because all of the wood was still good, totally cured and hard as granite. Even the sheathing was oak.......

Brian Dan · Dec 31, 2013

Best to air dry lumber for a year then have it kiln dried for a couple of weeks. The heat from the kiln kills andy bugs that might be borrowed in the wood. You will want your finished lumber to be at 8-10% moisture.

jm. · Dec 31, 2013

Well after 70 years guess I can wade in with my two cents worth of experience. FIRST the stickers they mention are a lot better IF you get drying sticks. They are special cut and allow air flow yet still support the board. They look like a stick with screw threads all the around. I leave most soft woods on stick covered for 3 to 6 months outside. Then I put in an enclosed kiln that can take the rest moisture out and kill any bugs. Try to keep it 160 degrees for 7 to 10 days. After that can be planed and used for about anything. However there are lots of uses for AIR dried lumber.

CH(upstate,NY) · Dec 31, 2013

Had a bunch of rough ash stickerd in the attic of my barn for at least 6 years. Planed it out and it sat for a few more weeks. Bisketed, glued and clamped up tops, bottoms and sides for cabinates in my shop then brought them up to the house to dry for the night. The ends checked overnight on some of them. Luckily I had made them long enough to cut off the checked ends.

Just the moisture difference between the shop and the wood heated house made a difference. I now let the wood set at the house before glueing up panels.

Geo-TH,In · Dec 31, 2013

I use 1 inch spacers. Drys faster if after a few months, run it through the planner to clean it up, then let it dry more. It took less than 9 months for mine to dry.

I was thinking of storing my red oak in the rafters of pole bar where it gets very hot in summer, but didn't.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 1, 2014

For what it is worth if you are going to the work of making a niece piece of furniture get your wood kilned dried. That means get it above a certain temp for an allotted time. This kills the powder pouch beetle. Lots of people have kilns
few know how to dry by the book. Just remember that the wood always wins that is how they built the pyramids. With that being said I have cheated on a few small projects when I needed lumber fast. Yes all lumber should be sticked and predried.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 1, 2014

For what its worth a local fellow that hand makes furniture likes to dry the wood in the log undercover and then saws it out.

ohiojim · Jan 1, 2014

here's my 2 cents worth, and you're probably gonna get what ya pay for,....you want to sticker the wood for about a year to get down to about 15 % moisture best done outside with a cover on top, that's what most kilns want so they don't expend to much energy to finish the drying,...then have it kiln dried....lot of posters say you can dry the boards by air down to what you need !!! no way,..I've stored boards in attic for over 8 yrs. and had them shrink,..do not plane the board before drying, you'll just have to replane them after and you don't know how much they are gonna shrink, you may end up with under dimension boards

Whichester1 · Jan 1, 2014

Most of my wood is cherry and oak. Sorry I did not include it in my original post. Sounds like a good place to dry the lumber would be above by office in the barn (hot in summer) with a fan blowing on it. We may have different terminology (or my lack of experience) but I put 1 inch spacers between each row of boards.
Thanks,
Bill.

Martiin Reece · Jan 1, 2014

Good day,
1" hardwood will take approx 200 days to get to 20-22 % moisture.
Stickers must be dry, and hardwood
If your piles are outside stack facing north to south
Stack piles with the longest on the bottom
Be sure your piles are on level flat ground
If you are using the lumber for a barn or such this will be fine.
furniture should be 6-8% moisture for most parts of the country, kiln drying is best for this.
This is some of the things I remember from my apprentiship.
All I can say is make sure you know the moisture content before you build a dining room table and bring it in beside the fireplace.

Mike M · Jan 1, 2014

I have had more trouble with kiln dried warping and twisting then air dried.
My reasoning is the air dried stabilizes to your local humidity where as the kiln dried picks up moisture and warps.
We had some trees cut to lumber from our woods mostly cherry. I don't remember how many years it set around sticked? I built a nice curio cabinet no problems. I built many other things mostly shelves in the shop and a floor in a loft no problems.

Drying rough cut hardwood

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

New User

Well-known Member

Similar threads