Having spent the last two days converting some *seasoned in the round* lumps of Oak to 4"x4"x4' lengths I now have a pallet stacked with some rather wet wood.
I also have a redundant domestic de-humidifier. Can the group foresee any problems with putting the two together under a tarpaulin? Clearly the waste heat will raise the local ambient temperature but so what?
regards
As long as the dehumidifier is able to get the waste heat away from itself, it should work fine. To achieve this, make sure there's plenty of space around the dehumidifier - aim for a tent, rather than a draped tarp.
You say it was seasoned but it is still wet? I take it it has been stacked for an year?
It'll crack if you don't know what you are doing.
Oak takes an year per inch to dry in air. You paint the ends to stop the end grain cracking. You will get twists and shakes cooking it too quickly.
Did you know enough about sawing it to make sure the wayne edge has been removed? Don't worry too much if not. The stuff can be treated with preservatives to good effect.
With oak, the white outer layer might be 2 or 3 inches thick. As it is the oak will curve around the knots as it dries.
I really wouldn't be tempted to dry it any quicker than you need to.
Before seasoning a tree, it was usually stacked in a river for the water to rinse out any unused sap. It would then be stored for an year or more before converting. After that it would depent on what was wanted from it.
Obviously if a shipwright bought it, he would cut and shape the timber
-even steam it, before working it. I believe it would then be seasoned in mud. Not too sure about that though.
Perhaps that was both a way of preserving it and keeping the stock viable for use on contracts not yet ready for it.
De-humidifier is fairly normal way to season wood on a small scale - there should be loads of info if you google. The basic ground rule whatever method you use is to not do it too quickly.
cheers
Jacob
PS such as
In message , Weatherlawyer writes
Oh yes. More like fifteen. This was a massive hedgerow Oak that stood dead for some years before blowing over. The base was rotted and too heavy to move (around 3 tons) so it is providing homes for Stag beetles etc. The rest was logged and stacked.
With the *barn job* requiring some replacement studs, I thought I might see if any of this was fit to use. For single storey and with a 3' dwarf wall I only need a bit over 4' lengths so I tried to avoid significant knots.
Rot is an issue. Radial splitting has allowed water and spores in which may mean much is useless. Mind you, pre-rotted timber should match the rest of the barn!
Too late:-)
Yes. I have started oversize to cater for modest movement. My time scale is more like 4 weeks
If the question was how do you convert 24"+ logs into usable sizes with an 18" bar chain saw and an ancient 12" bench saw, the answer is, very slowly. Some was 1/4 sawn, some I took an 8" slab out of the middle. Either way the circular saw was very unhappy: requiring lots of re-sharpening and the operator lots of tea.
Do you have a recommendation on preservative? I suppose I have to consider possible future uses and avoid anything hazardous to humans.
I doubt there was any sap there before it fell over. I have several more in a similar state but still standing.
This may just be a colossal waste of time but it is something I wanted to do and so far hasn't cost anything.
regards
In message , Grunff writes
OK. See reply elsewhere for the rest of the story.
regards
>
Yes. Many many problems
Accelerated drying of wood leads to the surface drying out, with then checks and cracks, ..these may or may not close up by the time the wood settles to an average RH content.
The correct way to season wood is to paint the ends of the baulks to prevent too fast evaporation, and stack for at least one year per inch thickness.
Kiln drying can accelerate this, but not by that much.
Since your timber is pre seasoned (lord knows how they stopped it cracking at trunk sizes) it won;t be as bad, but I'd still leave it in the environment its to be used in for several months before finishing..if you intend to strip it into planks. do that roughly now, and then stack and leave.
Best of all immediately but the definitive book 'Understanding Wood' by Hoadley, and study it. He really knows his stuff and there is nothing better on the market in terms of using wood as an engineering and craft material than that.
My first concern was whether the heap will burst into flames:-)
It has already done most of those.
If I were cabinet making you would be quite correct and I wouldn't have started from here. As it is, I need to assemble the barn framing in about a months time. Fair facing and cutting tenons will be left to the last to minimise the effects of movement. It is possible that I will get the material grit blasted to artificially age before final assembly.
Tempus fugits....
I must go and see how hot the tent has got.
regards
Ok,. so we can treat it as 'green timber'
Now I have a house made of green oak, 4 years old and STILL drying out.
Its perfectly OK to use in this condition, provided you realise that the timber will lose about 10% of its dimension across the grain and about
1% down the grain, over the next 4 years.With careful design you can minimize the worst effects of this, but you cannot eliminate it.
What this means is that pinned mortice/tenon joints will end up loose and gappy over time. Plaster that used to abut beams will end up with up to a fingers width gap.
My solution has been to decorate roughly, leave, and go back and caulk. and fill after a time period.
Don't bother with doing anything to the timber at all. Just whack it up with the above in mind, and leave decoration and plastering as long as possible.
A few days forced drying out will make no appreciable difference to the overall shrinkage, and may cause unecessary stress anyway.
And you anyway tend to get +-1% variation summer to winter across the grain with ANY wood.
Hi,
Watch out for 'case hardening:
Probably best to keep the humidity high initially.
cheers, Pete.
In message , The Natural Philosopher writes
I'll skip the inter-stud plaster board then. No sense trapping moisture. I think the only issue with across grain shrinking will be where windows are fitted between two uprights.
Hmm. I hadn't planned to pin intermediates, assuming gravity and the roof will hold the frame together. There appears to be no strapping securing the sole plate to the dwarf wall which may excite some future building control person.
I think this can wait until the final use is determined. A bit domestic for a workshop.
Oh. I thought it might help if the wood was encouraged to settle down before final working.
OK Thanks.
regards
>In message , Pete C writes
Right. In fact the air in the tent is barely above ambient. The de-humidifier had collected 1/2 litre or so of water but this is not a sealed chamber so a small amount of air is filtering in anyway. I'll have a look tomorrow and decide whether to abandon the extra drying and simply wait until I actually need the wood for final machining or continue.
regards
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