Blbdahi - PRE-PROCESSING LUMBER

[jimithy]

Better Lumber By Drying at Home Inexpensively - PRE-PROCESSING LUMBER

Tarhead explained to me that some people cannot read the end of the long titles in the list of posts. So I shortened the title listed.

To get the best results when drying lumber at home it is best to do a number of steps of pre-processing before creating a stack.

Get the best green lumber possible by hand picking it.

If you are using a log and getting it sawn then you probably want to use every piece. If you have some lumber from it that is in decent shape or others that are infected or infested. It would be best to dry them separately.

If you are buying green lumber then I'd suggest finding a friendly lumber company yard that will sell the quantity you need, at a decent price. 1"x6"x16" green White Oak in this area goes for $5 or $6 a board. I only get lumber I can hand pick. I believe it is easily worth paying 50% more for lumber if you can chose each board yourself. (If you want a REALLY great deal on lumber then go to a yard with outdoor stacks. They stack high so that the weight of the wood on top keeps enough pressure on the lower stacks. Ask the yard manager about picking through a top stack. The top stack has the most weathering & too little pressure; therefore it will eventually produce lower grade lumber which means lower costs for you. They'll bring down the stack using a forklift. Since you hand pick what you want... the quality of this green lumber can be about the same as from lower stacks.)

Most green lumber will have some end checking. I would stay away from excessive end checking (Which I define as more than one, extending more than 3" down the board). Excessive surface checking means the wood has already dried too quickly or the tree was incorrectly felled. Dark areas than do not match the natural flow of the grain indicates probable infection. Then there are general features that you know whether it ruins or limits the use of the board in your application. i.e. Bad knots, excessive knots, major splits in the middle area, bad edges, etc. NOTE: These are personal decisions.

Planing both sides of the boards before stacking is important. USFS studies show better results with drying planed lumber. Too much surface area is your enemy. I am not going to prove or justify the next statement. (If you have taken a topology course then it is obvious... if you have not then it sounds ridiculous.) A rough sawn board has hundreds of times the total surface area of a smoothly planed board.

Planed Boards have many advantages when drying.

* - Infection or infestation is much more obvious.
* - Boards dry faster and much more evenly.
* - Boards are the same thickness. Therefore a tightly strapped stack will dry much flatter.
* - Liquid treatments to sterilize the lumber will penetrate more evenly and much less liquid is required.
* - The stack size and weight are lower.

Now is when I chemically sterilize the boards (see previous thread at LINK ) Don't proceed until all of the chemicals have been removed/diluted.

You are going to need sticks in the stack for better air flow. The sticks should be made of the same timber as the stack. I choose the worst boards and set them aside at this time to be cut into sticks.

Boards dry most quickly at their ends. Drying too quickly is the primary cause of end checking. Since I dispose of the last few inches of ALL boards, I can treat the ends to reduce end checking. This is done by applying a moisture barrier. Everyone has their own favorite. I like water-based polyurethane because it penetrates well.

At this time I find it important to immediately create the stack and keep the rain off of it.

More to follow...

[scsmith42]

Originally Posted by jimithy

Better Lumber By Drying at Home Inexpensively - PRE-PROCESSING LUMBER
I choose the worst boards and set them aside at this time to be cut into sticks.


More to follow...

Jim, very insightful - I enjoy reading your posts. I do have two observations though. First, it is best to use stickers that are already dry, as opposed to using green wood for stickers. A green sticker on a green board is much more likely to experience "sticker stain", as opposed to a dry sticker.

Additionally, you will usually obtain an increased yield if you trim the ends of your boards (to the point of removing any existing checks), and apply a commercial parafin based end sealer (such as anchor seal or Bailey's End Seal) as opposed to latex paint, poly, etc. The reason why is that end checks are similar to a crack in glass - they tend to continue cracking. If you can eliminate the crack in the first place, and then apply the sealer, odd are that the crack will not reappear. Also, the commercial sealers will not gum up your saws, planers, etc the way that paint / poly can. And if you buy in bulk (5 gallon lots), I think that the commercial sealers are no more expensive than paint or poly. If you sterilize your lumber in a kiln, the commercial sealers also will evaporate during the sterilization process, and you then don't lose any yield.

Please keep up the great work with your posts!

Regards,

Scott

[Jeff Mills]

When it comes to end grain checking another interesting tidbid is closed verse open grain verse quartered verse flat sawn. There is a reason you don't see much closed grain lumber quartered. When a quartered closed grain board like maple develops end splinting it tends to travel along the grain line and far into the board significantly decreasing it's value. Open grain species and interlocked grained lumber tends to do a lot better quartered, plus you can get some nice esthetically pleasing rays from them not to mention a much more stable product.

The best means I've found to prevent end grain splitting is to seal the log ends as soon as possible after felling and bucking the tree. You should have bucket and bush next to your chainsaw. I'm a big fan of wax based commercial endgrain sealer, my favorite is ancorseal. The stuff really works, is inexpensive if you buy in quantities of 5 gallon buckets or more and it has no adverse effects on the environment. Ancorseal wont gum up my saw blade when milling, unlike Playtex or some other sticky chemical. What every you do, don't seal up logs ends with roofing tar, anyone that does that, should expect to be taken out back to the woodshed and be introduced to a good old fashion can of whoop***.

[Tarhead]

One thing I do to try to ward off the split Troll is to drill a 1/4" hole at the small of the split and hope (pray) it doesn't extend towards the middle of the board. As the board dries the hole acts as a pivot/strain relief most of the time. You need to follow the angle of the grain with the drillbit if the board is quarter or rift sawn.

[jimithy]

The next thread in this series is at LINK

Tarhead... I disagree with your "1/4" hole at the small of the split" method of preventing deeper end checks.

My "beliefs" are:

Anything that exposes more wood surface also increases the speed of drying.

A split exposes the wood along it to faster drying... since end checks are caused by the fact that end grain dries faster and therefore creates stresses... drilling a hole that increases exposed end grain just creates more stress.

Yes... the mechanical process of the board tearing itself apart along the split is reduced... but I believe you are creating additional stress that can create other splits.

[Tarhead]

Sorry Jim but I don't think a 1/4" hole is going to have a big impact on drying but has prevented a few boards from self-destructing in the bunk. I'm not used to getting fresh off the saw green wood so all I've dried has sat around for a few days or weeks or in the case of some killer Black (and I mean Black) Walnut from Jeff had sat for a month and had started to have a lot of end checking. The holes saved that load.

[jimithy]

You could be absolutely right.

I believe boards with end splits don't have great solutions. I used the words "I believe" twice in my last reply post because I don't know.

I don't like cutting off the ends either (for more reasons than just the lost wood).

I don't like my method which is dribbling a sealer down the length of the split.

I'm crotchety so I'll probably never find a method I do like