subject: drying and storing wood & lumber [print this page] Wood is by nature a hygroscopic material:It absorbs releases moisture depending on the humidity of the air around it.As wood soaks up moisture,the wood shrinks.These simple truth have significant on every piece of furniture you build. For example, your joinery methods should allow for wood movement. If they do not, pieces of furniture can literally self-destruct. While the application of a wood finish may slow dimensional change, nothing can stop it.
Freshly cut lumber, or green wood, has a relatively high moisture content, which for hardwoods can range from 60 percent to 100 percent of the dry weight. This article focuses on ways of reducing that to a level suitable for cabinetmaking, around 8 to l0 percent, depending on the climate and species.
Unless you buy green wood with the intention of drying it yourself, your lumber is already either air-dried or kiln-dried. Air-dried wood may have up to 25 percent moisture content. Kiln-dried lumber has a lower level, 6 to 8 percent. Although kiln-dried wood is generally preferable for furniture building, some purists avoid it,contending that the process subdues the natural colors of certain woods and, in thi short term, can induce internal stresses in the wood, making it difficult to resaw.
Large industrial kilns house hundreds of planks at a time, but there are a number of.do-it-yourself models that are relatively simple to built, including a small-scale solar-powered kiln that will enable you to dry green lumber in your backyard.
Air-drying wood is an equally worth-while option for seasoning certain spieces of green lumber,provided the wood is properly stacked,stickered and covered.Stickers are small boards that sperate layers of lumber in pile,allowing air circulation around the around the individual planks.For a spieces like eastern white pine,air-drying to a l0 to l2 percent moisture level is sufficient for the most furniture projects.Whichever drying method you choose,you can use a special meter to measure to moisture content.
Apart from control over the wood,the principal benfit of drying lumber in the shop is economic. The fewer operations performed on a plank before you buy it - such as drying and surfacing - the less it costs. For large quantities of lumber - say, 1,000 board feet or more-the savings can add up to hundreds of dollars.
Proper storage is as important as drying. Dried wood exposed to the elements can re-absorb some of the moisture that was extracted from it. There are several ways to store wood, depending on the kind of space you have and the wood you work with -from long planks to short stock too precious to be consigned to the kindling box. you can design you own lumber rack,or install a commercial lumber rack. If you use your basement to store wood,consider installing a dehumidifier to reduce the high relative humidity level common in such an area.
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