Do I need to stabilize spalted wood before making it into bandsaw boxes?

[Alan Lightstone]

I got my hands on a few beautiful blanks of wood that I'm planning on making into bandsaw boxes for a few friends. It's a variety of species, all spalted woods. Moisture contents are mostly around 20%.

My questions are:

1.) Do I have to wait to dry the wood more before working with it? How low a moisture content is necessary? Can I speed up the drying process, or do I need to have nature take its course and move onto another project while it dries?

2.) Do I need to stabilize the wood before working with it, using something like Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer?

3.) Can I apply a finish over the epoxy sealed wood? Something like Waterlox for a varnish, or perhaps spray a water based product like Target EM6000?

Am I totally over thinking this?

[Dan Hahr]

Over thinking? No. But 20% moisture is way too wet to be making anything that has to keep its shape. I think you would be very dissapointed if you started cutting now. You need to properly reduce the moisture content to an acceptable level, preferrably 4-6 percent, maybe a little more. You could kiln dry them if you had a kiln; but if you had a kiln, you would not be asking. Without help, I'd say you have two or three options.

1. Leave the wood in your garage and then house for a couple of years or so until the moisture content stabilizes.

2. Put the wood in the fridge and monitor the weight until the weight stabilizes. I experimented with this method and was very happy with the results. My wife wasn't thrilled, but my pieces were small and it only took a month to dry completely. I used a gram scale to weigh the wood and was surprised at how much the wood lost in a day.

3. Put the wood in your attic for a year or so in a area where you have some air flow. I have a gable attic fan that pretty much runs constantly in the summer. I have dried cedar and sweetgum effectively this way.

Once the wood gets really dry, bring it back to your garage before working it. It will reabsor some moisture, but will soon stabilize.

Hope this helps. Dan

[Dan Hahr]

Sorry, forgot you asked about sealing and finishing.

I would not seal it with anything as it will prolong the drying process and trap way too much moisture in wood that is already starting to rot. Once dry, it might help harden the punky areas.
Dan

[Gary Herrmann]

1). Yes, let it dry more. Bandsaw boxes have tight tolerances. At 20% MC, the wood will move. Store it and get it furniture dry. 8-12% depending on where you live and the season.
2). Stabilizing it depends on how spalted/punky it is. If you're worried about particular areas, you can always put superglue on the areas when you're ready to cut it into boxes. For sealing, I'd use Anchorseal. Yes, it may prolong the drying process. But it will also help you avoid cracking. I use it on all the turning wood I'm not going to get to immediately (that means in less than a week).
3). I'm not familiar with epoxy sealer. But, if you try to put any finish on a piece of wood where part of it has glue or epoxy on it, that section will not absorb the finish and will look different. However, if you cut or sand away the sealer in the course of making your boxes, finishing will not be a problem.

My responses come from my experience turning. Bandsaw boxes I've made have all been from dry wood.

Other things to consider - do the blanks have pith in them? If so, you need to remove the pith, or the blank will most likely crack. Highly spalted wood can be an adventure. You can never be 100% sure of what you'll find deep inside the blank.

Go to the turning forums and search for spalted blanks. You'll find plenty of threads.

Good luck!

[Alan Lightstone]

I live in Florida, so EMC is often more in the 12-14% range.

I'm interested in the refrigerator method. How do you do the weighing to determine its moisture content? Or do you just periodically check it with a moisture meter.

Oh, and thanks for the responses. The more I get, the more I learn.

[Gary Herrmann]

I think weighing blanks is more for being able to determine when the blank has stopped losing weight. Then you know it's as dry as it's gonna get.

[Dan Hahr]

I just use a digital kitchen scale that is accurate to +/- 1 gram. What I like best about my experience is that the wood showed no signs of checking or splitting.

Here is a link to where I posted the results of my first test. I have had similar good luck with it since. I just wish I had a 12 foot long fridge.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?169202-Drying-sweetgum-in-the-fridge-results&highlight=refridgerator

Dan