Josh Hutchinson
11-11-2017, 2:09 PM
I have Christopher Schwartz' book on workbenches and have been in the planning stages of building a bench for some time. I was originally going to use doug fir for the simple reason of economics, but recently acquired some maple from a friend.
The maple has been flatsawn and stickered for almost two years. It spent its first summer in a shady spot outside before being moved into a barn. The slabs vary from about 3-5" in thickness. The slabs were 12' in length, but before transporting them home I cut them into 5' and 7' lengths for storage purposes (I plan to build a 6.5' bench). I checked the freshly cut endgrain a day later, and it measured 15% on a cheap moisture meter. The rest of the wood in my shop reads 6%, though not on freshly exposed endgrain.
While 15% is not dry, it's also not green. On his blog, Chris encourages building benchtops with slabs having moisture content as high as 60%, but goes on to suggest using kiln dried lumber for the undercarriage.
15% is not 60%, however, which leaves me unsure of how to proceed. I would prefer to avoid buying extra lumber for this project, as I now have a surplus of this maple. However, if it's likely going to cause problems, I may err on the side of caution and shell out for some kiln dried lumber for the legs and stretchers.
Thanks,
Josh
The maple has been flatsawn and stickered for almost two years. It spent its first summer in a shady spot outside before being moved into a barn. The slabs vary from about 3-5" in thickness. The slabs were 12' in length, but before transporting them home I cut them into 5' and 7' lengths for storage purposes (I plan to build a 6.5' bench). I checked the freshly cut endgrain a day later, and it measured 15% on a cheap moisture meter. The rest of the wood in my shop reads 6%, though not on freshly exposed endgrain.
While 15% is not dry, it's also not green. On his blog, Chris encourages building benchtops with slabs having moisture content as high as 60%, but goes on to suggest using kiln dried lumber for the undercarriage.
15% is not 60%, however, which leaves me unsure of how to proceed. I would prefer to avoid buying extra lumber for this project, as I now have a surplus of this maple. However, if it's likely going to cause problems, I may err on the side of caution and shell out for some kiln dried lumber for the legs and stretchers.
Thanks,
Josh