Air drying small amounts of wood

[Rick Potter]

I have an Avocado, and an Apricot tree which will probably be cut down fairly soon.

The Avocado is a super fast growing youngster that has a blight, and I hope it will have a bit of wood worth saving, while the Apricot is 30+ and has led a tortured life, twisted and gnarled, with beetles attacking it the last few years. I have hopes of some great wood from this one.

Neither tree is very large, and I am hoping to get enough wood to make small items like jewelry boxes from them. I plan to rough cut pieces about 5/4 X 36" long or less, and no wider than 7". I think this will amount to a dozen or so rough boards.

I have read old posts on this, and it seems the best way to dry them is to sticker the pieces initially on the covered porch of my shop, out of direct sunlight to get the moisture down a bit, then move them into a shed where I can again sticker them until they are usable.

Does this plan sound reasonable? Never done any drying before, and this is probably a one time shot for me. How long should I leave them outside? Inside?

I am in SoCal, and it will probably be warm when I do it.

Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Best results for air drying are going to be outside where you have good air flow. So leaving them on the porch would be what I'd do in your situation. All of the lumber that came off our property was air dried and it stayed out for at least a year before I moved it to my racks in the upstairs of my shop building. While it gets "really toasty" up there on sunny days, there's not much air movement and that isn't good for getting a good result without getting most of the moisture out first.

[Bill Dufour]

And once it is air dryed for a year or so you can kiln dry it the trunk of your car in summer, in the full sun, in a few days when it is over 100 in then shade. That should kill any bugs or fungus.
Bil lD

[Mel Fulks]

Bill, I made that same observation several years ago and someone here asked me if I was joking....NO! It has a small carbon footprint and the idea seems to gaining in popularity!

[Tom Bender]

Be sure to coat the ends and any cut off branches and knots as soon as it is cut. I have had good results using up some old interior paint. A few coats will be good.

[daryl moses]

Be sure to coat the ends and any cut off branches and knots as soon as it is cut. I have had good results using up some old interior paint. A few coats will be good.
X2, if you don't coat the ends [I use Anchor Seal] you can bet the farm you will have checks. [cracks]
Even then, in spite of everything you do right you will still probably have some cracking.
Best to cut your boards several inches longer than your intended project so that you can trim the cracks off after they have dried.

[Bryan Lisowski]

I would be more concerned about the bugs. I would probably think twice about putting in your covered porch. I forget the name of the stuff used to kill insects on wood. Sealing the ends is a must.

[Mark Gibney]

Rick, I got some avocado from a neighbor a few years back and tried to turn some bowls. The wood is pretty soft, I think I didn't complete a bowl because the wood was a little disappointing. It might be different when used for what you intend to do with it.

[John K Jordan]

I have an Avocado, and an Apricot tree which will probably be cut down fairly soon.
...
I have read old posts on this, and it seems the best way to dry them is to sticker the pieces initially on the covered porch of my shop, out of direct sunlight to get the moisture down a bit, then move them into a shed where I can again sticker them until they are usable.

Does this plan sound reasonable? Never done any drying before, and this is probably a one time shot for me. How long should I leave them outside? Inside?


Rick,

I air dry wood something like that. (I have a Woodmizer sawmill behind the barn.) I put 4x4s across concrete blocks to get off the ground, lay down some stickers, then sticker the stack. I add weight on the top. I don't dry on a porch but out in an open lot. I cover the stack with something such as sheets of metal roofing or old plywood to keep the rain and sun off. Don't cover with a tarp or anything that would trap moisture. If on the porch or in the shed I'd make sure it had plenty of room for air circulation on all sides. If you put them in a shed before they are dry be careful there is enough ventilation that the humidity in the shed does no get too high or you may have problems with mold. I'd probably not move them in to a closed shed before they were completely dry.

Fruit tree wood is prone to warping and cracking. This varies with some species and even with some individual trees. I've had 8/4 and 10/2 persimmon warp horribly but without cracking. (I use it for woodturning so the warping is not I would certainly use AnchorSeal on the end grain of the logs as soon as they were cut and add a lot of weight on the top of the stickered stack. (I've used concrete blocks for weight)

The chances of getting useful wood is pretty good, especially if you are sawing thin boards like that. Cut away the pith before drying and allow plenty of air circulation. When you study it a little you will find air drying is easy compared to kiln drying! For kiln drying, the temperature and humidity curves for some species are critical and doing it wrong can destroy the wood.

Air dried wood will eventually reach an equilibrium moisture content (EMC) which is different for different areas and for different times of the year. How long? Depends on the wood, thickness, and conditions. I've had some reach EMC in a few months and some took years. The often used rule of thumb of "one year per inch plus a year" has been proven not useful for most species.

This document by the USDA, Air Drying of Lumber is worth reading: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr117.pdf
Table 3 on page 15 gives an idea of the EMC you can expect wood to reach for various areas.

It's best to use a moisture meter to check the moisture. You can also cut samples out of the center of a board and check the moisture with the Oven Dry method.

Also, there is a Sawmills and Kiln Drying sub forum here. Some people with experience read things there. Perhaps this thread should even be moved there.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

If the boards are small enough weigh them on a accurate scale and write the weight on each board. once they stop losing weight they are as dry as they will get in that storage area.
Bil lD.