Paul Lueders
08-09-2006, 8:11 PM
I hired a guy to bring his portable saw mill to my place to saw up some red oak I logged off back in the woods last winter. I had about 60 logs that varied in size from 27' to 12". We sawed the premium logs into 5/4" by various widths for future furniture projects. The logs that had a lot of knots, we sawed into 2" stock to be used for horse stalls to be built in the barn. A few logs we squared into 2", 3", & 5" stock for the lathe.
In the past I've always air dried my wood. Painstakingly stacking the boards with airspaces, and 1"x1" stickers every 2'. Then cover the pile with few sheets of roofing tin and weighting the tin down with 3 or 4 hefty logs. It takes at least 2 years for the wood to dry. Then I cull the pile and bring the good stuff up to the second story in the barn, where it get really hot and dry during the summer months. I don't sticker the piles in the barn.
I don't have any means of testing the moisture content of the wood, but it usually seems to be quite nice to work with.
My question is:
Am I taking a chance building furniture with this wood?
Have I just been lucky so far, that I haven't had any trouble with worpage or shrikage?
Should I be playing it safe and kiln drying this wood? (I hate spending the money!)
In the past I've always air dried my wood. Painstakingly stacking the boards with airspaces, and 1"x1" stickers every 2'. Then cover the pile with few sheets of roofing tin and weighting the tin down with 3 or 4 hefty logs. It takes at least 2 years for the wood to dry. Then I cull the pile and bring the good stuff up to the second story in the barn, where it get really hot and dry during the summer months. I don't sticker the piles in the barn.
I don't have any means of testing the moisture content of the wood, but it usually seems to be quite nice to work with.
My question is:
Am I taking a chance building furniture with this wood?
Have I just been lucky so far, that I haven't had any trouble with worpage or shrikage?
Should I be playing it safe and kiln drying this wood? (I hate spending the money!)