When do you break a board down?

[Tom Marchner]

I just bought some red oak, S2S, from a local reputable lumber yard. (I normally buy it rough and mill it myself.) All dimensions of the boards are larger than the final dimensions I need and I'll need to rip them.

I just read something about how you should let new lumber adjust to your shop environment before you do the final cutting. The logic is that if the wood moves after you have cut it to final dimensions then obviously there's going to be a problem.

Let's say I start with a 5/4 red oak board 8 in. wide and
10 ft. long, reasonably straight. I want to get two 1 in. thick, 3 1/2 in. wide, 6 ft long pieces out of it. Should I let the whole board sit in my shop for two weeks? Or should I rip it now, making sure each of the two pieces has some extra width, and doing my milling on each of the two pieces individually?

I'm guessing it would be better to do the rough cutting
before the drying because internal stresses can lurk
anywhere in a board. If I let the whole board adjust to
my shop, mill it and then rip it, the individual pieces
might warp.

Do you guys "bust the board down" before you mill it or
do you let the whole board adjust to your shop and mill
it whole?

[Al Killian]

I first let it sit a few days. Then a machine it to a rough sizes. In your case 1.25" or so thick. Sometimes when you rip the board down it will twist from stress. After it is cut to rough size, I then the finish takeing it to the final size. I have never needed to let a board sit for a few weeks, just a few days.

[Jim Becker]

I like it to sit for a bit...then I layout what I want to cut out of it choosing component location based on grain/color (and that may not be parallel to an edge, by the way) and then rough cut things out before further milling.

[Tom Marchner]

I like it to sit for a bit...then I layout what I want to cut out of it choosing component location based on grain/color (and that may not be parallel to an edge, by the way) and then rough cut things out before further milling.
So you don't let it sit after the rough cutting and before further milling?

[Mark Carlson]

Tom,

Ideally you should let your rough boards sit in your shop for a few weeks. Then rough mill your parts slightly oversized. Sticker and wait and then do your final milling. How long I wait between rough milling and final milling depends on what I'm building. A door I might wait a week or more to see what happens. Otherwise this time could be a couple of days or zero if I'm in a hurry:) I try to build projects in parts where I can assembly sub parts as soon as I'm finished milling them. I'm curious to hear what others do.

~mark

[Pete Brown]

I acclimate wood to my house, not my shop. The project will eventually live in my house, so that's the humidity and temp I need to match. My shop is not well insulated and climate control in there consists of a window AC unit and two small heaters. I live in the woods (http://community.irritatedvowel.com/blogs/pete_browns_blog/archive/2007/03/06/House-in-the-Woods.aspx), so humidity is a real problem.

After milling to final size, if it will be a couple days before I can get back to the project (which happens more often than not), I tightly shrink-wrap everything (http://community.irritatedvowel.com/blogs/pete_browns_blog/archive/2006/10/20/Base-Corner-Cabinet.aspx) and bring it back in the house. This slows down any significant moisture changes and has been very successful in keeping the wood stable. The wood is protected from the air, but it is also forced to stay flat by being tightly bound with all the other pieces.

Pete

[Brian Sweetman]

I guess I do things a little different. When I purchase my kiln dried lumber from my sawyer, it is already skip planed, and in a controlled environment at his facility. I store it for at least 72 hours (stickered), in my well insulated shop, which I keep at a constant 65 degrees. I then rough mill it, but don't finish mill until I'm ready to start assembly. I have not had any issues with significant wood movement during this process or once the project is complete and sitting in the house.

Air dried lumber is another story!:eek:

Cheers,
Brian

[Eric Wong]

I tend to let things sit in the shop simply because I don't get a lot of time to do woodworking. But given the time, I wouldn not hesitate to layout and rough cut my stock before letting it acclimate. Just make sure you cut things at least 1/4" oversize, and have plenty of thickness to work with.