How long does dressed/jointed/planed/dimensioned lumber "keep"

[Mike Hess]

Let's say I joint/plane/dimension a batch of lumber for a new project today. How long would it be safe to allow the lumber to remain in your shop before you finish assembling the project? A week? A month? A year? Indefinately?

Do you take extra precautions to make sure that your dressed lumber doesn't cup, warp, bend, twist, or otherwise deform before your project is complete?

[glenn bradley]

My .02 - Assuming my lumber is already acclimated to the shop, I mill my "parts" to rough size and let them stand a few days. this is generally no problem as I can rough mill them all and then find plenty to do getting other things ready before I continue. I do the final milling as close to assembly time as I can. The exception is the current project of ash. Things came up and many finish-milled parts sat for 4 - 5 months. I only had to re-make a few due to movement. I'm talking about parts as in boards not glue-ups or partial assemblies; just parts that sat on a rack for too long ;-) The ones that were OK got a light sanding before glue-up.

[pat warner]

A couple of points. If you harvest small work pieces from big sticks, expect adversity independent of time. Better to cut to rough size, acclimate, then mill to spec within a few days or less of the joinery day.

& as a rule, if no deformities occur whilst the work is stickered then you're good to go any time if you're lucky. Stuff does change shape at rest but it's usually in complimentary and non deliterious way.
Glue-ability does vary with time, however. The longer stuff sits in the air the poorer its glue faces become.

[John Thompson]

Couldn't agree more on cut to rough size... then let it acclimate.

Sarge..

[John Schreiber]

My answer would be that it's a big "It depends." Sometimes the wood might be fine a year later, sometimes by the next day it's twisted and unusable. As others have said, I generally rough cut, then stack with stickers to allow ventilation all around for at least a few days. Then do final cutting and surfacing and assembly all on the same day.

[Jim Becker]

I tend to handle things as John describes most of the time. Take it close during general milling to oversize and do the final prep work when I'm ready to work with the stock. That also supports careful color/grain matching before you totally commit to a piece of wood.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The longer stuff sits in the air the poorer its glue faces become.

Wouldn't that be a factor of fine dust settling into the fibers more than anything else?

[Chris Padilla]

Wouldn't that be a factor of fine dust settling into the fibers more than anything else?

I'd agree with that but it could also be moisture, light (UV?), and general air contaminents. Does wood sort of "oxide" or not?

[Aaron Beaver]

I am still pretty new to woodworking but I have had things move even though they were acclimated to my shop. So, I have started milling oversize first a few days before, as others have mentioned, then re-do the milling process to my final size.