Acclimating lumber

[Julian Amin]

Hello everyone,

I picked up some 2x12s of SYP from a local lumber yard the other day. I don't have a moisture meter and I forgot to ask the guy at the yard, so my question is, are boards like this from a yard typically fairly dry? How long would you let it acclimate before working with it?

Thanks!

[David Weaver]

1) no, not dry - not compared mid/high single digits ideal, and
2) it depends on what you want to make with them

I good cold winter will wring most of the nastiness out of them. I have gotten SYP ply and boards before that you could pinch with a pair of pliers (hard) and see moisture.

[dan sherman]

The MC only has to be below 19% to be labeled kiln dried. You need to let them set in your shop and continue to dry out for a while. Cutting them into smaller pieces will decrease the drying time.

[Steve Baumgartner]

Hello everyone,

I picked up some 2x12s of SYP from a local lumber yard the other day. I don't have a moisture meter and I forgot to ask the guy at the yard, so my question is, are boards like this from a yard typically fairly dry? How long would you let it acclimate before working with it?

Thanks!

2 by x are "construction" lumber. For that type of wood, "kiln dried" only means that the free water (sap) has been dried out of the cell cavities; the cell walls are still saturated. It has almost all of its shrinkage and warping yet to come! Also, distributors and yards aren't always particularly careful about keeping this stuff out of the weather, so it can have picked up a soaking that raised its content back up. Unless you can get a moisture meter to check it, I'd give it three to six months.

[David Posey]

What are you going to use them for?

Most of the talk about SYP around here is for shop appliances (benches, sawbenches, etc.) and you can get away with higher moisture content than if you are using it as a secondary wood in a piece of furniture as a shop that is not climate controlled will often have more moisture in the air than your home.

I recommend courting them to close to the final size to let them dry faster, but make sure you either weigh or clamp the pieces down or they will twist like a Twizzler. When I did the wood for my benchtop, I stickered it and then used ratcheting straps around the whole bundle to let it dry and keep it straight. I did have some horizontal movement, but I left enough extra on the board to deal with that.

[Danny Hamsley]

Southern Pine dries fast. Stack them with stickers in an out of the way place inside a climate controlled room, and they will be dry if 4 - 6 weeks at most. You can also put a box fan on them to speed up drying. At the commercial SYP mills, the green lumber is taken down to 19% in a big kiln in 24 hours, so it will stand up to fast drying.

[Julian Amin]

Yes, it is for a workbench. Thanks for all of the advice.

[Scott T Smith]

Southern Pine dries fast. Stack them with stickers in an out of the way place inside a climate controlled room, and they will be dry if 4 - 6 weeks at most. You can also put a box fan on them to speed up drying. At the commercial SYP mills, the green lumber is taken down to 19% in a big kiln in 24 hours, so it will stand up to fast drying.

+1. Another option is to stack and sticker them in your attic for a couple of weeks.

[Danny Hamsley]

Scott,

Don't you wish that they were all as easy to dry as SYP!!

[Scott T Smith]

Scott,

Don't you wish that they were all as easy to dry as SYP!!

Danny, Indeed!

[Bruno Frontera dela Cruz]

Best to get / borrow a meter to make sure. I bought some syp last winter for a bench and was surprised to find it at 8% mc right off the rack at HD so you could get lucky. This time of year I would expect higher but that is not a high volume item at most stores since it is expensive vs white wood, so who knows...it could have drying for 3 months already.

[David Posey]

Turnover at any given store will depend on a number of things, like location, time of the year, how well a store caters to contractors, and the weather. You might get lucky and find it dry, but chances are if you do it will be picked through lumber. It's also not safe to assume that it's the same dryness on the inside of the board as the outside. And sometimes SYP will bend from internal stresses when it's cut. It's best just to sticker it for a few weeks after you cut it to your rough size regardless of how dry it appears. BTW, St. Roy says you don't necessarily need a moisture meter. Just put your cheek next to the wood. My experience doing this is limited, but you can tell a difference.

[Jim Koepke]

BTW, St. Roy says you don't necessarily need a moisture meter. Just put your cheek next to the wood. My experience doing this is limited, but you can tell a difference.

My education on how to determine dry from damp wood comes from having to heat with wood.

Weight, surface feel and even smell all come into play.

jtk