Where to dry cherry? Unconditioned garage or conditioned shop

[Matthew Curtis]

I am looking to buy about 500 bd/ft of cherry that has been sitting stickered outside for a couple months.

Where would you store the lumber to continue the drying process?

Garage that is not conditioned,

or

Shop that is insulated and is heated /cooled when I am working.

[Joe. Rivera]

If you can get to it, the attic. Either in the house or the garage if it has a ceiling lid, or even open rafters you can lay them out on. Works great.

[Jim Becker]

Stacked stickered outside so it gets the airflow required to wick off the moisture with only a cover on the top to keep off standing rain/snow. Air flow is critical for drying lumber.

[Yonak Hawkins]

While agree with Jim's comment about air flow, after a couple of months, most of the moisture is out of it. Now it's mostly getting those last few percentages out. I think I'd go for the conditioned space but, as Jim says, make sure there's a good way for the humid air to move, but not a fan blowing on the ends, which could cause checking.

[andy photenas]

Also be careful of blue stain it goes very deep in cherry and often wont plane out when cherry was dried outside. most times any place the sticks touch the wood is the problem areas so I would get this in as dry an area as possible asap i would get it in a heated area to reach woodworking grade dryness of 6-8 percent. Outside it will stay around 12ish depending where you live and what time of year it is.

[dan petroski]

I dry mine inside basement with a small fan on it with good results .65 deg year around. Built many pieces with no issues. Dan

[Mike Cutler]

If you have the room, I'd bring it in the shop now.
I have some 8/4 rough walnut that I'll be bringing into the basement this winter. It's been outside for 3 years now. The dehumidifier, and wood stove through the winter, should finish it off for me.

[Lee Schierer]

Since you are in North Carolina, drying outside right now is probably a bad idea. I would dry it indoors where it gets plenty of air circulation. I would also recommend a moisture meter to check the drying progress, so you don't ruin a bunch of wood by cutting it before the interior has properly dried and adjusted..

[Tom Bender]

I have had great results sticking in my garage, which is relatively high and dry with good circulation. In Michigan we are dryer than NC and with winter coming it would be ideal now. Your material will still be fairly wet and fast drying can cause surface checking. (I assume you have sealed the ends) My recommendation is to continue to dry it in the garage but put it well up off the floor, at least a foot, and use generous stickers, maybe 1" PVC pipe. Bring it into the shop in mid winter.

[Prashun Patel]

I dry a lot of green wood bowl blanks. These are especially tricky and unforgiving for a variety of reasons.

I find I get the best results when starting outside - or better in the garage, and then switching to a conditioned space after a few months.

I haven't proven this, but it appears to me that going straight from outside to conditioned space causes the piece to dry too quickly which can cause cracking. Keeping it outside helps slow this down (at least in the north east - especially in the summer).

Now, on stickered, flat lumber this may not be as much of an issue because you don't have as much exposed end grain as a turned piece may.

Anchorseal. Start in the garage. Move to the basement after 2 months. That's what has been working for me.