We had a storm last year that blew down 5 large pine trees in my
yard. My friend cut them into 4/4 and 8/4, 8 feet long and 10-14
inches wide. I have them stacked with 1" square scrap sticks between
boards. The 8/4, 18 each, are stacked in the boat house, open to the
air at both ends, and the 4/4, about 24 each, are stacked in the
heated garage/work shop. I will paint the ends today with some paint
to seal the ends. I will not need the boards till this winter at the
soonest.
I will use the 8/4 stuff for raised flower beds, some table tops,
or whatever, and the 4/4 for furniture.
Lessons learned so far: It's good to have a chain saw! It's good
to have a friend with an almost portable saw mill. It's good to have
a pickup that tolerated gross overloading (Chevy S-10!) That wet wood
is REALLY heavy! That the wood is beautiful, that pine with the blue
areas, and many free of knots . That Flexall 4-5-4 is on sale at
Walmart!
So... what am I forgetting?
rich wrote:
> I will paint the ends today with some paint
> to seal the ends. I will not need the boards till this winter at the
> soonest.
They probably won't be dry by then. Normally a rough guess is 1 year
per inch, then some more time in the shop to acclimatize after
rough-cutting to size.
A moisture meter is probably a good thing to buy, since it will save
some guesswork.
Chris
On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:34:25 -0700 (PDT), rich <[email protected]>
wrote:
> We had a storm last year that blew down 5 large pine trees in my
>yard. My friend cut them into 4/4 and 8/4, 8 feet long and 10-14
>inches wide. I have them stacked with 1" square scrap sticks between
>boards. The 8/4, 18 each, are stacked in the boat house, open to the
>air at both ends, and the 4/4, about 24 each, are stacked in the
>heated garage/work shop. I will paint the ends today with some paint
>to seal the ends. I will not need the boards till this winter at the
>soonest.
>
> I will use the 8/4 stuff for raised flower beds, some table tops,
>or whatever, and the 4/4 for furniture.
>
> Lessons learned so far: It's good to have a chain saw! It's good
>to have a friend with an almost portable saw mill. It's good to have
>a pickup that tolerated gross overloading (Chevy S-10!) That wet wood
>is REALLY heavy! That the wood is beautiful, that pine with the blue
>areas, and many free of knots . That Flexall 4-5-4 is on sale at
>Walmart!
>
> So... what am I forgetting?
I had a large 80' pine tree fall 2 months ago. So far I have stripped
the branches. I turned some, but it is very wet. I plan on cutting a
few 2x2' slabs to be used as chair seats. I have so much pine and can
not give it away. It takes about 1 year to dry an inch, and if dried
too quickly it will split. You may need a moisture meter.
rich wrote:
> We had a storm last year that blew down 5 large pine trees in my
> yard. My friend cut them into 4/4 and 8/4, 8 feet long and 10-14
> inches wide. I have them stacked with 1" square scrap sticks between
> boards. The 8/4, 18 each, are stacked in the boat house, open to the
> air at both ends, and the 4/4, about 24 each, are stacked in the
> heated garage/work shop. I will paint the ends today with some paint
> to seal the ends. I will not need the boards till this winter at the
> soonest.
>
> I will use the 8/4 stuff for raised flower beds, some table tops,
> or whatever, and the 4/4 for furniture.
>
> Lessons learned so far: It's good to have a chain saw! It's good
> to have a friend with an almost portable saw mill. It's good to have
> a pickup that tolerated gross overloading (Chevy S-10!) That wet wood
> is REALLY heavy! That the wood is beautiful, that pine with the blue
> areas, and many free of knots . That Flexall 4-5-4 is on sale at
> Walmart!
>
> So... what am I forgetting?
Make sure you have good air circulation right down to the bottom of the
stack. We dried some tree wood indoors. The bottom pieces came out
with an unpleasant discoloration from a mold or something that grows in
unventilated places. Next time we will put a small fan blowing thru the
bottom of the stack.
--
David J. Starr
Blog: www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 06:25:50 -0700 (PDT), rich <[email protected]> wrote:
>I wouldn't have guessed 1 year per inch! Sounds like I get to make
>other things this winter. Pine, oak, walnut... all the same to me!
In my experience, pine dries much faster than other, harder woods, especially in
a warm climate..
I'd keep a close eye on it and mist them once in a while, assuming the ends are
well sealed..
Never dried pine boards, but bowl blanks, even with the pith cut out, tend to
dry very fast and crack a LOT.. YMWV
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:46:32 -0700, mac davis
<[email protected]> wrote:
>On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 06:25:50 -0700 (PDT), rich <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I wouldn't have guessed 1 year per inch! Sounds like I get to make
>>other things this winter. Pine, oak, walnut... all the same to me!
>
>In my experience, pine dries much faster than other, harder woods, especially in
>a warm climate..
>
>I'd keep a close eye on it and mist them once in a while, assuming the ends are
>well sealed..
>Never dried pine boards, but bowl blanks, even with the pith cut out, tend to
>dry very fast and crack a LOT.. YMWV
>
>
>mac
>
>Please remove splinters before emailing
I have successfully dried pine without cracking by keeping in a large
bag of wet chips, allowing the chips to slowly dry over many weeks.
Too much moisture for too long can grow fungus. With a solar kiln,
wood can be dried in a month or two. Some wood is going to split or
crack no matter what, making drying wood somewhat of an art. I would
never attempt to make a table top with wood moisture above 10%.