How to Air-dry Red Oak Lumber

[Woodsaw]

Greetings.

I am new here. I bought some green red oak lumber last weekend. Could any members here provide me with info on how to properly dry the lumber for use in making furniture? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Qui

 

[Travis Porter]

Rough suggestions:

If you are storing it outside, put plastic down put cinder blocks down, and put dried wood on the cinder blocks. The boards should be "stickered" meaning like a 1 x 1 between each layer. Paint the ends of the boards with latex paint or something made for wood drying to minimize checking. Cover the top with a sheet of plywood, tin or something to keep it from raining on top of it. Allow to stay open on sides for air circulation. Allow one year per inch of board thickness.

Personally, I stored mine in a tobacco barn that a friend has. Got about 3000 bf stashed and ready to use. I put plastic down and just stickered them up from there.

 

[Ken Weaver]

Ken Massingale and I use a "shed" at his place - the key is stickering everything so there is good air flow. A little ambient moisture is unavoidable, but keep things as dry as possible, then have a long cup of coffee - about a year :lol:

 

[sapwood]

Ken,

Nice solution for wood storage. Don't think my wife gonna let me put one in the yard :lol: But it certainly is an inexpensive suggestion. Hmmm, maybe if I got the "camouflage" version she wouldn't notice :mrgreen:

Thanks,
Sapwood

 

[Woodsaw]

Thanks for all responses. The boards are three inches thick. Will this mean that it will take up to three years to completely air dry the lumber? I need to make chairs for the house when it gets warmer (Maybe March or April time). How about cutting the boards into shorter pieces and dry them in the oven at lower temperature for a few days? I will use the lumber for legs, and have enough kiln dried 4/4 lumber for other parts.

Thanks.


Qui

 

[Ken Weaver]

Thanks for all responses. The boards are three inches thick. Will this mean that it will take up to three years to completely air dry the lumber? I need to make chairs for the house when it gets warmer (Maybe March or April time). How about cutting the boards into shorter pieces and dry them in the oven at lower temperature for a few days? I will use the lumber for legs, and have enough kiln dried 4/4 lumber for other parts.

Thanks.


Qui

I don't know how (short of a commercial kiln) you would be able to dry that thick of stock that fast. Could result in some damaged wood if you dry it too fast.

 

[Mountaincraft]

You can make your own "kiln" by putting the boards in a somewhat sealed area with a dehumidifier. This will dry wood up to 10 times faster, but it will bow, curl, cup, and twist more. This is minimized with wood as thick as yours. It is vitally important that there be airflow around each board, and that moisture not be conducted through the ground, concrete, or wood exposed to moisture.

On green wood, I store it outside, under good shelter and shielded from splashing or conducted moisture. Then I put it in my shop with a dehumidifier until it acclimates to the shop. On wood like yours, you can store it outside for 4 months in late summer/ early fall and store it in a dehumidified shop for 3 to 6 months to get the wood to about 12% moisture content before milling to rough size. Another few weeks in the shop will finish it off and minimize wood movement as related to speed of drying.

Another, and expensive method is to make a special kiln room. You can mill the boards to rough size green and clamp it to box, not round, metal spacers (or even better, custom reinforced plastic spacers) to hold the boards from movement during the drying process. The metal can rust, staining the boards. Even aluminum will stain somewhat, so make sure that there is a barrier such as polyethelene strips between metal and wood. It also takes a lot of strong clamps and spacers attached to a solid base, such as an I-beam frame. Put in a dehumidifier an make sure that there is only minimal airflow to the outside air (say less than 2 sq in total). The boards will dry lickety split. To reduce movement even more, you can re-wet the wood evenly (still in clamps), let it soak in a day, and re-dry. A friend of mine has this arrangement. It is just too expensive for me.

 

[Phillip]

all of the information sounds good, one other thing to consider is that oaks suffer from honeycombing, interior checking, when dried too fast. be wary of going too quickly, especially with thick stuff. even if it doesn't warp and twist like one of the other posts says (but it will) you may still have cracking that only reveals itself when you begin to saw the lumber in furniture pieces. good luck and keep us posted if you work out a way to do it.

phillip

 

[Ozzie-x]

I'm with Phillip, lots of good info here. Phillip is right too about the honeycoming in the oak. If you dry oak too fast, it will almost turn to splinters. That's a common mistake for new kiln operators. The kiln folks usually say to air dry for at least 60 - 90 days before putting the wood in the kiln. Woodsaw's thicker wood may need longer. As someone mentioned, painting the ends is important, especially on thicker material like this. Thicker material creates a lot more stresses inside the wood, and slower/even drying is even more important to reduce cracks, cupping, twists, etc. Like Travis, I've got 4 big sticker packs (separated by species) in the barn waiting on a trip to the kiln.