I was asked to make a jewelry box out of the wood from
our land a few weeks ago. I split some oak and let it
dry as much as possible in the small frame of time. Tonight,
I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
I intent to make the joints on the sides with a dovetail
jig. The box will sit on a decorative base cut on a band
saw. And the lid will be a mortise and tenon frame with
an unglued panel in a groove.
What's going to happen when I complete the project? Will it
eventualy split and/or warp?
Thanks,
S.
On Feb 18, 12:49 am, samson <[email protected]> wrote:
> I was asked to make a jewelry box out of the wood from
> our land a few weeks ago. I split some oak and let it
> dry as much as possible in the small frame of time. Tonight,
> I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
> I intent to make the joints on the sides with a dovetail
> jig. The box will sit on a decorative base cut on a band
> saw. And the lid will be a mortise and tenon frame with
> an unglued panel in a groove.
>
> What's going to happen when I complete the project? Will it
> eventualy split and/or warp?
>
> Thanks,
>
> S.
Yes. In something like six weeks if kept indoors.
samson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Tonight,
> I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
Samson...
General rule for air drying lumber is approximately one year for each
inch of thickness. This assumes proper stickering and air circulation
over your stack of lumber.
If you can get the moisture content of your wood below 15% it should be
stable enough to get your jewelry box assembled. Ho long it stays
assembled is directly related to how dry you can get the lumber.
A little more info on drying lumer can be had at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_drying#Air_drying
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Airdrying_oak.html
http://www.lcida.org/airdry.html
Hope the above helps...
Joe
aka 10x
On Feb 19, 4:21=A0am, "George" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "whit3rd" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:d1153212-9bd0-4724-8f35-31f8ba4bc0c2@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> On Feb 18, 6:19 pm, Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Anybody ever tried vacuum drying? I have some small pieces that will
> > fit in a 30" cube vacuum chamber that a friend found for me
>
> It has been done (basically one has to consider the chamber to have
> 100% relative humidity and the pressure in the chamber is the
> variable),
> just as kiln drying (with mild heat). =A0The usual problem is control
> of the drying rate (you might want to do one day in the chamber,
> 6 days out, for several cycles). =A0 Some vacuum pumps don't do
> well with water vapor (oil turns to sludge).
>
> If it dries too fast, checking and excessive warp/twist is expected.
> The USDA wood handbook hints that 2" oak needs about 50 days to
> kiln dry, and the temperature of the kiln would be circa 120 to 180
> Fahrenheit.
>
> Vacuum kilns are available commercially for small lots. =A0Of course 100%
> humidity would never dry, so you have the same problem as the standard kil=
n
> operator who excites his molecules with heat rather than providing less
> pressure - getting the humidity down.
>
> Can't exhaust it as produced as he can, so you have to set your cycles to
> get rid of the stuff through air traps or times of no vacuum.
>
> As Lobashevsky said, "let no one's work evade your eyes" and check out the=
> schedules and mechanisms the big guys use. =A0Reinvention would be tougher=
.
The vacuum pump on my system has a 'gas ballast' pump, commonly used
in laboratories, which admits a bit of clean air in the last bit of
the pump rotation to sweep out trapped gases. This keeps the pump oil
useable for some time in my experience. Maybe the limiting factor will
be the transpiration rate of the moisture through the wood. Logically,
then one could pull the pressure down in steps over a period of hours
(?) or whatever, and let the system finally equilibrate at full
vacuum, then allow the pressure to reach ambient. Might try that and
report back in a few weeks. Thanks for comments.
Joe.
On Feb 18, 6:05=A0am, 10x <[email protected]> wrote:
> samson <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Tonight,
> > I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
>
> Samson...
>
> General rule for air drying lumber is approximately one year for each
> inch of thickness. This assumes proper stickering and air circulation
> over your stack of lumber.
>
> If you can get the moisture content of your wood below 15% it should be
> stable enough to get your jewelry box assembled. Ho long it stays
> assembled is directly related to how dry you can get the lumber.
>
> A little more info on drying lumer can be had at:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_drying#Air_drying
>
> http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Airdrying_oak.html
>
> http://www.lcida.org/airdry.html
>
> Hope the above helps...
>
> Joe
> aka 10x
Anybody ever tried vacuum drying? I have some small pieces that will
fit in a 30" cube vacuum chamber that a friend found for me at a
surplus sale. The unit will pump down below the usual level for AC
systems, about 150 microns or so. Might make for some low temp stress
free drying.
Joe
"10x" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:180220080705498380%[email protected]...
> samson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Tonight,
>> I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
>
> Samson...
>
> General rule for air drying lumber is approximately one year for each
> inch of thickness. This assumes proper stickering and air circulation
> over your stack of lumber.
>
> If you can get the moisture content of your wood below 15% it should be
> stable enough to get your jewelry box assembled. Ho long it stays
> assembled is directly related to how dry you can get the lumber.
>
> A little more info on drying lumer can be had at:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_drying#Air_drying
>
> http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Airdrying_oak.html
>
> http://www.lcida.org/airdry.html
>
>
> Hope the above helps...
>
This certainly will.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm Chapter 3
is especially pertinent.
Lots of stuff, including http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplr/fplr1657.pdf
available for a search.
General rules, as you will easily see, are more folklore than fact. They
apply to "seasoning" of wood outdoors, and presume use in a non-dehumidified
environment. Air conditioning and central heating both lower the relative
humidity.
"whit3rd" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:d1153212-9bd0-4724-8f35-31f8ba4bc0c2@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
On Feb 18, 6:19 pm, Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
> Anybody ever tried vacuum drying? I have some small pieces that will
> fit in a 30" cube vacuum chamber that a friend found for me
It has been done (basically one has to consider the chamber to have
100% relative humidity and the pressure in the chamber is the
variable),
just as kiln drying (with mild heat). The usual problem is control
of the drying rate (you might want to do one day in the chamber,
6 days out, for several cycles). Some vacuum pumps don't do
well with water vapor (oil turns to sludge).
If it dries too fast, checking and excessive warp/twist is expected.
The USDA wood handbook hints that 2" oak needs about 50 days to
kiln dry, and the temperature of the kiln would be circa 120 to 180
Fahrenheit.
Vacuum kilns are available commercially for small lots. Of course 100%
humidity would never dry, so you have the same problem as the standard kiln
operator who excites his molecules with heat rather than providing less
pressure - getting the humidity down.
Can't exhaust it as produced as he can, so you have to set your cycles to
get rid of the stuff through air traps or times of no vacuum.
As Lobashevsky said, "let no one's work evade your eyes" and check out the
schedules and mechanisms the big guys use. Reinvention would be tougher.
samson wrote:
> I was asked to make a jewelry box out of the wood from
> our land a few weeks ago. I split some oak and let it
> dry as much as possible in the small frame of time. Tonight,
> I planed and squared the boards. They are still awfully wet.
> I intent to make the joints on the sides with a dovetail
> jig. The box will sit on a decorative base cut on a band
> saw. And the lid will be a mortise and tenon frame with
> an unglued panel in a groove.
>
> What's going to happen when I complete the project? Will it
> eventualy split and/or warp?
Probably. And the joints will open up and/or fail.
Let the stuff dry.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
On Feb 18, 6:19=A0pm, Joe <[email protected]> wrote:
> Anybody ever tried vacuum drying? I have some small pieces that will
> fit in a 30" cube vacuum chamber that a friend found for me
It has been done (basically one has to consider the chamber to have
100% relative humidity and the pressure in the chamber is the
variable),
just as kiln drying (with mild heat). The usual problem is control
of the drying rate (you might want to do one day in the chamber,
6 days out, for several cycles). Some vacuum pumps don't do
well with water vapor (oil turns to sludge).
If it dries too fast, checking and excessive warp/twist is expected.
The USDA wood handbook hints that 2" oak needs about 50 days to
kiln dry, and the temperature of the kiln would be circa 120 to 180
Fahrenheit.
On Feb 18, 10:42 am, samson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks for the good info! I'm going to let the wood
> dry for a few months.
>
> S.
That would be best.
If you have material to spare, and I would suppose you do,
you can try drying in both a microwave and a conventional
oven. Weight eh pieces on a kitchen scale and weigh
them periodically while drying. When the weight stops
changing, they're done. The same is true for air drying.
In a conventional oven trelatively hin pieces will dry overnight
at 150 F or so. It may be best to dry overnight at the lowest
setting and the next night a little higher and so on until
stable.
In a microwave, use several short burst of no more than a minute
or so, and allow a couple of minutes between them for the wood
to equilibrate.
Both methods may warp the wood, but you may get lucky.
It may be possible to flatten warped wood using the same
methods used to bend straight wood (steaming, soaking or
boiling). Google "wood bending", "bent wood" etc for more
information.
Red oak will stink. If you have Sassafrass, drying it in the oven
has a deoderizing effect. One of managers at work (or his
wife) accidentally left roast in their oven baking all day. By the
time he got home it was coked out and the next day he said
his whole house smelled terrible. So I wnet home at lunchtime
and brought back a small Sassaffrass log, gave it to him and
told him to bake it at 150 F overnight. He looked at me like
I was crazy, but he tried it and was amazed at how effective it
was.
--
FF
On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:42:33 -0600, samson <[email protected]> wrote:
>Thanks for the good info! I'm going to let the wood
>dry for a few months.
>
>S.
I bought a moisture meter (Lignomat Moisture Meter Mini-Ligno
E/D)--works great. I test each plank in three spots and write the
highest reading on the wood with the date. If the reading is above
10%, I put it back on a stickered stack for 2 months. A reading above
15% will take several months to air dry. Don't waste your time
building furniture with anything above 10%.