Best way to air dry log slabs?

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astnmacgto

Carnac The Magnificent
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Gonna attempt to do some chainsaw milling and intend on making slabs mostly but also some rough lumber, what is the best way yall have found to air dry the slabs, and I intend on keeping them indoors, strips between them with a dehumidifier in the room, unless of course yall tell me that's a bad idea,
Thanks, ADLM
 
Gonna attempt to do some chainsaw milling and intend on making slabs mostly but also some rough lumber, what is the best way yall have found to air dry the slabs, and I intend on keeping them indoors, strips between them with a dehumidifier in the room, unless of course yall tell me that's a bad idea,
Thanks, ADLM
Seal the ends, than seal them again. Sticker with same wood or already dried stickers, dif feet green wood can stain. Put some weight on top so top doesn't go wonky on top. Airflow is key, sticker close, if you have airflow I wouldn't worry about dehumidifier, if it make you feEl better than go ahead. Roughly 1 year an inch, some woods longer, all depends on your conditions. I would throw some sevin dust on each plank, and spray every three months something like ortho household bug spray.
 
All sounds like very good advice maybe instead of a dehumidifier perhaps a fan to keep air moving between the slabs, and I never thought about bug spray, nothing worse than waiting a year or more to dry wood than have it ruined by bugs
ADLM
 
All sounds like very good advice maybe instead of a dehumidifier perhaps a fan to keep air moving between the slabs, and I never thought about bug spray, nothing worse than waiting a year or more to dry wood than have it ruined by bugs
ADLM
I wouldn't use fans directly on it, it will dry spots quicker than others and can check your wood up fast, you want it to dry evenly.
 
So I've found that if you dry them too fast they check (crack) like all get out. Sticking and stacking in a windy place is great if you have the time to let the wood dry. If you need you wood faster, then look into building a solar kiln. There are good plans available for free on the web.
 
Time shouldn't be a problem the only thing I'm worried about is the checking, are there certain types of wood that are more prone to do so than others
ADLM
 
Gonna do some slabs for projects and probably sell some too, atleast I'm hoping
ADLM
 
Gotcha.

If you can mostly seal the room, you'd make sort of a kiln with the dehumifider going.
That's how ours works. Its about 20x25ft or so and takes about a month to dry a load. The system is made by Nyle.
Quite expensive to run, ~$500 a batch. Typical just do 1x material for use in flooring, mouldinf, etc since the planer/molder needs dry wood.
 
I have a room about that size that I intend on using, my girlfriend is all about something called pinterest which is short for "more work for me" so she wants me to also make a bunch of different size cookies for various projects that she wants to do so I will also be using it for that, those won't take nearly as long to dry though and I think I may go with a dehumidifier. It doesn't hurt ig
ADLM
 
The afore mentioned solar kiln is on pinterest.
I'm looking at the logasol kiln compressor unit sort of thing vs a solar kiln hope to use a 20/40ft shipping container or build the whole frame fro recycled roof frames

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Gonna attempt to do some chainsaw milling and intend on making slabs mostly but also some rough lumber, what is the best way yall have found to air dry the slabs, and I intend on keeping them indoors, strips between them with a dehumidifier in the room, unless of course yall tell me that's a bad idea,
Thanks, ADLM
Seal your ends 2-3 times. Minwax sand & sealer works great. Getting harder to find the older stuff though. It's pricey but quality products should hold a premium!
 
Gonna do some slabs for projects and probably sell some too, atleast I'm hoping
ADLM
What are you keeping slabs for? We just bundle them up and sell for firewood.
Lucas adverts show large planks being cut on their machinery and call them slabs prolly do to there size? What benefit do you find in having only one use for term "slab"?????
 
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