New slabs are cupping

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

oaktreeguy

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
52
Reaction score
25
Location
TN
Hi, I brought fresh hickory slabs indoors about 2 weeks ago after cutting them. Some are starting to cup pretty heavily. Particularly the thinner slabs (5/4). How much weight do you typically put on a stack of slabs, per foot, if the slab is say 18" wide?

Thank you!
 
You talking about live edge boards? Slab to me are the bark "D" from the log.

For at least a 2 sided board, we stack them and band the stack with metal banding. A slab would be tough to do that with though, with only 1 flat side.
 
No bark at all on the boards. They were milled to 5/4 and 9/4 and all bark was removed to remove any insects.
 
Some wide boards will want to cup just because of the section of the log it was milled from. Make sure you have good air circulation.

Banding stacks is best it you don't have live edge. If you have enough 6 X 6/6 X 8" beams to put a course or two on top that may help, sticker those.
 
So it's lumber, not slabs?
No bark at all on the boards. They were milled to 5/4 and 9/4 and all bark was removed to remove any insects.

So a basically 1" bys and 2" bys then? How wide? Anything in the 8-10 or wider on a 1 by is probably going to cup to some degree, a 2by can go a bit wider. Weight it down or band it and plane it after it's dry.

As far as how much weight, I dunno. I normally just stick 2 or 3 i beams on the stack if we aren't banding them. They are maybe 2000lbs each. I'm sure that's overkill, but I have a whole bunch of beams.
 
Thank you. They are dull width of the tree, just removed the bark down to the sap wood.
 
Hickory isn't the easiest to dry...

I think it was a mistake to bring it indoors so soon after being milled.

SR
 
Back
Top