drying timber

[Mr_Brushcutter]

Hi all

Been playing with my chainsaw mill. Took a fragment of a lighting stuck tree and milled that. It went quite well despite a few technical difficulties: the bar clap moving and hitting two nails. I now have a lovely bit of 20" wide oak 4' long and 2" thick.

What are the top tricks to drying timber. Unfortuantly i can't afford a kiln and there isn't one near by. So how do i avoid cracks, warping so on so forth. I've got a nice stack of big logs and nice small chunks to cut, which i'm putting off till i know more about drying.

My long aim is to build a solar kiln basicly a poly tunnel which has air flow from both ends and underneath. I've hurd good things about them, but first i need to know about drying it. Any good books to read.

Thanks

Andy

 

[oldsaw]

Paint the ends of the boards with latex paint. If you don't have any, most hardware stores will sell "mismixed" paint for a couple of bucks a gallon. Stack it using stickers (small sticks of wood used to separate the boards, I usually make some from 1x pine, and cut them 3/4" square), then put some weight on the top. Make sure the location has some air movement to prevent molding, and you are set.

Mark

 

[CaseyForrest]

Heres an old pic of my lumber pile....the only thing its missing is a cover...

 

[woodshop]

Paint the ends of the boards with latex paint. If you don't have any, most hardware stores will sell "mismixed" paint for a couple of bucks a gallon. Stack it using stickers (small sticks of wood used to separate the boards, I usually make some from 1x pine, and cut them 3/4" square), then put some weight on the top. Make sure the location has some air movement to prevent molding, and you are set.
Mark

I would add that you don't want your lumber to dry too quickly in the beginning, so keeping it out of direct sun/wind for first couple weeks helps cut down on the checks and helps prevent internal stresses in the wood from the outside drying so much faster than the inside of the board. In GENERAL, shorter boards of a species develop checks, cracks and twist more than longer ones, and narrow boards more than wider ones.

Do a search on drying lumber, stacking lumber, and you will find lots of good info in the forum.