Milled some white oak today with my Husky 576.

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SpacemanSpiff23

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Next door neighbor had a tree taken down and asked me how much wood I wanted. I said, "yes". So I spent the first day clearing out space and cutting up firewood. Today I started milling. I just recently started milling and am having a blast. So far, the only thing I've built is a giant 25 foot long picnic table at a disc golf course I work on. But now I have slabs at home. I just need to figure out how to get them dry and where to store them for the next year while I decide what to do.

The wide coffee table slabs were drenched in the middle. I think it was just on the brink of starting to rot, but it's still hard (not punky), that's why they're so dark. I'm cutting them to 2 1/4" thick and planning on making a few table tops that are at least 1 1/2" thick when finished. Do I really have to wait 2 years for these thing s to dry? How do you keep them from getting moldy if they're always a little bit damp?
 
Freshly cut wood contains both free and bound moisture. The wet drenched feel of the wood is from the free water and that will evaporate rather quickly if stacked and stickered off the ground. Seal ends, put stack in area with good air flow and cover stack with roofing material or plywood. If you do this you shoud not have to worry about mold, but air flow is key.

Yes, you need to be patient, I understand that is tough but it is necessary. White Oak is a notorious slow drying wood so waiting 2 years may be on the short end of how long you need to wait. You could see if anyone operates a kiln around you, that would help speed things up. But with White Oak you need to air dry down to about 20% before kiln drying.

Finally, if you do everything right still expect some cracking/splitting and some warping/twisting of your lumber. So it was a good thing you milled at 9/4 to get your final slab flattened.
 
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Next door neighbor had a tree taken down and asked me how much wood I wanted. I said, "yes". So I spent the first day clearing out space and cutting up firewood. Today I started milling. I just recently started milling and am having a blast. So far, the only thing I've built is a giant 25 foot long picnic table at a disc golf course I work on. But now I have slabs at home. I just need to figure out how to get them dry and where to store them for the next year while I decide what to do.

The wide coffee table slabs were drenched in the middle. I think it was just on the brink of starting to rot, but it's still hard (not punky), that's why they're so dark. I'm cutting them to 2 1/4" thick and planning on making a few table tops that are at least 1 1/2" thick when finished. Do I really have to wait 2 years for these thing s to dry? How do you keep them from getting moldy if they're always a little bit damp?
Exactly what Bmac said.
 
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