air dried

[woodmills1]

anyone else have projects that they have made from air dried lumber?  on the "other board" i get ya can't do that. here is my rebuttal. i cut the oak from my wood lot dried it and sanded, boy did i sand.

[Kevin]

Looks good millsy.
Is that laminated, did you plane it?
What`s all that wrapping paper for?

[woodmills1]

just good old 4/4 oak.  my lovely wife is quite the christmas wrapper.

[woodmills1]

evidence for rebut number 2.  poplar, really quaking aspem, purchased logs.  cut, dried, skip planed, stickerd indoors, finished planed, biscuit joined, sanded, sanded, sanded.  when new a tee shirt would slide off the finish.  wish i had that kinda time to woodwork now.

[Corley5]

The inside of my house is done in black cherry, red oak, white ash, sugar maple, red and white pine.  The outside in white pine.  It was all stickered outside for a year before we ran it in to tongue and groove panelling and flooring.  It worked great.  I get a little movement in the winter when the wood heat is cranking.  Some of the seams open up a little.  By the middle of June everything is tight again.  Grandpa also built the kitchen cabinets out of air dried cherry and they're fine.  They change a little in the winter too but such is the nature of wood.  

[Tom]

Great job, woodmills.

There is a lot of that stuff made from air dried stock by people who have never been told they "can't do it".

I promise, I won't tell you that you can't.  Proof is in the puddin'.   You've already shown that it can be done so I may do it too.  

What do you reckon the fellows in the 1600's did for kiln dried wood?  That furniture draws a lot of money today.

[Frank_Pender]

ya, the         and I don't get along either.  I did not get my PhD setting in a chair though.  Most of it has been only a Masters Degree, dealing with kids and logs over the last 45 years.

[CHARLIE]

Woodmills, you did a fine job building those cabinets. It's great to be able to say "I made that." and better yet to be able to say, "I made that with the wood from one of my trees."   Stuff like that will be around long after your gone, so I hope you put your name, date and type of wood in some out of the way place.  I've also heard of people insetting a penny from the year the project was built.

I was in Milan, Italy on business a few years back and during some off hours toured a museum. One of the things I saw was a chest (pretty worn) with hand cut dovetails and a lid made from a single piece of wood (real tight grain).  I was looking at the chest very closely admiring the well cut dovetails when all of a sudden it struck me. This person probably cut down the tree, by hand, cut the boards, by hand and air dried them before he could even think about starting to make the chest. Pretty awesome when you think that today we can just buy our lumber kiln dried.    

[Texas Ranger]

I make furniture and "stuff" from both kiln dried and air dried wood.  When using air dried in furniture you need to think ahead to the movement of the wood, and accommodate that movement.  Works well for me.

Just went through an episode of trying to turn some cherry into bowls, and found that the wood was not going to let me do it, had a mind of its own, must have known I am a forester.

[marc]

I do a lot of woodworking. About %99.5 of my work I use air dried wood, works good for me.

Don, when turning your cherry bowls turn them about 1'' thick then coat it with log end sealer, but it in 4 or 5 brown paper bags every month take a bag of, after about 4 months turn the rest of it then put it in 2 more bags take one of each month and after waiting all that time you should have a bowl with no cracks in it. If that is to long for you let me know and I will tell you some other secrets.

[stickbilt]

Hey Marc,
Could you explain the paper bags. I am curious how it works. I'm not a wood turner but do a fair share of woodworking.
Thanks, Stickbilt

[timberbeast]

Most of the furniture in my house is made from air-dried lumber I cut myself,  from my own trees.  I posted a picture somewhere of one cabinet.  The doors in my house are all air-dried cedar,  the trim is all air-dried birseye maple,  the paneling is all air-dried cedar,  The siding on the walk-out area of the basement is board-and-batten cedar. I sign and date everything on a drawer-side,  bottom of a table,  etc.
Maybe in 400 years somebody will collect my furniture,  who knows?

[Ron Wenrich]

Entire house siding is board and batten air-dried white pine.  The framing of my house and barn are all air-dried.  Built in the 1850s.

2 interior bathrooms are all air-dried pine, including the cabinets.  All window trim and the ceilings in 3 rooms.  

We air dry for about 3-6 months, then mill the 1x6s into tongue and groove.  Also use air dry stock for log cabins.

[marc]

stickbilt, The paper bags hold in the moisture from the wood but let's enough out so the wood will still dry but very slowly so the wood won't crack. The more bags you use the less moisture it will let out as you take the bags of the more it will let out.

Also can you tell me a bit about the construction trade, I have been working for a large construction company (Urbandale) for about a year now but not framing or things like that, what we do is fix things that the other trades do wrong. Things like getting the houses ready for dry wall, replacing solid bridging and doing the things that the inspector says need to be done. I was wondering what you would do in a day and how you like it, because I am still not sure if it is something I want to do the rest of my life. Any info you can give me will help thanks
                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                        Marc

[Don P]

A furniture plant I worked at had one person carry a piece from the lumber pile to the finishing room door (instills pride, cuts down on boredom and repetative motion injuries) we initialled the bottom of each piece. As I run into this furniture across the country its fun to tip it up and see if I know the maker.
I've done both AD and KD. Industrially there is no way I would mess with AD, I have and the quality of mass produced parts is way down, its tougher to machine and is unpredictable. Here at home there is red oak stickered at one end of the great room and hickory at the other, the maple is in the guest room. The barn is predrying the next rotation to be brought in.  I have the luxury of time, time to let the wood reach equilibrium. Since we are home in winter and that is when I use the wood it is at its smallest then. Cabinets, trim...all but the oak flooring are shed dried followed by an extended stay in the house prior to machining. The flooring was bought from a local manufacturer, it squeeks in the winter too.
Bottom line for me is I'm not all that fussy as to whether the clothes were hung on a line or spun in a dryer the point is to get them dry before using them .
That said, setting pitch and killing bugs is a good thing too. Michelle has been applying finish to a spalted maple vanity that I made(no good southern hardwood , beautiful grain and colors). She noticed what may be 3 new holes...just gotta wait and watch for frass now. Could be a number of hours work getting ripped out that would have been avoided with KD. No way I could even risk that with work for someone else.
At one furniture plant we built crate style loose cushioned pine furniture,many large cross grain glue joints. They opened up a new distribution warehouse in AZ and we began shipping there. Soon there was a phone call from the warehouse manager, he held the phone out in the warehouse and you could hear the furniture cracking apart. We had been accepting up to 13% and the suppliers had gotten used to that cut off. EMC out there I think is about 8%.
Instrument makers prefer AD for tonewood they claim the kiln destroys much of the sustain, the ring. I'm told that playing improves the tone with time also.

[woodmills1]

don said it best by including time and reliability in the equation.  If it could have bugs don't bring it in.  i took some oak from near the bark inside once   and almost frassed myself.  had to clean up from months.  we woodworkers are used to letting material go to waste due to the nature of rendering it useful.  many industries have been built on the waste of others.  some of my leftovers have made new things. much has gone to fuel and much has been chipped or burned.  maybe i should just buy a portable hog and drive around the country from mill to mill. i could meet all of you.

[CHARLIE]

Marc, when I roughturn a bowl, I'll put it into a bag of wood chips from the turnings. That also slows down the drying.  A lot of times though.....because of my impatience, I turn the bowl thin while it's green (still wet). I then will put a finish on it, wax it and put it into a bag of chips for awhile. I've had good luck doing this. When the bowl dries though, it is just a little out of round. No biggie though.

[timberbeast]

Charlie (or Marc),  I haven't turned in quite some years,  but I seem to remember that just the act of turning itself did a lot of drying to the wood (I scraped a lot,  never have been able to tame a skew,  ),  sometimes to the point of drying too fast on small,  thin bowls and cracking (occasionally expoding.....poof!).  Have you guys ever experienced such?  Just wondering,  if I ever decide to make another lathe,  how to avoid this.

[CHARLIE]

Timberbeast, some woods turn green better than others. I've had good luck with birch, walnut and silver maple. Fruitwoods like apple are really tough 'cause they want to change shapes faster.....while you are turning it. Also, I think too much friction (heat) could cause problems to wet wood. I've never had a bowl explode on me except when I get one heckuva catch ,but not from moisture. I have had a few split though. It's best to rough turn to about 3/4" or 1" thick and let it slowly dry before finish turning......but dang it, sometimes I just get impatient and go for it. When turning green wood thin, I seal that part that I'm not cutting on. That seems to help.

[L. Wakefield]

  Hi Charlie!  You've noticed- I'm sure- how I'll be on focus with part of stuff and then off in left field about another part- well, I just looked at your flag of choice there. What the heck IS that thing- skull and crossbones on a blue background? It won't hold still long enough for me to see. duh, is that a state flag?   lw