English Oak - high moisture content - advice please!

[Tusses]

yeah ... but how many people know instantly , what that smell is :lol:

 

[Digit]

But once smelt never to be forgotten I reckon, an expensive smell usually!

Roy.

 

[RogerM]

Hi

I am surprised no one has picked up on Big sft Moose's suggestion of using an enclosure round a dehumidifier.

I have done this before by building and enclosure in viscreen stacking the wood sticked in the enclosure and running the dehumidifier. I ran a pipe from the dehumidfier reservour to the outside so that I did not need to worry about emptying the tank

Chris

Please tell us more Mr T. How effective was it? How long did you have to run the dehumififier for?

 

[Tusses]

Hi

I am surprised no one has picked up on Big sft Moose's suggestion of using an enclosure round a dehumidifier.

I have done this before by building and enclosure in viscreen stacking the wood sticked in the enclosure and running the dehumidifier. I ran a pipe from the dehumidfier reservour to the outside so that I did not need to worry about emptying the tank

Chris

Please tell us more Mr T. How effective was it? How long did you have to run the dehumififier for?

just curious .. are you interested because the de-humidifier is more familiar/ common / available / household name, than other devices ?

just interested in your train of thought

Rich

 

[RogerM]

Hi

I am surprised no one has picked up on Big sft Moose's suggestion of using an enclosure round a dehumidifier.

I have done this before by building and enclosure in viscreen stacking the wood sticked in the enclosure and running the dehumidifier. I ran a pipe from the dehumidfier reservour to the outside so that I did not need to worry about emptying the tank

Chris

Please tell us more Mr T. How effective was it? How long did you have to run the dehumidifier for?

just curious .. are you interested because the de-humidifier is more familiar/ common / available / household name, than other devices ?

just interested in your train of thought

Rich

Quite simple really. I have 25 cu ft of oak to dry, all from the same tree. I took early retirement in July and I have projects lined up, the timber to do them, but it's not yet ready to use. So, initially I need to dry sufficient for my bookcase project ( say about 5 cu ft including wastage before cutting/thicknessing to size) , but also need to think about ensuring that the remaining 20 cu ft in 1" boards is dried down to at least 15% in a realistic period - perhaps by this time next year. That's too much for the spare bedroom and I don't want to have to buy additional kiln dried timber if I can help it.

The vacuum drying idea is intellectually interesting, but not, I think, a practical way forward. To build an airtight and pressure proof container 12ft x 3ft x 2ft which can contain a vacuum (which implies an external pressure in excess of 8 tons) is beyond my capabilities and budget - unless I can pick up a secondhand bathysphere on Ebay. :lol:

I do not have a green house - disused or otherwise - so the choice would seem to be a spare bedroom for the initial cut list - helped perhaps by a dehumidifier - but what to do with the remaining 20 cu ft?

I take the point that it may well do better under cover outside rather than in the garage. I can leave doors open for the time being - but that's not a long term answer. So I either need to build an enclosure for it in the garage and incorporate a dehumidifier, or build something similar to an undercover logstore outside which is completely weatherproof but which will allow a free flow of air through the stack.

Interestingly (and somewhat depressingly) some newly cut and split green oak logs that were delivered in March this year and which have been in an open fronted log store against an East facing wall have a moisture content of 20% - below that of the boards that have been in my garage for the last year.

I suspect that patience is going to be required, and it will be worth waiting for as it is truly lovely wood, with significant parts quarter cut which is near impossible to find at a timber merchants - but I just want to do all that is practical to help it on its way, without spoiling it and without spending a huge amount doing it.

 

[woodbloke]

Roger - If you have the available space, building a half decent structure to keep the rest of the timber (and let it dry out a bit more) isn't going to be tricky. I intend to do something similar round the back of my 'shop in the near future and I'll do it is as follows:
Select the area and lay some of that weed suppressing membrane, fix to the ground with some long copper staples (made from some gash 13A electrical cable) then lay a few concrete blocks packed up so that the surface between each is level (this will be where the sticks are)...if all the blocks form a concave shape this will be the eventual shape of your timber On top of that goes some DPC and over that goes the first sticks (about 25mm thick). It ought to be reasonably straight forward then to build some sort of enclosure out of some gash softwood to fix a suitable tarp onto to keep out any strong sunlight and direct rain...the odd splash or two won't do any harm. If you haven't done it already it might be an idea to paint the ends of the planks with some watered down PVA or similar - Rob

 

[devonwoody]

25 cu. ft. of oak at 50lb a cubic foot weighs over half a ton, I suppose it gets lighter at 15% mc. thats some consolation.

 

[RogerM]

Rob - thanks for the advice. Just need to negotiate with SWMBO as to where it can go!

25 cu. ft. of oak at 50lb a cubic foot weighs over half a ton, I suppose it gets lighter at 15% mc. thats some consolation.

John - I had already done that sum! Yet another reason why it can't all go upstairs to the backbedroom. Of course if I want to reduce the MC by 10% that also implies a loss of about 120lbs of water - or about 12 gallons - which is 6 buckets full.

 

[The_Stig]

As a rule of thumb, air-drying Oak usually take about a year per inch, provided that you keep the timber covered over with sticks between it to allow the air to circulate you should be fine. If you try and rush it could cause all sorts of problems, its the same with kilning timber, if you rush it you just ruin the boards. Species such as Elm and Cedar are a lot quicker drying and therefore can be kilned a little earlier. If anyone does need to ever know about drying times I can also get the tatty old copy of the timber drying manual out and have a quick gander.

As for moisture meters, the surface scanning types are useless as any surface moisture is picked up whether it be rain of just in the air, the best sort of the ones that use two prongs that are hammers into the board. They come in both digital and analogue varieties... I must admit that I prefer the analogue ones like the 'Proton' meter.

If anyone is thinking about buying a meter then let me know and I'll do a bit more research into it, I know our digital one came from Germany which is a little annoying when it comes round to getting spares, lol.

 

[Tusses]

I'm guessing you could almost use a multimeter on ohms setting to check moisture ?

 

[TheTiddles]

This Stig guy is great! Why don't more people from timber merchants and tool suppliers join here? I have found a lot of them could easily promote themselves better here and find out what people are really wanting.

Aidan

 

[The_Stig]

I'm certainly not here to sell, but I will certainly help anyone if I can... I guess I'm just lucking in the way that I love carpentry and work for a timber company. As a part of my training I had to work on each of the departments and read enough text books to fill a library, lol. So I know quite a bit about storage, kilning and drying and then from working in the sales office I know where things can be sourced from. If I don't know something I'll admit it and certainly find out what the answer should be. In addition I deal with things like the PEFC & FSC certification because lets face it, if its not sustainable then we're all going to have to shop with the misses at the weekend!!

 

[newt]

Tusses your right, I use a multimeter on the 20 meg ohm range. I drill two 1 mm holes 5mm deep and 5mm apart then put in 2 pins so only the tips are touching the wood at the bottom of the hole. I use some wood which I know is dry as a reference. It gives me a rough idea how the drying is going but I would not like to guess on the % error.