White Oak MC

[JackLeg]

I just removed a charge of about 600 bf of white oak from my solar kiln.  The MC looks to be about 9-10% in the boards I have sampled.  Is this acceptable for most uses in your opinion? 

What MC have you other solar kiln owners attained in white oak?  How long did you leave it in the kiln?  All input appreciated.  Thanx.

[pineywoods]

I just removed a charge of about 600 bf of white oak from my solar kiln.  The MC looks to be about 9-10% in the boards I have sampled.  Is this acceptable for most uses in your opinion? 

What MC have you other solar kiln owners attained in white oak?  How long did you leave it in the kiln?  All input appreciated.  Thanx.

Dried pin oak to about 6% in mine. Used it to make flooring, worked well.

[Larry]

N Carolina...probably.

I really like to match the MC of what comes out of the kiln to its environment.  You can do this by taking sample readings of flooring, or furniture that has been in your home for a while.  When we lived in N Missouri oak would read 9-10% in the summer and drop to 7-8% in the winter...dependent on how much we ran the wood stove.  Oak flooring close to the wood stove would drop to 6% and I would see small cracks.

At present we are living in the shop while I build a new house in N Arkansas.  The shop has poor humidity control with a window air conditioner.  The humidistat reads 70% relative humidity.  A white oak shelf I built some years ago reads 14% with my Wagner pinless.  Ash and red oak cabinets are reading right in that range also.

I normally dried white oak in my solar kiln to 8-9%.  I found some moisture meters can be a bit off.  Its best to check your meter against an oven dry sample.  My Wagner always reads 1% high on red oak. 

[JackLeg]

Thanks, Gents!  I've spoken with a few people who have told me they wouldn't hesitate to use it as long as it's under 12% for most any project.  Our humidity here fluctuates, but I have the lumber stacked in my barn, in the dry, so it'll acclimate pretty quickly to that environment I expect. 

Thanks again.

[kelLOGg]

JL,

Where in NC are you located?

Bob

[SwampDonkey]

I would say that's lots dry for being in wetter air, than in the interior of the continent. I would suggest 12% is lots dry. You get it too dry and you'll be surprised at how it swells in summer and possibly warps or splits some boxed in joints. It's a wood workers learning experience. :D Always got to design for wood movement, nothing is "permanent". ;)

[JackLeg]

Hey, Bob!  I'm over near Albemarle in Stanly County.  About an hour and a half from you.