Fan drying white oak

[Southside]

I have around 500 bft of fresh white oak that will need to go through the kiln, but it has to wait it's turn right now.  Am I OK to put that under tin and put the fans to it to help with the drying for the couple of weeks it will be waiting?  Will it be a big benefit to have the fans on it or is the gain minimal?  Until now I have only ever open air dried my lumber.

Thanks

[YellowHammer]

White oak has a very low acceptable moisture loss rate. Even 4/4 green white oak will most likely check if air dried with fans.
I would not recommend using fans with white oak.  

[Southside]

Ok - I won't do that then.  Would you seal the ends?

[YellowHammer]

Definately, as soon as it's bucked or pack sawn or end trimmed.  For high grade white oak, I like two coats.  For low grade, one will do.  :

[WDH]

Drying wood can be challenging. Drying white oak is challenging challenging. 

[Southside]

I am quickly realizing how much simpler it was when I just stickered the stuff up and forgot about it for the better part of a year....

[WDH]

Exactly.  The goal is to get a whack of wood air drying so that you can get ahead of the curve and keep the kiln running drying air dried wood.  That makes everything so much simpler.  It is much harder to mess anything up.  Also, it does not make economic or practical sense to take 35 days to kiln dry green oak when you can kiln dry 4 loads of air dried oak in the same time.  Relying on Mother Nature to remove the bulk of the water makes sense as long as you do a good job of planning ahead. 

I do kiln dry pine from green occasionally, but that can be done in about 8 days, so that is not too bad. 

[btulloh]

I've stickered white oak and covered with a tin roof in the summertime and it dried a little too fast.  I have to put in a shady spot and limit air flow or I get some surface checking.  Just my experience.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Shade-Dri on one edge and both ends of a stack will do wonders for slowing drying.  Basically, it is plastic burlap.