I want to dry quartersawn white oak to 6% for a special project and wonder how long before it will pick up moisture to take it back up to 12% which is ambient for most all air dried lumber in south east Michigan. The boards are expected to finish at 1" thick.
I expect to take it out of the kiln about the end of September and wonder how soon it should be used to build an expensive piece of furniture? How quickly will it pick up moisture from the air to where it is not safe to build an expensive entertainment center??
I want to thank all who respond to this question.
Jim
If dead stacked, it will pick up moisture very slowly, so it should last for a few months with out appreciable moisture gain except possibly on the outer layers that are exposed to air. You could solve the problem by stacking the wood inside a heated and cooled building if that is possible. If not, then the next best place is in an unheated or cooled structure that is enclosed to protect the wood against the elements and outside humidity. The worst thing is to leave it outside.
I have microwave dried samples of wood to work out their M/C, then out of interest I left the sample on my desk and weighed it every few days. It took about 3 weeks to get back up to 12%, from ~0%
You can wrap it in plastic though, as it's dry there is no danger in doing that, seal it up well, then it can't gain any moisture. Or store it inside where the climate is controlled. That may actually be better than keeping it at some arbitrary 8%, which may not be the final m/c the piece will end up at. If you stash the wood in a spare room it's going to drift toward the ambient moisture level in YOUR house, which is what you want.
Because a lump of wood in my house settles to 12-14%, thats what I want my wood to be at before I work with it.
Ian
Jim, why wouldn't you want to work with the wood at 12% then ??? Even if you build the piece of furniture and get some finish on it while it's still 6%, it will still gain moisture. That wood is still going to move with changes in temp. and humidity throughout the seasons.
I think Jim is talking about 12% outside and 6% inside.
If you need to keep it outside, dead pack and wrap with stretch wrap. One note; it takes about as long for wood to pick up moisture as it takes to get it out. Quartersawn white oak is very slow, of course. If you were dealing with something like monkeypod, it would be back up to 12% in a day or two.
don't know about WO but the cherry bedroom suite I built in 2005 was KD to 6% and is now varies from 8% to 10% in my house here in central NY state where the RH gets pretty high.
Haven't had any swelling/shrinking probs yet. BUT I built it quickly after KD process in my small Dehum kiln.
Pete
Yes Pete I have an Ebac Dehumidifier kiln which will dry about 500 bd/ft at a time.
The furniture in my house is about 8% after 20 years.
Outside air dried wood will be about 12% at this time of year here in S.E. Michigan.
The wood which I have kiln dried in my workshop which is not air conditioned is now about 8-10% after a couple of years but it is heated intermitently during the winter.
A friend of mine from Wyoming (very dry) is a muzzleloading gunsmith. He built a very nice rifle for a guy in Michigan, this rifle had a sliding wooden patchbox. Which is basically a long dovetail joint, everything fit very nice and tight in Wyoming and the patchbox slid perfectly, however when the gun was shipped to Michigan the patchbox was too tight and would not open. The gun would have been made from an air dried maple stock blank that would have air dried at least 10 years. So it was very well seasoned to the Wyoming air. When the customer brought the gun back to Wyoming the patchbox worked again. So, Steve had to cut the dovetail pretty loose and then it also worked in Michigan. The moral of the story is that if you are building an expensive piece of furniture, have the wood seasoned for the climate that it will be in. Before laying a hardwood floor it is a good idea to set the flooring in the room for a couple of weeks ahead of time if possible. If you want to build the entertainment center for your house, or a house near by let the wood aclimatise, (I'm sure I butchered that) before using it. It is a common practice to dry wood below EMC but it has to be at EMC before you build with it to keep joints from opening up, etc.
Good question, and good luck with your project.