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drying pine and ash in a garage?

Started by sbishop, March 09, 2006, 07:36:11 AM

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sbishop

hi, newbie here...great site by the way!

I'm going to get some pine and black ash sawed up in the next couple of weeks and was wondering if it's ok to stack in my garage? if yes, how far off the floor should it be? also how should it be piled?

going to cut 1" pine for walls in my cabin in a couple of years and 2" ash for a huge dinning table!

Thanks for any help or suggestions!

Sbishop

metalspinner

sbishop,
Welcome! 8)  8)

Stickered on 16 - 24" centers and weight on top should keep everything pretty flat.  You need to be careful stacking green lumber inside. Make sure you have good air flow in and out of the garage. This will proect the lumber from mold and your stuff in the garage from rust.  Maybe leave the door open for a few weeks with  a window open and fan to transfer fresh (dryer) air into the garage.  A 4x4 base should be just fine inside.  If you decide to stack outside, add cinder blocks under the 4x4's to get the stack off the ground and of course cover with a sheet of plywood and plastic or something similar.  Good luck!
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

sbishop

hi, thanks for the reply...so are you saying that outside is the best? or as long as I keep my garage door open(16feet door) for a couple of weeks..I can then close it and i will be ok?

I plan on opening the windows out a little bit since I don't heat my garage!!!

Thanks

Sbishop

Minnesota_boy

Outside is the best.  If I were to put a bunch of green lumber in a garage, I'd want more than one fan and the door open 2 months or more.  The lumber has a lot of moisture that it has to get rid of and it does so very slowly.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

mikeandike

I have a 2 1/2 car garage with 6 - 6 foot windows in the south wall. It
gets around 130 degrees in the summer with the doors shut. I do have a
high speed exhaust fan.

Last spring (when I started sawmilling), I stacked enough red oak, hickory,
cherry, and cedar to build my work tables, some furniture and various
projects.

I have used some of it for worktables and some is still stacked. I bought a
moisture meter the other day and thought to check my wood. All the wood
in the garage seems to be 8-9-10 % except some thicker oak that is 11%.

The thin 1 inch and less boards try to cup pretty bad, even with a lot of
weight. I didn't have any moisture problems in the garage. I do think
that the high heat of the summer probably dried the wood too fast, evan
away from the windows. This summer I will use the fans more and will
dry in the yard in the shade before putting anything in the garage, maybe
6 weeks or more.

Makes me really worry about my thoughts to build a solar kiln. The high
heat and fast drying. Maybe it will be alright if everything is 4/2?
Looking for a slabber
WMLT40HD

Max sawdust

I lost two beautiful 23" wide 3 inch thick RO slabs, by putting them somewhere safe, ::) like my garage.  I put them in in fall, the following summer they dried too fast.

The slabs that were stacked and covered outside in the shade had minimal drying defect.

A garage can dry fast, too fast in the case of green RO. ;)
Max
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