The Forestry Forum

Not sure if I should post this here or in saw-milling or even the drying board.

Today I got a call from a guy wanting to have 8x8 oak beams saw'n and dried for timber framing.  I've milled quit a few beams but left them with the customer to presumably air dry.

This guy questioned me about kiln drying them.   I've never dried anything in my kiln over 16/4 (4").   From what I've heard and read it is difficult, if not impossible to kiln dry something as big as an 8x8 oak beam.

Questions are:

When sawing an 8x8 for timber framing, do I mill larger logs down and avoid the heart, or do I box the heart in the center?

If I mill larger logs, to avoid tension bending how large diameter should the log be to keep the beam from bending

Do you kiln dry or is air drying sufficient?   

How long do you air dry before framing?

If I kiln dry in my DH4000 (Nyle 200) what type of schedule would I use?

Box heart for timbers that won't bend or sweep on you, and then they might anyhow.

It will take at least 4 to 8 years to air dry an 8x8 timber, at one inch per year.

We frame with green timbers, let them dry in place after the frame is erected.

You'll have to contact the kiln manufacturer and see if they have a schedule for that, but I don't believe many people kiln dry timbers.

I did hear of someone using radio frequency to do them but I think they went out of business.

Good luck educating that customer about drying timbers.

Jim's a good authority here.  I'll add that all of my reclaimed hardwood timbers are boxed heart.  Don't forget to seal the ends.  If not framing and raising right away, stack and sticker them properly(Jim can probably help you with how to do that too, I know he has written about that before).  Get some weight on them in an effort to reduce movement.  Get your customers on the boards to ask questions too, both FF and tfguild.org

This topic has been hit a number of times over the last few years- I'd suggest reading lots of "back issues" of threads and just develop a good gut-feeling for how this all works.  Way too much for a single thread or reply.   :-\

Oh, and thanks for asking!  We may not give you the answers you want or need, but we sure like making noise at trying to... :D

Lj