Drying 1&1/4" wood for pegs

[nicdonati]

Question.... How to quickly dry peg wood stock???

We have a big timber framing project underway that is going to require over 800 pegs. I have finally managed to source the wood for the pegs and I was wandering if anyone has some REAL LIFE experience using a food dehydrator or kitchen oven to dry hardwood. From my initial search online it seemed like low and slow is the best to prevent splitting, twisting etc... hence the consideration of the food dehydrator which can go as low as 120F. We mill our pegs on the table saw so I was thinking of creating some slightly oversized blanks with dimensions of approximately 1 1/4" thick by 3" wide by 16" long, I can then rip this down on the saw once dried to make a couple of pegs. I don't need advise on how to make the pegs, I know people turn them and split them, but that's not an option with what we have available in Costa Rica. Any comments suggestions around the drying process is welcome. Some sites reccomended using stickers between the wood others say make sure the pieces don't touch etc...

[maineshops]

How about a clothes dryer? Mom might get upset though. Dan

[scsmith42]

Drying techniques will vary depending upon the species to be dried.  What are you using to make the pegs from?

Re making the pegs, I recently saw this technique shown on Facebook and it strikes me as an efficient way that you could adopt in CR.

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[Brad_bb]

How quickly do you have before needing to drive pegs?
Are you draw boring or doing straight cylindrical pegs?
What species are you using to rive pegs?

I would not try to fast dry pegs.  If I need pegs fast, I call Northcott, https://www.pegs.us/
Their pegs are dry.  Hopefully they are not backed up and can supply them.
I like making my own pegs but the procedure is a  little different depending on if they are draw bore or cylindrical pegs.  When I'm making them, I rive them using a framing hatched I have that has a bigger pole that I can whack on with a heavy mallet.  I make the square blanks 1/16" over size.  Remember the diameter is going to shrink as they dry.  I put the square blanks in a rubbermaid tote of water to keep them from drying at all.  You want to draw knife green wet wood.
Dry white oak is miserable and I would not want to taper a dry white oak peg. 

Then I get on the shaving horse.  For draw bore, you just go ahead and draw knife your taper.  I usually tape 3/4 of the length down to 1/2" or so.  For a cylindrical peg, I draw knife it roughly round leaving it 1/16" oversize.  Then I find a quite corner of the HEATED shop and spread the pegs out on the floor with a fan on them for a few days.  The fan will prevent mold by drying the outside of the peg enough that mold won't grow.  Then you can shut the fan off and let them air dry for a couple months or more.  Then you can final size the cylindrical pegs by driving them though a steel die.  I did this by hand with a 3lb sledge for the 800 pegs for our barn.  Next time I'm making a fixture to put in my log splitter to drive the pegs through the die.

Some riven peg blanks may taper too small when split, or may have a knot.  I save these and have used them for tool hanging racks, coat racks etc.  For that purpose, you can use the "character pegs".  Also, if you end up getting Northcott (dry oak) pegs, you can order them with or without a point, and with or without a round over on the ends.  I order them without, and put my own point on.  I do it with a fixture I made for my table saw to remover 4 facets, which the bulk of the material.  Then I finish the point on the shaving horse.  Even though it's dry, by that time you have little material to remove to finish it, and it will look hand done, versus machine turned.

Here's some other posts to check out.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=94158.msg1451275#msg1451275
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=110741.msg1732513#msg1732513
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=104580.msg1626584#msg1626584