planing be for drying?

[sawwood]

I have a large stack of white oak that has been air drying for 2 years. I need to kiln dry it in our
solar kiln, but was thinking about planing it before kiln drying. Would the extra work help in drying
as the wood would be the same thickness ?

 Sawwood

[bluthum]

You will stand a good chance of a lot more tearout planing wood at 12%+ mc than at 6-8%.

[Southside]

Not to mention that your planer will be a lot happier with you if you dry it first.

[Ianab]

There should be no problem planing the wood at 12%, heck that's as dry as our wood ever gets. But I don't see any real advantage. and chances are you will get a small amount of extra movement as the drying is completed. Means you would need to lightly plane the wood again before use.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Technically, it can be easily machined and there will be some advantage in drying speed...maybe a day or two in the solar kiln.  It will shrink in the kiln various amounts, so the final thickness will be variable...is that ok?  If you have to plane it again after drying, it would seem to strongly suggest not planing before kiln drying.

One issue can be the dust system.  The chips or shavings will be about 10% heavier than dry shavings.

[sawwood]

The reason I asked is that not all the lumber is the same thickness and skip planning would make filling the kiln better.
I have two thickness lumber in the stack. The ones on bottom are 4/4 and on top is 5/4, and even then some of them
are not the same. I was thinking if I plane both to the 1 1/8 and 1 1/2" they would lay flatter on the stickers and may
not move to much. I am in no hurry so if it takes longer that's ok. I plane on using most of the lumber for new kitchen
cabinet doors and draw fronts and sell the rest. I had a tree service give me 5 large with oak logs, 10' long and 36" wide.
I have all but one milled and hope to mill that one soon.

Sawwood 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Planing green oak greatly reduces the risk of formation of surface checks...only works for green.  When planing both side- -two passes- -it is called presurfacing.  Planing one side for size control is called blanking.

Presurfacing and Blanking are discussed in Drying Hardwood Lumber, Pages 28-29.

[Don P]

To expand on that, the saw creates many small tears in the surface that are sort of like the broken fibers in cloth that allow a rip or run to form. By presurfacing there is a smoother less torn surface which is stronger and better able to resist surface checking, especially helpful with circle milled oak. With most of our planers it is not fun, keep the bed waxed. It also helps with pile bend. As I'm sawing and relieving stress it is easy to end up with thin ends and thick middles, a good way to end up with a stack of bowed lumber.

[longtime lurker]

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn223.pdf



https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn0214.pdf