# I have more drying questions, sorry



## Chippin-in (Feb 4, 2010)

Man theres alot to figure out when you do it this way. But I think its cooler than just goin to the wood store. 

OK. So I live in SE Texas and according to Woodweb.com, the EMC fluctuates between about 11.5 and 13.5 (give or take) throughout the year in the Dallas area. 

If I air-dry my lumber to that neighborhood, and I keep it in my non-temp controlled shop while I plane, cut, glue etc. how will this affect the finished product for an indoor piece of furniture or whatever?

Is there a difference if I kiln dry to 6-7, then store it in my shop while I work on it? Wont it go back to the EMC after a period of time? Am I worried too much or thinking too hard about this?

I checked the cedar I just milled and the content showed to be around 13. the ash showed to be out of range for ash on my meter 61+. Does that sound right? The cedar was much smaller and was down much longer than the ash so I can understand it being lower.

More questions. I have never worked with cedar. Does it glue well? If being used for an exterior project, should it be finished with poly, lacquer etc. on all sides?

Thanks for any help.
Robert

p.s. If I sound dumb, I’m not, I’m ignorant. :laughing:


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Chippin-in said:


> I checked the cedar I just milled and the content showed to be around 13. the ash showed to be out of range for ash on my meter 61+. Does that sound right?


That sounds about right, cedar just doesn't contain the water that other species do. It dries very easy and can be used air dried, no problem. Yes it glues well.

If I finish cedar for exterior I use a spar marine varnish.

As far as moisture changes from kiln dried to EMC and all that. The wood should be assembled where the rh (relative humidity) is the same/close as it will be put in use. Here in Illinois my house during the winter gets very dry with the furnace. If I were to built a piece of furniture with 12% wood, then it goes to 6% in January...it's gonna move. :yes:
Here is a calculator to show how much. http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl?calculator=shrinkage

Not that some of this can't be overcome with the method of joinery. It has to be because wood is organic, it just moves.

But basically it's best to kiln dry wood. Then store it in a conditioned (heated-a/c) place to keep it dry. I don't have room to store all my wood in such a place (not 10,000's of bft) so barring that the wood for a project should be brought in to the shop (or house ) to acclimate for awhile and reach it's final EMC, down under 8%. Then used.

Stuff for outside this is not as big of a deal, air dried and stuck together.

That was a quick answer, I am just in for a sandwich and need to get back to work. Others can chime in with more details.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Can't add to what Daren said.

As far as the finish I don't like to use poly for outdoor stuff. Depending on the application there's a wide range of better ways to protect wood than using something that doesn't allow it to release moisture readily. You aren't going to seal moisture out no matter what you do, so why slow its release down so much that it wrecks the piece. And yes you should should do to one side what you do to the other generally. Otherwise one side will release moisture much faster which means uneven wood movement which means which means checking/twisting/cupping/bowing etc. 

Wood moves. Minimizing it is about all you can do, and usually that's good enough as long as the proper species is chosen for the proper application, and the proper joinery is used and the proper finish is chosen and applied properly. Simple eh? 





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## Chippin-in (Feb 4, 2010)

OK, thanks. 

I think I will probably make the table top solid (cedar) at least 1" and the legs and supports 1 1/2", a trestle-type.

One more question. You know when cedar is fresh cut with that red and purple color. When you finish it with, for instance, spar marine varnish, will it keep that color or will it still turn brown in the sun?

Thanks, 
Robert


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Chippin-in said:


> . . . . will it still turn brown in the sun?


Most definitely. If you can find a way to preserve the natural color of wood (and still be able to see it) especially when exposed to sunlight you'll get rich enough to buy your own small country. 

Many R&D dept's of multi-million and billion dollar corporations have spent untold hours and bucks to find a way to do that and none have ever even come close. 





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