Wet Wood

[Rich M.]

Restoring an outside garden bench. Finding an outside wood in my area is hard to find, unless you want to pay through the nose. Anyway, I found a saw mill that had fresh cut white oak lumber for an amazing price.

So I pick up two 1x3x16. The owner even cut both boards in 4ft section.

My plan is to cut the boards into slats and stack them with spacers between the boards ( for ventilation) and use clamps to keep pressure on the boards - four boards per stack. My hope is the spacers will help the drying time and using clamps will prevent the boards from bowing. Well, that is my hope.Does this sound reasonable?

Anyone know what the drying time might be (1”x 2.5” x 48”)?

 

[mike93lx]

It will give you the best chance of a decent outcome. Even drying will help a lot.

For larger pieces, the general rule is 1 year per inch when air drying. I would expect faster for such small pieces

 

[nadogail]

Are you able to dry your stacks under a roof?

 

[The Cobbler]

seal the end grains with some r paraffin wax to reduce end splitting

 

[Skiff Builder]

Rich,
By the time you get down to 12-15% or so moisture, your only talking about 1/16 to 3/32 shrinkage across the width of 2.5". If the bench will have gapped slats, you don't have too much to worry about I'd think.

 

[Firebrick43]

seal the ends as well if you want to keep splitting/checking down

 

[speedracerfx]

That's how we dry our wood, minus the clamps.

 

[Rich M.]

Are you able to dry your stacks under a roof?

The wood is in my garage that is part of the house, but not heated.

 

[Rich M.]

Rich,
By the time you get down to 12-15% or so moisture, your only talking about 1/16 to 3/32 shrinkage across the width of 2.5". If the bench will have gapped slats, you don't have too much to worry about I'd think.

The bench will have gapped slats. My concern was more with any bowing. I did read as much as I could about white oak wood and when it came to shrinkage, the research material said exactly what you said about any shrinkage happening on the board’s width. Not dealing with fresh cut wood before has certainly been a learning event for me.

 

[Showkey]

Clamping will have little effect on the twisting or stopping wood movement.
We had 2” maple laminated top benches ( factory made) with 1/2” steel rods ……the washers pulled through the wood because the tops were not dry enough.

Typical: Air drying is one year per inch but is dependent on the environment……. indoors with climate control can cut the time in half. Building with wet ( less than dry) wood can be very challenging. Building plastic tarp tent with a dehumidifier is just one of dozens of DIY home drying Techniques.

I buy “wet“ white oak for steam bending canoe stays.