Hi Guys and Gals
A tree trimmer friend of mine gave me some slabs of wood. Most of them are 2 to 3 inches thick by about 24 to 36 inches long and from 12 to 24 inches wide. Some are very green, freshly cut, and some have been cut from logs that have been laying in his yard for a long while. All of it is pritty stuff and some has some interesting grain patterns, Oak , Cypress, Pecan, Aromatic Cedar. He knows that I make little boxes and would like me to make him one out of the cedar. The cedar came from a log that has been in his yard for a while. Question, how should I treat this wood? I know to paint the edges and sticker it but should I cut it up into usable rough withs alow for shrinkage and sticker it. Any suggestions?
Thanks ZABO
Replies
I had some slabs from an ash I took down two years ago. Most of them were about 2 1/2 inches thick, 6 inches wide. I painted the ends, stickered them and stored them inside.
Do yo typically use 3/4" thick stock? Then you may want to resaw your pieces to 1 inch then sticker. I suggest buying a moisture meter to know when it's dry.
Good luck. I had a lot of fun using my "own" wood. So fsr I made a child-size shaker rocker and half way finished on an adult size version.
Where are you located?
Bill
Excelsior, MN
If you have access to a moisture meter, check it because cedar is relatively dry even when green. If you don't have a meter. get a small piece, weigh it, place it in the oven for a few hours at a low setting (200 degrees) then reweigh it. If there is little change in weight its probably dry enough to work. Resaw the boards to rough thickness, sticker and place weights on top to let the wood destress from cutting. Best of luck. Using found wood is a lot of fun. For the top of the box, try book-matching a piece containing sapwood and center the white stripe. Best of luck.
Thanks for the replies. Here in South Louisiana it stays quite humid and I don't have acess to a moisture meter and the cheapist one I can fine is about fifty bucks pluse freight. So for a one time thing it's not very practicle. I have painted the ends already so I think I'll let them set for a while and then cut it up into smaller pieces. I generaly work with 3/4 and 1/2" stock.
ZABO
PS I find it very hard to use this new system. Very hard to navigate. Can't reply to ALL, no spell check, not many visitors AND no one seems to be dooing anything about the problems!!!!!
A "general rule of thumb" for
A "general rule of thumb" for air drying is to seal the ends, sticker and stack, outdoors but under cover, one year for each inch of thickness, then bring into conditioned space (heated and air conditioned) and allow to further dry for at least six months, and finally to check with a moisture meter to determine when it is dry enough to work.
The oven technique is a great suggestion and will substitute for a moisture meter if you have an accurate scale. Keep checking the weight of the test piece every couple hours until it no longer is losing weight in the oven. If the weight at the start of oven drying is more than 8-9% if the final oven-dry weight you might consider letting the wood continue drying.
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