I have a stock of 8/4 VG fir that I’m about to start a project with and am wondering about some checking problems. I have milled down 14 peices of varrying widths/lengths and brought four of the peices into my house to edge glue them up for a wider rail. Out of these four peices three of them checked on one end. The remainder of my stock that stayed in my shop has no checking. My shop is connected to my house, but is not heated.
I’m concerned now that I will see more cheking once I cut them to final length. Is there anything I can/should do?
John.
Replies
sounds like its is not dry enough for you environment.
The air in the house is probably quite a bit drier than the air in your shop. When you brought the wood into the house it quickly lost moisture from the exposed end grain causing shrinkage that started the end checks. Any time the wood comes into the house you should cover the ends of the boards with masking tape, this will stop the sudden loss of moisture.
John W.
Hi John ,
Is your stock air dried or kiln dried ?
My first inclination is to think the wood simply is not stable , and has too high of a moisture content .
If it is not properly dried , imo you may not want to use it yet . More checking can occur as well as other undesirable movement .
good luck dusty
VG Fir is some of the best wood I have ever worked with. You should not have any problems with it. Itis not at all uncommon for suppliers to not dry softwoods very well though.
Thanks for the help. I'm contimplating buying a moisture meter to find out where this wood is at. I guess that probabliy is what I should have done in the first place.
As far as how it was dried, I'm not sure.
Thanks, John.
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