Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Mar 25, 2008 06:54pm | #1

   The boards were probably stored, until recently, in a damper environment than your shop.

   Now that the boards are in your shop, they are rapidly losing moisture and shrinking. The end grain, because it is composed of open ended tubes, is losing moisture far faster than the rest of the board, so the ends are shrinking faster than the central 90% of the boards and the ends are cracking from the strain. What you need to do is stop the excessive loss of moisture from the ends of the wood.

   Right away I would suggest that you take a wet rag and wet the end of each board to get some moisture back into the wood and thus stop and even reverse the shrinkage and cracking. Then take some duct tape and cover the end grain on each board. You could also apply a coat or two of latex house paint, or a special liquid wax made for the job, but tape is the fastest and least sloppy way to get the job done in a hurry in the shop.

   Do this right away, the cracks often spread further into the stock than the open gaps you can see and in some woods they can become a foot long in the matter of a few days.

   Once you have the boards properly sealed, they will need to be properly stacked and stickered in your shop, probably for several weeks to a month or two, until they have lost the excess moisture.

   John White

   
   

   ---

   Edited 3/25/2008 3:56 pm ET by JohnWW