Thread: Jointing/dressing 'damp' wood

Hi everyone.

Just after some thoughts about my planned work this weekend.

I am building a bookshelf that will be 'flatpacked' and assembled with a series of wedges (its going in an apartment)

This design will require me to dress all the stock, then gradually dock pieces to length and glueup individually. It may be a month between dressing the stock and the final glueup. There will be a number of 1200 mm joins, and the long end boards will be around 2400 mm. So any movment after I DAR will be very very annoying.

Here is my problem. I am using 50+ year old 150x50 random recycled eucalyptus hardwood, so no problem with it being seasoned.

However, it is currently stored outside under moderate cover in the blue mountains, where we are having heaps of rain and 100% humidity for the next few days.

There will be some boards that have at the very least been dripped o for a week or so. And no doubt all of them have sat in the mist and fog, sucking up moisture.

Ideally i would've brought them inside to acclimate, however time to do so is not on my side.....

If i dress them in their damp condition, am i asking for trouble in a month when they have dried out and may no longer be straight and true, or am i being over dramatic?

Thanks for the advice