finishing timber

[tassie_paul]

Hi all,

I'm as green as the blackwood timber that has made it's way into my back yard and have little idea what to do with it. I ended up with a heap of blackwood that has been sawn into boards by a small miller yet he's done a less than average job at getting the board height correct (a single board could be 25mm at both ends, yet 30mm in the centre). As a result trying to rack the boards has been impossible. I've been told that the timber will shrink and swell so there is not much I can do. I'm preferring to go with the option of buying a cheap thicknesser (ryobi/gmc) and thicknessing them myself, yet I've been told that I'll need tungsten tips in the thicknesser to do a decent job. I don't intend to buzz them at this stage as I just want them to rack straight. So should I try and do myself as I will probably end up with a lot more timber, take it to a timber yard to get rethicknessed, or just leave as is. I'd like to do it myself as I have greater ambitions (which far outway my skills).

[rsser]

Hi TP,
Not done this myself but have seen my woodturning teacher dry slabs. He sealed the ends including up the slab by a couple of inches, stacked them with air gaps and draped black plastic sheets over the lot. (btw I've seen others drape canvas over them, to allow a bit of breathing; I'd only do this a few months in subject to the following).
As you prob know, allow a year an inch plus a year for it all to dry.
It's also worth checking every few weeks to see how it's going. If it's highly figured, you're likely to get checking so slop on some grain sealer over and around the checks.
[Edit: so hold off on thicknessing until it's dry. All this assumes you don't want to work it green.]
Hope this helps

[echnidna]

It should go through the thicknesser ok, maybe you'll need to resharpen after a while. The other way would be run them through a tablesaw to get a more uniform thickness.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Like Ern, I don't see much point in thicknessing until they're dry. They'll need to be run through before use anyway, so why make work for yourself?

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the unequal thickness along their lengths for now; I'd stack 'em using stickers (spacers) of appropriate sizes to keep the boards straight, instead of using stickers all the same thickness.

If you're concerned with the different rates of shrinkage "upsetting" the stack, then just restack (and adjust the stickers) every few months. Top boards to the bottom and vice-versa. IMHO this should be done anyway, to ensure even airflow and give you a chance to inspect for checking, mould, etc.

[tashammer]

just make sure the stickers line up 1 under the other. when it comes time to plane and thickness, it is important to wear breathing protection as blackwood dust can be very toxic for some folks. One time i was keeping a slab in the living room to dry and season (as one does, naturally). It was 6' x 4' x '5" tapering to 3". Nice figure too. Still had the sapwood on it and even some lichen. i quite liked it like that. Anyway, i was just sitting there wondering what was making a noise i could hear and this large beetle dug its way out of the sapwood and crawled up the side and on to the top of the slab. I called for the wife and we looked at the beetle for a while and the hole it had made. Exciting life in the bush. It was one of those moments where you have to say, "I'll be buggered" and it happens to me every time i think of that event or tell someone about it. "I'll be buggered!" Dunno what happened to the beetle as we put it outside. Don't ask me what it looked like because it was a few years ago, looked a bit like the lynctus (?) beetle though, but i thought those liked gums.