Cracking in seasoned timber?

[gnu52]

h














Hello,
The gnu needs a guru who knows timber.:D
In the for sale section there is a quantity of red cedar available on the NSW north coast. The question is will these seasoned 60 & 90 mm slabs split if I were to bring some out here?
I love the stuff, but often see old furniture & even removal houses that warp & split when moved out from east of the range. A friend moved a century old house from bayside Brisbane to here & within 2 years it had become a PITA.
Thoughts, comments anyone?
Regards, Bill.












h

[AlexS]

No guarantees, but Aussie cedar seems to be pretty stable in my experience. Best to make sure the ends are sealed, even if it is well seasoned, aand keep it out of the sun & rain.

[ian]

I think the answer is YES

However, if you're going to build something with the cedar and not just use it in slab form, then it shouldn't matter

when you get the slabs, cut them to the approximate dimension (width and thickness) you require and let the smaller pieces acclimatise indoors. This should mininise any problems, especially if the finished piece will be in an air conditioned or "swamp" cooled house


ian

[Ianab]

You should be OK, as long as you are patient.
The problem is that the wood will dry out some more and shrink unevenly in the new climate. This shouldn't be a problem with rough boards / seasoned slabs, they will dry a little more / shrink a little more but hopefully nothing catastropic happens.

But if you move furniture (or a whole house) then the shrinkage can cause grief as joints come loose, incorrectly build stuff splits or warps.

Get the slabs and stack them up on fillets in their new environment for a few months. Let them get any shrinking or warping out of the way, THEN build whatever you are planning. You may see existing checks around knots etc open a little more, not much you can do about that :rolleyes: . End sealing probably wont make much difference if the timber is properly seasoned already, you are just acclimitising it to it's new home, not drying all the from green.

Cheers

Ian

[Sigidi]

Gnu,

just as Ian Said, he's got a bit of experience on the tibmer side of things. especially when it comes to what happens to timber after we cut it up.

Hope it helps