Thread: How do I dry and preserve Maple

Firstly if you use them straight away, splits will be the least of your problems, the timber will shrink and distort the daylights out of your workbench.

The rule of thumb for air drying timber is 1" of thickness for 1 year:O:

Best thing is to SSS (sticker, stack and strap) it, take a look on here for pics of what that means. Leave it in your workshop or wherever you are going to use it, minimum allow 6 months and even then keep your fingers crossed. If you are going to dress it then do 90% of your dressing now, then SSS and do the last bit of dressing (just skimming passes after the 6 months.

Originally Posted by EHilgreen

Hey Mates. 1st I'm a super novice after reading some of you wood millers who cut your own wood and build houses. I'm building a workbench. I have access to Maple and Oak trees. Instead of burning in my fireplace I want to build a solid workbench. I have used chain saws and my table saw to get pieces ruffly 3inch square by 5 feet long. How long should I dry these pieces. What should I put on them to prevent cracking. If I can uses them right away, then what should I do to prevent cracking. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I air dry my timber oudoors with a cover over the top to keep rain off but allow air to flow through. Timbers are seperated by using stickers(stickers are pieces of wood that sit on each layer for the next layer of timber to sit on) they are spaced evenly apart.Rule of thumb here is 1" of timber thickness will take 12 months of drying. Given that, if your timber is 3" thick, it could take 3 years to dry(season) That may not be practicle for you, alternative is to access a kiln. A drying kiln will be available for use, you just need to find one that rents out space in thier kiln. It is not very expensive and does not take very long, not sure exactly how long for thicker timber.

not sure how severe you're winters are but our winter does not allow timber to dry outside, too much moisture in the air, only drys in summer

Allan

Were you going to include pictures or a link for EHiLgreen to look at, or were you just referring to the Forums as a whole for examples of SSS?

yeah thought he'd like the challenge of finding pics on here - there'd be heaps of examples

Unless there is specifc call for it???

EHil - There are two schools of thought as to whether or not to end-seal timber that is stickered out to dry. Assuming that you are referring to QLD Maple - a timber that this Yank has little experience with - the other millers here on the forum may be able to give you 1st-hand experience.

In general, if one does not end-seal green stickered timber, one tends to get a greater amount of checking (cracks on the ends of the board that runs along the grain). If you want to minimize this you can use 'log grease' (PM ubeaut to source some) or you can go the backyard route like we do a lot of the time and heat some paraffin or beeswax in an old frying pan about 5mm depth is enough and dip the ends of your 3x3s in it - then re-rack it and wait 1" per year.

Cheers,
Riggsy