Thread: Drying dilemas

Some timbers just want to crack. Slabs cut near the pith (~middle) will always crack, that is why those slabs are cut again, to remove pith. What is extremely important is keeping them out of the sun, especially with hardwoods like ironbark

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Some timbers just want to crack. Slabs cut near the pith (~middle) will always crack, that is why those slabs are cut again, to remove pith. What is extremely important is keeping them out of the sun, especially with hardwoods like ironbark

Yep when they were milled the centre slab was cut in two for that reason. The end that's showing more cracking is the only side that could have received sun. Unfortunately I've been overseas for a few weeks so maybe sun gets in first thing in the morning, it's definitely not being cooked.

Will those cracks continue to grow now that they've started? Is there anything I can do besides keen the sun off them?

Originally Posted by JackAttack

Will those cracks continue to grow now that they've started? Is there anything I can do besides keen the sun off them?

It may be stresses or sunlight/heat (been pretty hot here lately, 27 yesterday). Hard to say, keep sun off them and keep checking.

See what others say

Originally Posted by dai sensei

It may be stresses or sunlight/heat (been pretty hot here lately, 27 yesterday). Hard to say, keep sun off them and keep checking.

See what others say

Cheers mate

Yeah, flatsawn Eucalypt will do that.

From my very limited experience, it looks like you've done what you can. If you really wanted to halt the checking, you could put some kind of nail-in plates across the checked spots in the end grain. Like the kind of thing building trusses are connected with at their vertices. I've bought a slab like this before, pulled it out, and replaced it with a bowtie key and it worked great. But that was for a natural edged piece, and those things look ok in that kind of work. Not so much in Shaker or Arts and Crafts style... Also, if you do something semi-drastic like that, you're stopping the wood from doing what it wants to do, so you run the risk of waiting until it's at a workable moisture content, pulling the plates out, cutting your joinery, and then the whole thing pulling itself apart after far more hard work than you've already put into it.

So whether you go that route or not depends on what you want to use it for I suppose. If it's for bowl blanks or peppermills, go for it.

At the end of the day, yeah, you'll probably never be able to prevent all checking in a load of flatsawn lumber. What you have there now is still manageable. You'll likely lose a few inches off of the ends no matter what you do.

Best of luck,
Luke

I was always factoring losing a few inches off each end anyway so it's not a big deal. Really I was just concerned if this was out of the ordinary and that I could have done something different. The slabs are actually going to be a natural edge dining table so some bowtie joins wouldn't be bad, I love the look of them anyway.

I'd thought about nail plates but was concerned they'd restrict movement (as you said) and potentially cause more damage. Sounds like I just need to keeping checking (pun semi intended) and hope for the best.

It looks in the normal range of drying defect to me at this point. Checks and end splits start at high moisture levels, after 6 weeks what you're seeing is those initial " that fine you couldn't see them" issues opening up to the visible point. Looks to me that you've done all you can do, and if the cracks keep walking it's the result of internal tension rather then drying faults and there is nothing you can do about that. From the look of it I don't think that's likely to happen.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

It may be stresses or sunlight/heat (been pretty hot here lately, 27 yesterday). Hard to say, keep sun off them and keep checking.

See what others say

if it was hot and dry, and the boards were fresh off the saw... like cut today fresh... I'd suggest wrapping the stack in hessian sheet and wetting it down twice a day for a week or so. All drying faults begin at high MC's, and if you can slow that initial moisture loss right down then you can prevent checking.

Lukes right
Euc's and if fact most species will check to some degree if flatsawn
Quarter sawing certainly reduces surface checking in my opinion
Ironbark grain can open up dramatically whilst seasoning (dry weather)
But don't stress too much
When atmospheric moisture levels(e.m.c) rise,your timber will settle down again...MM

I have limited experience with milling and stacking. However, what I have done previously is wax/paint the ends and also about 150 mm up the boards on all sides with success.

The timber is also stacked in the shade, either under trees on in a garage. In the garage it is stickered at 20mm and covered under heavy curtains with no exposed timber, to slowly dry.

Just a suggestion...take the sticks out and restack without any sticks, with 6 weeks gone there will have been some surface drying so mould/stain might not be an issue, the idea being to slow the drying from the surface and thus the surface checking, keep a close eye on it tho, check for colour/mould, restack again with very thin sticks 1/4" for e.g. if any concerns, you will also need to stop the air getting to the top of the top slab and the btm of the btm slab, restack again with 1" thick next Autumn/Winter.

You could also wrap plastic around the whole stack, just like putting it in it's own tent, once again tho keep a close eye on it for moulds, you probably don't need to restack if you went with the plastic, as time goes by you then allow airflow by removing a little of the plastic, cut some off the btm for e.g. or roll it up a little way and down the track open up both ends in Aut/Winter.




Pete

Originally Posted by pjt

You could also wrap plastic around the whole stack, just like putting it in it's own tent, once again tho keep a close eye on it for moulds, you probably don't need to restack if you went with the plastic, as time goes by you then allow airflow by removing a little of the plastic, cut some off the btm for e.g. or roll it up a little way and down the track open up both ends in Aut/Winter.

Would never have thought of doing that but what you're saying makes sense. I would have thought the most important time of year to keep airflow would be over summer with the high humidity. Or does the added heat keep things "drier"?

Forget wrapping it
Just let it be and it will season honestly
The cracks will expand and contract until then...that's what wood does!
You have done everything right thus far
Just let time run its course now...MM

Originally Posted by MAPLEMAN

Forget wrapping it
Just let it be and it will season honestly
The cracks will expand and contract until then...that's what wood does!
You have done everything right thus far
Just let time run its course now...MM

Thanks mate, I'll just keep a close eye on it. The idea of slowing the drying sounds good to me, I'm in no rush for this stuff to be ready. I need my skill level to catch up with the ambition before I take on the construction phase!

Update:

Today I found time to take the stack apart and have a decent look at each slab. Unfortunately it's not great. There's significant surface checking on most of the slabs but only on the side that was "up" in the stack (can't really get my head around why that would be) and also some hefty cracking. The most severe cracks/splits are on those that were closer to the heart (as you can see in photos) as you'd expect so I'm not necessarily surprised just a little bummed. I'm wondering again whether I should put some nail plates in to try and stop the splitting, however I'm conscious that when I remove the nail plate it might just all fall apart. I'm aware of techniques (bowtie joints) I can use when it comes to actually making the table to stop the splits but unfortunately the timbers no where near dry yet so I can't start those yet.

I also noticed some borer damage on a few slabs, is there a spray or something I could put on the stack to prevent this?

The short of it is, I've got a few slabs that are developing cracks. One in particular that is very severe and i really don't want it to end up as splinters. Any ideas team?

Many thanks