End sealer - drying timber - quick survey

**John.G** · 26th December 2013, 10:05 AM

Some thoughts on this.

We used to use the Mobil product. Mobil will only supply to me now if I take a pallet at a time, so we shifted to Caltex. There's no practical difference between the two.

The best before date doesn't really matter if it's in an unopened sealed drum, and mine arrives out of date from my dealer often enough. The stuff goes lumpy once it's opened though, and goes lumpy faster as the drum gets emptier. It dries in contact with air. Emptier drums have more air inside. Unopened drums have no air in them so they're fine.

It can be thinned out once the drum gets to about half empty. Add 10% water to thin if required.

If you wanted to you could open your drum, then decant it into smaller containers that seal well. I've done that before, and if its in say a large coffee tin it will keep like this just fine until you open that particular tin. At least for several years anyway... longer then that I couldn't say.

Best results are achieved (from some industry study I read somewhere sometime) when applied within 4 hours of felling. Makes sense if you understand the mechanics of how cracking occurs and water loss - checks and cracks occur when there is a steep gradient between high and low moisture levels in timber, it's just that you can't see them until the moisture level drops and they open right out. We now apply end seal immediately after felling: I can see a visible difference in some of the dryland eucalypt species between logs sealed immediately after felling and those painted on the ramp an hour or so later. The "danger period" for developing checks or cracks is at high moisture levels, not low ones. Once splits start it's too late.

Once applied, if applied correctly, it's good for a considerable period. I've got logs down the back of the yard that have lain there for years before starting to end check.
Conversely if end checks and splits are already present its a waste of time and money to apply sealer. You can't get it into the bottom of the cracks at the below the visible size to stop it from continuing to loose moisture from the end faster then it can draw from the middle of the log and the spplit will just keep walking.

Any end sealer product - commercial end sealer/wax/paint -if applied early enough, will do the job. The secret in all this is to apply it as a preventative. It's not a remedial treatment.

**pjt** · 26th December 2013, 10:19 PM

I had a look at my tin today, Caltex, date of manufacture 03/2001, is about half full and seems to be OK

Pete

**MAPLEMAN** · 26th December 2013, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by pjt

I had a look at my tin today, Caltex, date of manufacture 03/2001, is about half full and seems to be OK

Pete

It'll be fine Pete...if it ever goes a bit 'lumpy',put in a tad of water and stir like crazy

...MM

**Toymaker Len** · 27th December 2013, 03:14 PM

Yea the caltex stuff works much better than old paint or whatever. I used to leave a small paint roller in the drum for application and when I finished using it I'd rest a sheet of plastic on the surface which stops it drying out. Lasted for years at a time. Never went off.
It is a wax emulsion with water so as it dries it forms a wax skin that still lets the log dry out but not too quickly.

**TTIT** · 27th December 2013, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by Evanism

............I have two gigantic oak logs that are next up for the treatment....and I don't want to blow it, so does anyone know where I can buy some commercial log end sealer?.............

Your Oak logs are going to split no matter what you seal them with unless you mill it down to 2" thick (or less!) boards or slabs. Check out the Oak beams in any old english building and they will have splits all the way - to even get a stable 4x4 out of it you will need to laminate a couple of sticks! Our own Buloke is the same - I foolishly tried to keep some 3" and 4" slabs out of some I milled a couple of months ago and ended up with near zilch for my eagerness

**tassietimbers** · 28th December 2013, 10:16 PM

Hi all.

I have been using Caltex timber sealer to end seal milled boards and slabs for nearly 15 years with great results. I seal the end and about 10cm on all four faces of the board, and find I am only docking a few cm off the end before being in clean timber when dry. This may not sound much, but if I save 10-15cm extra out of each board, it adds up over 1000's of boards. I also seal any defect such as bark inclusions, cracks and also paste on a little thinned down stuff in the centre of some red gum slabs where I think there is potential backsawn face checking.

As for sealing the raw logs, I simply use water based paint, preferably exterior but not fussy. Every year I call past the local painter with a few beverages and before I can blink the trailer is loaded with tins of paint left over from a years work. All colours and brands, I just box all the nearly empty cans into one and stir it up. I might do a few coats, but if the log really wants to split, nothing will stop it. Keep your logs in the shade if you can.

Cheers

James

Thread: End sealer - drying timber - quick survey

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Many year of good results...

Similar Threads

Timber sealer

Green Timber Sealer

CSIRO - Australian Timber - Luthier Survey

need fast drying compatable sealer

Timber Sealer

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions