Drying Lumber

Anyone have any experence with drying their own lumber? I like the idea of going from oak tree to woodworking project as a long term project with my son.

After Hurricane Floyd several years ago we had over 300 maple and black cherry trees down. Those that were shattered became firewood, but the good stuff was milled and air dried by us. Got 1800bf of rock maple and 1200bf of cherry out of that storm! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Oak tends to rot in my experience if handled incorrectly. I'll try to find those old Websites I used as references, but in a nutshell you'll want to coat the log ends (not just with paint -- use Anchorseal or similar products) and after milling, carefully sticker the wood to allow air circulation. There are also several references on home kilns, and at least around here it's often relatively inexpensive to have it kiln-dried professionally if you have a way to deliver it green and pick it up dry. One mistake I made was to use pine stickers on some of the maple planks. The pine was full of sugar and developed mold rather quickly; the mold stained the maple rather badly in places. Best to use stickers made of the same wood as you're drying.

I'll look for those references in the next couple of days.

Pete

Pete already mentioned coating the ends of the boards.
If you fell your own wood, be sure to get the bark off as soon as possible. At most, wood will only keep for about 9 months to a year with the bark on.
<font color="red">Best to use stickers made of the same wood as you're drying." </font color>

Or you can use 3/4" plywood stickers. I like plywood because it is stable and can be used for all types of wood.

If you need to have some logs milled, let me know. I own and operate a portable saw mill in southern Michigan. I can also have your lumber dried.

Steve Van Osdol
Hickoryoak@hotmail.com

I used bees wax to coat the end of my boards and didn't have any problem with the wood drying too fast.

I remember reading a reference in either "Backwoods Home Magazine", or "Mother Earth" about a homemade kiln using black plastic to collect solar. If I recall, it worked but was slow.

Sounds like a good project to do with a young un.

Steve

I don't have any logs currently, but may try to get some in the future. My mothers family owns some land about 3 hours away and I may go up there to get some, but they have a sawmill a mile or two down the road (my mother was born there) so I would have them cut it up and bring it down to my place to dry it. What kind of protable sawmill do you have?

Sorry for the delay in answering, but I haven't been to on the web for a while. I have a Mobile Dimension saw mill. It is fully portable on a trailer. It is a circular blade mill that has one main blade and two edger blades. The lumber comes off the mill completely edged.
Oakie