From Trees to Turning Blanks

All questions come from real people looking for real answers. Want to learn how to air-dry furniture wood properly so you avoid the misery of warping, twisting and ruined woodworking projects?

It all comes down to moisture. Assembled parts warp, glue joints crack, and a drying green wood for turning workshop sense of panic takes hold. An understanding of the wily ways of wet wood can keep you one step ahead of trouble while letting you enjoy success using all kinds of inexpensive and interesting lumber that might otherwise cause you grief.

Not once, but twice. The first thing to understand is that wood is a moisture sponge. It slowly loses or absorbs moisture from its surroundings. When a piece of wood is in balance with the moisture of the air around it, the wood is said to have reached equilibrium moisture content EMC. Wood stored in a damp place gets wetter and bigger.

Dry air makes wood drier and smaller. The trick is ensuring that your wood has a moisture content and size in balance with the driest interior environment your completed woodworking project, trim or flooring is likely to face.

And getting there depends on where you start. If you drive a nail into it, water will appear. A shady outdoor spot is good, and so is an airy shed or hayloft. Drying green wood for turning workshop be careful. This requires a second drying phase, and skipping this step is where most moisture-related trouble starts.

For this you need a little heat, air and time. How much depends on the thickness of the wood, how wet it is, and the temperature and humidity of your heated space. Click above to watch this popular video.

Fall and winter is a great time to dry wood because homes and heated workshops everywhere become ideal phase 2 drying spaces. Begin by allowing at least a couple of days drying time after each major cutting and planing step as you build projects. Freshly exposed wood surfaces need the most drying, and you want this to happen before critical joinery stages. Also, to make the most of this rough-cut drying time, be sure to stack project parts with all sides exposed between work sessions.

This could mean drying green wood for turning workshop them up, or stacking with spacer strips between each layer. Whatever it takes to get air around each piece is what you want. To further speed phase 2 drying, point an electric household fan on your wood between work sessions.

The added air circulation makes wood dry at least twice as fast. You want to joint, trim and plane each part only after the wood has fully stabilized.

So how do you know when this has happened? Drying green wood for turning workshop models work on the same principle. You can see me using my old, trusty moisture meter in the video above. Click the box to watch. The tool induces a small electric drying green wood for turning workshop through the wood and measures electrical resistance. The lower the resistance, the higher the moisture content.

Percentage figures are shown with an analog needle or digital readout. Be sure to measure freshly cut surfaces to get an accurate reading of internal moisture content. Surfaces of boards that have been exposed to the air for a while could be substantially drier than wood deep within the board.

Want to get the most out of your jointer? Check out this video on how I change and adjust jointer knives so they cut perfectly, without the need for special tools of any kind. Drying green wood for turning workshop you need is a small chunk of wood. A: How wet is the birch? Yes, I think your wood will be ready for jointing and planing and further drying after a couple months.

It might even be sooner, depending on the moisture content of the wood and the humidity and air circulation in your workshop. Record the date and width measurements in pencil on the board, one measurement under the other with dates. When the width becomes more or less stable, you can move on to jointing and planing. Video Feature. Share 9. Pin

How to Dry Wood. Time. Drying too fast will cause wood to crack. Green wood must be air dried before using a kiln or oven, a rapid change in moisture content causes cracking and unusable wood. Speed. To speed up the drying process, rough cut your blank slightly oversize and place it on a drying rack to allow airflow on all sides. Seal. METHODS OF WOOD DRYING By Daniel Yourdon Over the past year I have been gathering information on various methods of wood drying. This article is an attempt to consolidate that information. Specifically it will cover three methods: Boiling, Freezing, and Microwaving. BOILING Drying time reduced an average of 50% over air-drying. Start off by air drying your wood for a few months to shed the first bit of water naturally, maybe a loss of eight to ten percent. Stack the wood up with plenty of spacers, or stickers, to allow for good airflow, and I like to put a piece of plastic on the ground under the wood to keep the humidity from the ground from effecting the lumber.

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