when is wood dry

Not precise, but you could look at the average density in the fpl site, weigh, and compute based on what you have, and get a good feeling for it. Hint - it's easier to compute this if you cut a 1" cube!

If you weigh your 1" cube and then dry it to ignition in the micro you'll get a good percentage. This has a tendency to irritate SWMBO, so you might want to stop the micro a bit short of where the data in stage one predicts oven dry should be.

It depends how long they have been stored for. If they were stored for a couple of years in dry conditions chances are that they are dry. If not then the weight loss is a good way to check for dryness.

Isn't "dry" a relative term? I'd consider "dry" to be when the wood reaches a dryness level that matches or is close to the surrounding conditions where it is going to be used. That could furniture general construction or some other creation.

Ayup.

So when you check the % on your stored stuff, do a similar cube on your best shop stuff. Within a point or two - good!

If not, the questionable into the same environment in which it will be used, retest in two weeks.

That's the beauty of it ... you don't care what the starting weight is. Simply weigh it. Then give it a span of time (a few weeks or a few months) and weigh it again. If the weight is less, the log is still losing moisture and should be allowed to continue drying. If it remained the same, it has reached equilibrium dryness (is as dry as its surroundings).

I say, to heck with it. Rough turn it now and boil it at the rate of 1hr of boiling time per 1" of edge thickness then wrap it in a paper bag or an old sheet for a couple weeks. Works for me. I've had one split piece out of 15 and I suspect that I simply didn't boil it long enough because all the others turned out really nice. YMMV.

Bill

You don't have to wait until it is dry. Turning green wood has its merits. Recently, I turned some white oak into knobs from a tree I cut down last year in spring. The next day the turnings all split. I tried again, but this time I put the turnings into a plastic bag with sawdust with no cracking problems. I painted the ends of the logs, but still the logs split so I cut around the splits. I guess some kinds of wood are more subject to splitting more than others and it depends how the wood is dried.

Cut and turn it green and use that most beneficent of potions: LDD!

Case in point, a piece of cherry firewood that had been in Dad's outdoor but sheltered shed for 15-20 years. Should have been dry. The thing I made out of it cracked immediately, and then the cracks opened waaaaay up to maybe as much as 3/4" over the course of the next several days. Sigh.

This cracking business is definitely the crappy side of turning. Out of everything I've turned in a year or so, I've only had two pieces survive without some sort of warping or cracking or both (not counting stuff I turned out of KD stock). It's extremely discouraging. I've tried everything short of shaking a naked chicken at the wood. I have more or less given up in favor of more rewarding pursuits.

Can't turn anything of interest on a mini lathe anyway. Bah humbug. Great way to make shavings for fun, but a lousy way to turn out useful results.

"Upscale" wrote

To establish this state in pieces of moderate size, suspend a sample by a suitable spring and mark the level of, say, one end. When this ceases to change, the moisture content has reached equilibrium with the surroundings.

Jeff G

I guess some

Yep, and those with prominent ray figure top the list. They sure split nicely as firewood, however.

Forest Products Lab has information on checking tendencies in their wood drying publications.

You can't avoid distortion, but you pretty much have to go out of your way to have turnings crack on you if you follow a few general rules. Orientation of annual rings, thickness of material and shape of turnings all play a significant role, though species tops the list.

but the upside of owning a lathe is that you have much cooler looking firewood than your neighbors and a lot of kindling.. *g*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I have turned many interesting things on my mini lathe. I dried my own wood. I bought dry wood, and I turend green wood. It is all fun.

As I said in a much earlier post I even turn wood that is already cracked with good results.

I bill myself to my turning friends as "The Crack Master".

You can buy some farily cheap wood on ebay to practice with. It takes a lot of practice, and some tutoring by an experienced turner.

I gave up for amlost 6 months and I am back at it again. I would be turning something now but I am waiting for the sanding sealer to dry.

Good Luck, Ricky

Is it a good test? I guess it worked for him, so for him it may be a good test. For me, hah! Look, if you have a pile of the stuff and it is all similar woods, turn and finish a piece and let it sit for a week or two. If it is stable, great, go turn some more. If it warps or cracks, treat it like green wood, since it is. Personally, even for wood that seems dry, I like to rough turn, seal with anchorseal, and let warp or whatever before finishing. As it is now, if I want to turn a bowl I grab one from the pile of rpugh turned blanks that are anywhere from 3 months to 3 years old, and finish it. After a while you get a pile ahead.

"Kiss" it. Your lips are sensitive to small differences in temperature, as everyone who's ever put their lips on a kid's forehead knows. If the piece is still losing moisture, there should be some evaporative cooling detectable.

Piles? I thought all I had to worry about was breathing the stuff!

;-)

Bill

I have no problem hugging trees but you gotta draw the line somewhere.

Ken Grunke