Hardwoods

[jwidener]

How long should I leave hard woods sitting in my garage before working them? Or does it matter? As soon as I bring a finished project inside the warm house I always have problems. The garage stays cold during the winter so I cannot control that. Any ideas or info would be great. I do remember one clip where TWW talked about a moisture tester, maybe I need to invest?

[Roger T]

How long should I leave hard woods sitting in my garage before working them? Or does it matter? As soon as I bring a finished project inside the warm house I always have problems. The garage stays cold during the winter so I cannot control that. Any ideas or info would be great. I do remember one clip where TWW talked about a moisture tester, maybe I need to invest?

Morning,

There is part of the problem. Your storing and working on your material in a non-climate-controlled area. When you bring the finished pieces into the house, the constant steady heat changes what you have labored so long and hard doing. One way to allieviate this is to store your project wood in the house where it can acclimate well, then just take it to the shop and work on it, then return it to the house. Probably not going to happen if your wife is anything like mine.

A moisture meter will likely help. When you purchase wood, most likely it is anywhere from 6% to 12 or 14% moisture. Your wood, once acclimated to your shop could be anywhere in that range, or possibly higher as it equalizes. Good design is the key more than anything. Plan your work to allow for wood movement. When you bring your finished piece into the house the furnace is going to dry it out and cause some shrinking. And in the summer it will swell.

As for how long to leave it sit, could be a week or 2 for thin stock, or longer. Once you get your meter, you can check some old stock you have laying around for awhile, that will give you a base for what your acclimated stock should be. If your new stock dont measure up to the old, then you will have to wait it out.

Hope I havnt confused you.

Roger

[jHop]

Do you have a place in your shop you can store some of your woods? Not all of them, but the stuff you plan on using within the next month or two?

(I'm not saying it takes a month to acclimate. it takes me a month or two to get more wood for my projects when I discover I'm short of stock.)

[jwidener]

Morning,

There is part of the problem. Your storing and working on your material in a non-climate-controlled area. When you bring the finished pieces into the house, the constant steady heat changes what you have labored so long and hard doing. One way to allieviate this is to store your project wood in the house where it can acclimate well, then just take it to the shop and work on it, then return it to the house. Probably not going to happen if your wife is anything like mine.

A moisture meter will likely help. When you purchase wood, most likely it is anywhere from 6% to 12 or 14% moisture. Your wood, once acclimated to your shop could be anywhere in that range, or possibly higher as it equalizes. Good design is the key more than anything. Plan your work to allow for wood movement. When you bring your finished piece into the house the furnace is going to dry it out and cause some shrinking. And in the summer it will swell.

As for how long to leave it sit, could be a week or 2 for thin stock, or longer. Once you get your meter, you can check some old stock you have laying around for awhile, that will give you a base for what your acclimated stock should be. If your new stock dont measure up to the old, then you will have to wait it out.

Hope I havnt confused you.

Roger

Thanks for the input. In my garage it goes from 35 degrees to 70 degrees from day to day it seems. I can't afford a conditioned garage yet which would probably help alot. It is on the wish list though.