Patty cakes Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 Does wood have to be a 10% or whatever the perfect number is for furniture. chairs mostly is on my mind. Have a template n a router for the back legs. Even if i dident use a router when u start to join everything together will it bend n twist extremely if its not on the perfect number n what can i get away with. thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 The idea moisture content is EMC it can be calculated with online calculators based off conditions in your shop. The easier way is just to have a board that's been in your shop for years of the same species and compare to that one. If it's drying or picking up moisture there is a good chance something is going to move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark J Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 If you are making furniture you definitely want your stock to be dry. In addition it should be equilibrated to your shop so most folks will have the lumber in the workshop for a couple of weeks before starting to cut to size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 I would want it less than 10%-8 or even 6 %. 10% would be considered dry, but it will still shrink some more in a heated house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wood Basher Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 I don't have a moisture meter. I bought some pine for a project 4 months ago and it was clearly not dry so I put it in storage. I have a couple of short pieces which I keep in my office, and I weigh them regularly - initially every day and now 2 or 3 times a week. Basically I am using weight as a proxy for moisture content. So far the weight of these pieces has dropped by about 11% and it is still dropping, albeit slowly. I guess now the weight change may be seasonal rather than initial drying, I don't know. I will continue to weigh them for a while to see how it goes come spring & summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 I would cut some new samples and keep them with the rest of the wood in storage, preferably under a layer or 2 of wood. The heat/air conditioning in your office will dry out the samples much faster. Pull out the new samples maybe once a week , weigh them and put them back under couple of layers in the stack. This will give you a much more accurate idea how the wood is drying. Or buy an inexpensive moisture meter. You don't need an expensive accurate one to tell if it's reached an equilibrium and isn't drying out much anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wood Basher Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 That makes sense, but I figure that there is no point in checking the wood in the main store until the wood in my office has stopped drying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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