Does anybody have any experiance in air drying wood in the tropics.
Where I live, New Caledonia, we typically have temperatures of around 85/90 during the day in the summer and about 70/75 during the winter. Humidity of about 60/70% summer ,a bit less in the winter. What moisture content should I have for house building (1st project) and interior furniture (2nd project), and how long should I expect to wait, minimum 1″ and max 2″ thick. I have a friend with a portable mill so am getting wood directly from the log, some softwood some hardwood.
2nd question. Has anybody ever worked with coconut wood. Plenty available here. But any advice I am able to get is very vague. I understand it has a high silica content, so can be hard on blades.
I await with eager antisipation any comment.
Replies
Here is a link to a site where sawing and drying is their primary business, and these list links to similar forum thread that have a lot of information.
You may want to get one of Dr Wengerts books on drying.
Are the houses temperature controlled there, or are the doors and windows open most of the time? The EMC for finished wood will be higher there if that is the case.
http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBPPAirDryingLumber.html
If you want to ask your question there, go to the home page, and down to sawing and drying.
Most palm wood that I have seen is long bundles of tough strands with a weaker bond between strands. My experience has been limited to only turning some root-ball, so I am no expert on it.
Caldoche,
The endpoint for any drying process is to get the wood into equilibrium moisture content with the environment in which it will be used. I lived in Hawaii for 15 years where the climate was close to what you are describing for New Caledonia. We were probably slightly less humid, although it probably was the trades which made it feel a little less humid.
I worked with wood at about 9-10 MC in that environemnt. The tropical hardwoods I used (koa, various rosewoods, and domestic maple) required several years per inch thickness to air dry. It wasn't a particular MC that was sought (although that was measured from time to time, rather a constant weight of selected sample boards over time.
Rich
Hello Rich 14.
Thanks for your reply.
Several years per 1" thickness to reach equilibrium!!! Mon Deau
Looks like I will have to look at some sort of solar kiln.
Someone gave me the site Woodweb to look at. Lots of usefull info.
Thanks again to all that replied.
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