Replies

1. 
   BobSmalser | Sep 21, 2007 11:09pm | #1

   I mill DF and Western Red Cedar every day I'm not playing forester, build boats with it, and write the occasional technical article.

   http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=smalser&file=articles_737.shtml

   Here's one on marine glues.  You'll see after over 12 months of fresh-water soaking, raw Western Red cedar refuses to rise above 24% EMC.  Doug Fir behaves identically.  We use moored DF-framed work boats to recover submerged logs, only pumping the rainwater out of them when we use them.  The painted lower DF framing stock submerged almost 9 months out of the year rarely rises above 19% EMC.

   So even with a dry SG of .48 to WRC's .32 (denser woods generally have higher EMC's), I seriously doubt if you paint those boards they will saturate much above 25% EMC.  It's only 30% EMC in the heartwood of most logs. 

   Be sure to use only heartwood for your project.  I'm not sure the type of paint matters, but I do know that painting makes a difference.  In solid-wood boats I prefer inexpensive oil-based alkyd floor enamels like Kelley Moore Tredcoat Industrial Floor enamel.

    

    

   
   

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   Edited 9/21/2007 4:15 pm by BobSmalser

2. 
   Kaya | Sep 22, 2007 12:08am | #2

   My little black book (Glover's Pocket Ref) tells me that Douglas Fir has a specific gravity of 0.53 and weighs 33 pounds per cubic foot, but it doesn't say whether that's wet or dry.

   Hope that helps a little bit...