I live in Austin and the relative humidity is 87%. I purchased hickory/pecan from a reputable hardwood dealer and I have it sticked in my garage. I will start building a dining table in a couple of weeks. How much trouble am I going to have with wood movement when I bring the finished table into an air conditioned location? The current moisture content of the wood is 7-8%.
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Replies
Something to consider. Keeping a garage air conditioned in the summer in Austin is a big expense. A dehumidifier runs for a fraction of the cost and keeps the humidity level at a workable level.
Raising the temperature also brings down the humidity. Back in the day when it got muggy and had never even heard of a dehumidifier I have fond memories of running a roaring woodfire on 90 + temperature days! You could also partially process the material that your actually going to use for the project and move it to the house, assuming that you have air conditioning.
I'd take a board and hide it under a bed for a few weeks. Then measure dimensions and moisture content. Overall, going from an open garage shop to an AC'd interior, plan for a bit extra wood movement in your design.
In my opinion if your shop has an 87% rely humidity you are going to to see significant shrinkage when you move it into a climate controlled area with a relative humidity probably around 50% and I would look for another option.
I am not a believer in moisture content in wood being an absolute value. If you have stickered your wood in 87% relative humidity it is absorbing moisture and swelling and the moisture content will rise. I'm a big believer in conditioning my wood and I usually buy it at least a month in advance and sticker it in my shop until the moisture content is stable not an absolute value but I maintain a humidity level in my shop of 50% ±5%. In your case you may have been better served starting your project immediately and minimize the time the wood spent in the shop absorbing moisture. The other option is to store everything as much as possible in the AC but I'm sure that would be some interesting negotiations with other family members.
If you must work under these conditions make all your joints as tight as possible because they will loosen up. Plan your construction and joints with that in mind.
KD wood does not need to be stickered, if you have over a month of waiting time you could take it inside but if at 7 8 % it wont take much moisture in the garage.
Thank you for all of the great replies. I decided to move the wood indoors for a few weeks. I will keep it indoors in between milling, creating the joints and assembly. It may be overkill. This is my first major piece, a dining table, and I don't want the table top to warp at all. I will experiment with leaving the wood in the garage on a smaller project.
Wood will move. If you make table with long cathedral boards, say 8" wide, you may see some light cupping if the light is just right. If you use QS wood, probably will not see anything. Most commercial 'all wood' tables are composed of narrow wood strips in the width not the length. Will it warp? You are gluing several boards together so any warping will be constrained. You probably will have to clamp the edges to make things even and minimize sanding or planing to get a smooth finished top.
7-8% is the target MC for furniture so it's not going to move much but yeah probably overkill, but it's always better to be safe. I agree with Gulfstar KD lumber is not going to take on much moisture, my guess is b/c the outer surface is always case hardened to some degree.
But I disagree on the stickering. IMO KD lumber still needs to be stickered and acclimated during the milling process -- if there's much milling. Granted, the main issue is stress release which can render a board unusable.
Once out of the kiln, wood is piled in 1000 board ft bundles without sticks. It is sent to wood yards or factories, still without sticks and transformed into furniture without acclimating. I’ve processed millions of bf of hard maple into furniture and those concepts of stickering KD wood and acclimating never crossed our mind.
That’s a great point. I don’t think I’ve ever seen stickered wood at a lumberyard. Only 4x4s to separate stacks and allow them to move those stacks with a forklift.
The purpose of stickering is for wood to equalize moisture with the surrounding air. If it absorbs or releases moisture, wood is going to move. If the wood is already there, nothing will happen. Stickering doesn't hurt, but won't help.
I'd never ever ever sticker after milling. You don't want wood to move once it's been milled! Mill it and make it! If it has to be stored, it's better off unstickered and in a plastic bag, so that it can neither release or absorb moisture. At the least, stack it unstickered with an extra board on top.
When we would leave the factory idle for holidays or have overstock piles of planed panels and chair seat blanks we would put a scrap panel on top of the piles.
I’m talking about during the milling process.
Rough out the parts, but do not plane to finished thickness, move the parts inside. Move parts in and out of the shop as you complete the job. Let roughed out parts sit for two weeks before you work on them. All this applies if the wood was originally kiln dried.
You'll get the hang of it.
I have worked in the very humid Mid-South. You cannot leave project stock in a garage workshop, really at any time of the year, and not have too much movement once it's knocked together. Really important to get large panels, tabletops, and the like glued up and in the house. Gradually plane them to finished thickness moving the part in and out of the house. If you don't it's not a matter of if, but when, disaster strikes.
I don’t know why you move wood inside when it’s at 7%???
KD limber doesn’t take on enough moisture to be an issue.
I've worked with mills in HI and Ecuador where the relative humidity is high. It gains rapidly after kiln drying to 7-8% (for export) if not stored at a relative humidity <50%. It's a battle to keep it at 7-8% until it gets shipped. They dry to a higher MC for local use.