Hello All,
I have a project (coffee table) that I am building from some rough cut cherry that has been air drying for many years (10 or more). I recently cut, planed, thicknessed, and jointed all the parts to size for each of the table components. It will unfortunately be a month to a year before I will be able to get back into the shop and move on to do panel glue ups for the top and start cutting joinery for the various components.
I thought I had seen or heard of techniques for storing wood to minimize warpage and uneven color change when needing to pause mid project like this, but I am having difficulty finding where (either on the forums, an article, or on the FWW podcast).
So far, I have dead staked the components into groups (top panel parts, bottom panel parts, rails, legs, etc.) and fully enclosed/wrapped in plastic packing wrap and covered with a blanket. It has only been a day or two, but I am questioning if that is the best technique long term, or if this is a mistake. I fear any stickering would discolor the wood as it sits (since it has been thicknessed and squared for joinery at this point), and storing free on end with air around would subject it to extreme temp and humidity changes in the shop.
Any advice or other sources on the topic you can point me to is appreciated!
MM
Replies
Stack it flat and SEAL it inside a black plastic bag. The wood will create its own stable microclimate in the bag. Make sure the seal is good and the bag has no holes. Get as much air out of the bag as you can w/o a vac.
Thanks for the reply.
What mj said. Never sticker milled parts, just rough lumber.
Sort of late to the party, but I would add -
Wrapping it is fine, but keep the wrapped packages in the same environment (T and RH, or Equilibrium MC) as the wood was stored in before it was cut into parts.
It will be likely to dry and shrink if was air dried in an unheated environment and stored it in a heated environment. Even wrapped, I suspect it would lose some moisture.