getting beach down to 12% MC.... and other timbers

[Big J]

6 hours ago, agrimog said:

theres a good chance that the centre of that  trunk could be soft and squidge, cut and milled enough beech to recognise the signs

 

I think it looks OK, though I don't envy you John having to move the slabs. 5m x 1.2m x 80mm is just under half a tonne. 

 

I always hated big wide double-waney edged boards. That's why I ended up specialising in cedar production as there isn't too much weight in a 3.7m x 160mm x 23mm cladding board!

[Rough Hewn]

I cut big slabs at 3-6" thickness, depending on species and grain.
2" thick is often not enough cohesion when your board weighs 250kg+
Literally it might break under its own weight.
[emoji106]

[farmerjohn]

7 hours ago, agrimog said:

theres a good chance that the centre of that  trunk could be soft and squidge, cut and milled enough beech to recognise the signs

 

I have not been to see it myself yet.

Do you mean the fungus/ rot gets worse  gutter up the stick?

Or at the bottom where the pink/ purple bit is will already be soft?

Only milled 1 stick of beech. It was a rotten bit to test out my lack of milling skils when we first had a go!!!!!

Edited March 6, 2019 by farmerjohn

[Tilio-acerion]

9 hours ago, Ratman said:

Uhoh! We’re on the verge of having this thread all sewn up again.

I sea that there’s a common thread amongst some posters and their spelling...all smells a bit fishy to me

[se7enthdevil]

2 hours ago, farmerjohn said:

I have not been to see it myself yet.

Do you mean the fungus/ rot gets worse  gutter up the stick?

Or at the bottom where the pink/ purple bit is will already be soft?

Only milled 1 stick of beech. It was a rotten bit to test out my lack of milling skils when we first had a go!!!!!

i do not believe that is rot in the center of that tree.

 

it appears to be just redheart which is fairly common in beech trees and is caused by a fungus (i think) but is not a major problem like white rot.

 

i have plenty of timber with redheart in it for my skittles and it's as hard as the rest of the tree.

[Forest2Furniture]

12 hours ago, Big J said:

Beach - sandy thing, usually next to water

Beech - tree-like thing, often confused with the aforementioned sandy thing

 

Anyway, you can't force dry sawn timber like firewood. It's marketability and usefulness to the customer is dependent on it's quality. Rapid drying (excluding vacuum kilning, which operates on a different set of rules) results in defective timber.

 

Beech air dries rapidly compared to most hardwoods. 3 inch, stacked in a well-aired barn, shielded from the rain will get close to 20% by autumn. At that point, you can consider kilning it. 

 

Do not put it into the kiln before that as it will twist heroically. Beech has a reputation for that. Even in an air drying stack, make sure it has a lot of weight on top of it. Tonnes, not kilos.

Going back to your original question I agree with Big J, you can't fast dry slab timber.

I had a client that chose to ignore my advice of leaving some fresh felled and milled Sweet Chestnut for a few months before kiln drying and he ended up with £1K of honeycombed planks good for nothing more then burning.

 

All my boards are sticked out and air dried in an open barn for at least 6 months before going anywhere near a kiln.

[Rough Hewn]

You can dry green timber,
But only in a vacuum kiln.
Still takes a while though.
[emoji106]

[Big J]

1 minute ago, Rough Hewn said:

You can dry green timber,
But only in a vacuum kiln.
Still takes a while though.

We ran a vacuum kiln for a few years. They can dry green timber but it's not without issues. 

What it was really good at was drying air dried oak. 20% to 8% in less than a week and excellent results.

[se7enthdevil]

technically all timber can be kiln dried from green but each species (and sometimes each batch) will have very specific setting with regards to thickness, heat, humidity, airflow, how it's stacked and length of kiln time.

 

the key factor in colour preservation of american holly is getting it in the kiln ASAP but they have had decades to get the process right. i believe Balsa has a similar method for it's drying so it does not rot.