Drying time for elm

[Con]

Hi. I have milled a bit of elm. It's not something I usually do. It was dead standing for about 18 months.  I've cut it in 3" slabs. Plan is for a chunky coffee table. How long drying before I can use it? I'm hoping it's not the inch/year rule. 3.5 ft lengths, if that makes any difference.  It will be outside, covered with reasonable airflow. Thanks 

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, Con said:

Hi. I have milled a bit of elm. It's not something I usually do. It was dead standing for about 18 months.  I've cut it in 3" slabs. Plan is for a chunky coffee table. How long drying before I can use it? I'm hoping it's not the inch/year rule. 3.5 ft lengths, if that makes any difference.  It will be outside, covered with reasonable airflow. Thanks 

Much depends on the design of your coffee table.  If you plan to have gaps between boards, or some other method of allowing movement and shrinkage then you might get away with two years or a bit less.  If your design means movement would be a disaster then perhaps longer.

 But I would suggest after a year or so see if you can move the boards somewhere similar to their final destination.  Then you need to periodically check moisture until they are losing no more water.  

[Con]

1 hour ago, Squaredy said:

Much depends on the design of your coffee table.  If you plan to have gaps between boards, or some other method of allowing movement and shrinkage then you might get away with two years or a bit less.  If your design means movement would be a disaster then perhaps longer.

 But I would suggest after a year or so see if you can move the boards somewhere similar to their final destination.  Then you need to periodically check moisture until they are losing no more water.  

Thanks squaredy

[MattyF]

If your going to do anything with timber that’s going in to your house and you really don’t want it to move , the best thing to do is bring it in for at least 3 months to acclimatise t the conditions it will ultimately stay in  … if you don’t It is pretty much guaranteed to move and warp… saying that elm is pretty stable , we have a very large kitchen table that the wood was stored in house before making for a few months and its only moved on the end nearest the aga.

[Botty Cough]

Strap it all tight with ratchets and put it in the house to dry.

[AlanK]

19 hours ago, Con said:

Hi. I have milled a bit of elm. It's not something I usually do. It was dead standing for about 18 months.  I've cut it in 3" slabs. Plan is for a chunky coffee table. How long drying before I can use it? I'm hoping it's not the inch/year rule. 3.5 ft lengths, if that makes any difference.  It will be outside, covered with reasonable airflow. Thanks 

Given your elm was already dead standing for 18 months, it's got a head start on drying. But with those 3" thick slabs, you're still in for a bit of a wait. While the inch-per-year rule is a decent benchmark, your scenario might shave off some time since the wood was pre-drying naturally.

Keeping them outside, covered, with good airflow is spot-on. Just make sure to stack them with spacers for even air circulation. Your climate plays a big role here, so drying times can vary. A moisture meter can be a game-changer to check readiness without guessing.

Even with the head start, I'd brace for it to take a good while, potentially less than the full inch-per-year guideline, but patience is key. If you're itching to get moving and have access to one, a kiln could speed things up significantly.

Hope that helps,

[Muddy42]

Any pics of the grain?  I find it amazing people still have elm of this thickness, around here anything that big has been dead and rotted for 50 years. The seed bank must be fairly decent because smaller trees still get going and survive for a bit.

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, Muddy42 said:

The seed bank must be fairly decent because smaller trees still get going and survive for a bit.

The reason small elms keep popping up (mainly in hedgerows) is that when a tree dies due to Dutch Elm Disease it is only the part above ground which dies off.  In fact it is the tree itself which shuts down the top part, so the vast root system survives.  It then puts up many new shoots, some of which then survive until eventually the elm bark beetle finds them, and it happens all over again.

 

Sadly this is also the reason they aren't developing immunity.  The new trees are literally clones of the original that succumbed to DED.  But there are millions of young elm trees in the UKs hedgerows, so every now and then one gets to a decent size.  And of course there are still many survivor trees in Scotland and Brighton.

[Con]

7 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

Any pics of the grain?  I find it amazing people still have elm of this thickness, around here anything that big has been dead and rotted for 50 years. The seed bank must be fairly decent because smaller trees still get going and survive for a bit.

Not great pics, I'm afraid 

 

Edited March 4 by Con

[Con]

On 04/03/2024 at 08:32, AlanK said:

Given your elm was already dead standing for 18 months, it's got a head start on drying. But with those 3" thick slabs, you're still in for a bit of a wait. While the inch-per-year rule is a decent benchmark, your scenario might shave off some time since the wood was pre-drying naturally.

Keeping them outside, covered, with good airflow is spot-on. Just make sure to stack them with spacers for even air circulation. Your climate plays a big role here, so drying times can vary. A moisture meter can be a game-changer to check readiness without guessing.

Even with the head start, I'd brace for it to take a good while, potentially less than the full inch-per-year guideline, but patience is key. If you're itching to get moving and have access to one, a kiln could speed things up significantly.

Hope that helps,

Thanks for the advice. I've just had the moisture meter on it reading aprox 39%.

Any idea what live elm, cut at this time of year would read? I think you're right, patience needed. 

Edited March 9 by Con