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At what temperature to dry wood. Wood drying methods - advantages and disadvantages of technology

It is no secret that even with perfect processing of raw wood, over time, its surface becomes hairy, so finishing is difficult.

When drying boards, the properties of the material should be taken into account.

Such boards are poorly polished, and paint and varnish are covered with cracks and crumble.

Such defects are the result of uneven drying of the layers. The peculiarity of drying is that the upper layer of the material always dries faster and at the same time decreases in volume compared to the inner layers. You should know that in winter the wood of a growing tree has a minimum moisture content, and in spring this figure is maximum.

In this regard, if you decide to harvest wood, do it at the optimal time, with an almost complete absence of juices. So the boards will warp and crack less. The more the wood dries out, the more numerous and deep the cracks are. If the tree is soft, the boards will dry out less. In addition, the degree of wood shrinkage is taken into account. Here, different tree species have their own characteristics.

There are three groups in total. Willow, spruce, cedar, pine, poplar belong to the slightly drying out species. The middle group includes linden, oak, elm, aspen, ash. Birch, larch, apple and maple are among the hardy species.

When drying boards at home, you should take into account the properties of wood, this will help you choose the right material. How to dry the boards correctly so that no cracks occur and the quality of the material is not lost?

Materials and tools

Lumber for drying.
Ruberoid, sheets of iron.
Beams, logs, pipes.
Paper.
Paint, glue.
Polyethylene film.

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Wood drying methods

Every carpenter, both amateur and professional, is always concerned about the drying of boards. Any wood is saturated with moisture. It is important to remove this moisture in such a way that this noble material does not warp. Preparations are made in late autumn or even in winter. In this case, there will be little moisture in the boards, and the master will only need to properly dry them. There are many ways, and first of all, drying the boards depends on the conditions in which it is supposed to be carried out. Of course, the drying process at home will be different from the technologies used on an industrial scale.

But you can also get great results on your own. If you decide directly on the vine, then such actions can be carried out from the beginning of spring and throughout the summer period. Having chosen a tree, a fairly wide ring of bark should be removed closer to the roots. Thus, water stops flowing into the crown, the tree gradually dries out. This method of drying is facilitated by the presence of foliage, as it literally draws moisture from the trunk. When the tree dries, it can be felled and sawn into boards already dried in a natural way.

There is another similar way. In this case, the tree is cut down, the trunk is cleared of the bark by two-thirds, the branches and leaves are left. Within two weeks, the foliage pumps out moisture like a powerful pump. It would take months to remove it from the planks outdoors.

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Air drying wood

At home, the best option for drying boards is to simply dry the wood in the open air. Boards should be under a canopy, protected from sunlight and precipitation. An even base should be prepared under a canopy, for this you need to use logs, bars, rails, thick pipes, etc. Boards are laid across them. It is important that the distance separating the boards from the bottom soil layer should not be less than 30 cm. There is usually damp earth under the stack, so it is best to cover it with a suitable material, such as roofing material. In addition, it is quite possible to use straw, hay.

The base beams must be set so that the surface of the pipes or bars has one plane. You don't have to make sure that the base of the stack is exactly horizontal. It is more important to ensure their single plane, so that deformation does not occur under the influence of the load. Having planned drying by this method, you should know that the boards will dry rather slowly, at least several months.

In the summer, the drying of the boards is faster. The ends of the boards should be covered with a lime solution of a creamy consistency and a little wood glue should be added. Also, for processing the ends, you can use oil, drying oil, any paint. Shelter the stack from the sides from blowing and slanting rain. Thanks to such safety measures, you will protect the material from cracking, which occurs when it dries quickly. We must not forget about the gaskets, they are placed between the layers of boards, the distance is 1 m from each other. The location of the extreme gaskets should be flush with the ends.

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Concrete is able to absorb moisture, and this property is the basis of the method of drying boards directly on the cement floor. In this case, wet boards are laid out on a cement floor, which must be dry and clean. It is important that during the day the boards should be turned over several times so that the planes alternately adhere to the cement surface. If you are a craftsman who knows the mechanical properties and structure of wood, then with an ax, chisels, saws and other tools, you can direct the drying process at your discretion.

The cement draws in moisture from the wood, which helps dry the boards.

When starting to dry boards at home, it is important to always take into account that this action is carried out in the open air and at the same time in the absence of direct sunlight. In this environment, the material is dried to a moisture content of approximately 25%. At home, the drying room should be ventilated and at the same time without drafts. The presence in the room where the boards are laid to dry, any heating devices is unacceptable. Also, if you place planks near metal, they may darken.

If the boards are small and there are few of them, some place them to dry even in the apartment. In this case, a balcony or loggia will not work, although many people leave the boards in just such a place. It is best to put them on the mezzanine. The boards intended for drying are stacked, they should not be dense, lay them with slats, bars. It should always be borne in mind that freshly sawn boards quickly darken upon contact, and rotting begins.

Sometimes there are situations when it is required to dry lumber intended for various construction or carpentry work. And if specialized drying chambers are usually used for these purposes, then for the preparation of a small volume of boards, it is quite possible to get by with alternative methods. However, before drying the boards at home, it is advisable to study certain nuances of this process.

What is wood drying for?

Almost any person who has encountered wood processing knows firsthand that initially all lumber is saturated with natural moisture, and it is very important to take care of removing it from the body of the board in advance. Indeed, otherwise, during the operation of an already finished product, cracking of the wood material, its warping (deformation) and even a break may occur. In addition, raw boards are more prone to rotting and cannot be used in critical structures.

If we talk about the types of wood, then according to the degree of drying, they can be divided into the following categories:

Spruce, cedar, pine (have minimal shrinkage);
Linden, oak, aspen, ash (belong to varieties with an average degree of shrinkage);
Birch, larch, maple (they have maximum shrinkage, which is why they can crack).

For ease of understanding the process, it can be noted that soft wood is less prone to drying out than its hard counterparts.

Wood drying methods

To obtain wood with specified technical characteristics (in terms of moisture) at home, you can use various methods, we list the main ones.

Air drying lumber

It is the simplest and at the same time effective option for wood preparation. Since it does not require significant costs, and the whole process is implemented naturally (gradually). With this method, it is very important to protect the wood during the drying process from direct exposure to ultraviolet radiation (sun rays) and precipitation.

In order to dry the boards in this way, proceed as follows:

Clean the area from foreign objects (stones, roots, etc.) and level it.
They provide waterproofing of the drying place (due to laying a layer of roofing material, film or hay).
With the help of even and durable elements (beams, pipes, rails, logs, etc.), an even base base is formed.
Lumber is stacked on the resulting base in such a way that a gap equal to the thickness of the board is provided between adjacent boards (gaskets should be installed in small increments - no more than 1 meter and have the same size, and at the extreme points of the gasket should be placed flush with the ends of the boards). In addition, the minimum distance from the bottom board to the ground must be at least 0.3 meters.
Slate or similar roofing material is laid on the top of the stack, in such a way that precipitation does not fall on the wood and can be spontaneously discharged (a slope should be provided). If necessary, protection is also provided on the leeward side to minimize the ingress of slanting rain.
To prevent rotting of lumber, it is recommended to open all the ends of the boards with a protective component: wood glue, lime, paint, drying oil or salt solution.

The duration of drying with this method is quite long (1 - 3 years) and depends on the conditions created and the type of wood. However, the result of the presented technology is very impressive, because it is under natural conditions that up to 75% of moisture can be removed from wood, with minimal material deformation.

Fast drying lumber

In the case of small carpentry operations, wood drying can be done by an alternative (high-speed) method. Why is it enough to wrap raw lumber (each board separately) with 5-10 layers of thin paper or newspapers, and wrap a plastic film over the resulting cake, in which you can first make a small perforation.

The board prepared in this way should be placed on a flat base in a warm place (sometimes a window sill is used above the battery) and as the paper becomes saturated with moisture, it should be completely replaced. Depending on the moisture content of the wood, this procedure must be carried out up to 5-6 times a day.

In addition, to ensure that the boards being dried do not warp, it is recommended that they be periodically turned over. Complete drying of wood in this way usually takes 3 to 4 days. However, in order to exclude the possibility of cracking of the material, it is advisable not to accelerate this process. If possible, dry straw or sawdust can be used instead of paper and newspapers, because in this case, the replacement of the absorbent can be done much less frequently.

Boiled wood - the key to success?

The second method of home drying of wood is its digestion. Why the boards are placed in a large tank of water and simply boiled in it for 2 to 3 hours. After that, the boiled boards are laid out to cool and remove moisture on a flat plane until completely dry.

Root drying

Drying on the vine is also an effective method of dealing with moisture and involves the following steps:

On a tree that is planned to be cut, a wide bark belt is removed (in a place as close as possible to the root system);
Due to the cessation of sap flow, a living tree gradually dries up (usually the process takes about a year);
After the tree is felled, it can be used almost immediately for sawing and carpentry.

When the tree is felled while still raw, they also resort to tricks for high-quality drying. And all that is enough for this is to remove 65% of the bark from the trunk and leave it in this position for 15 to 20 days. Moisture in this case will very quickly leave the wood through the remaining crown and leaves. After that, the wood can be put to work.

The method is also common when the wood is dried in the utility room (barn, hangar). However, when resorting to the specified drying method, it should be borne in mind that this room must have high-quality ventilation and have a stable air temperature (without heating).

In order for the wood drying process to be of the highest quality, it is advisable to adhere to the basic recommendations during the work.

Firstly, it is best to harvest lumber in the autumn-winter period, when the sap flow stops and the moisture content of the material is the lowest.

Secondly, when planning carpentry work, it must be remembered that smaller boards are less susceptible to deformation during shrinkage, which is why, if possible, the formation of elements (shelves, floors, stairs, etc.) from small-sized elements is justified.

Thirdly, using hardwood (beech, hornbeam, ash, etc.) it is more justified to use ready-made materials that have undergone industrial drying. Since the shrinkage of hardwood lumber is associated with certain difficulties (strong cracking), which can cause excessive amounts of waste.

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Drying methods in the manufacture of profiled timber

Building houses from solid timber has its advantages - such buildings are distinguished by a neat and attractive appearance and will suit you if you are aiming to build a house from timber with phased financing of installation work.

First, a box of a house is erected from a bar (this requires partial financing of the entire project of the house), and after its shrinkage, additional cladding and facade decoration are carried out.

An improved version of building from a bar - a house from a profiled bar of chamber drying.

That is, a bar specially dried and calculated in such a way as to prevent moisture from entering the joints. The shrinkage of such a house is significantly less than when building a house from a solid bar of natural moisture.

In addition, the profiled beam has all the necessary docking joints, which allows you to build a house from a beam much faster than a house with manual adjustment of logs during the assembly process.

The profiled beam is supplied ready for laying, so it can be immediately treated with antiseptics and flame retardants, so that the liquid absorption process will be faster than with conventional painting.

Due to the fact that the surfaces of the profiled timber are planed according to the first class of cleanliness - to the level of eurolining, such a house is initially very neat and attractive, so when installing it, you can do without additional finishing work.

Profiled timber is an ideal environmentally friendly material, since only wood without glue is used in its production (as is the case with glued laminated timber), and after shrinkage of the house with a high density of profile joints, it is not necessary to caulk the walls. These qualities of the timber also contribute to a tighter fit, and the thickness of the walls goes within 150-200 mm, which is quite adequate for our climatic zone and allows using less material when building a timber house than when installing the same house from logs.

This significantly reduces the price of a log house and makes it more profitable compared to building a house from glued beams.

Let's take a look at how it's done timber drying.

Drying timber is a rather lengthy and laborious process.

The main problem is that, due to the considerable thickness of the timber, its surface dries very quickly, but inside it remains raw. And if the drying time was chosen incorrectly, and it was not done very carefully, you cannot avoid unpleasant consequences in the form of fiber bends in the bars, their twisting and longitudinal cracks.

A well-dried timber should have a moisture content of 12-18%. There are several types of drying to achieve this optimum moisture content.

Atmospheric, or natural, drying of timber is the simplest way - in this case, individual timbers are stacked and kept in the open air or under sheds and stored from 2-3 weeks to several months.

The ends of the timber are covered with glue or lime mortar, which prevents the formation of cracks. However, the size of cracks in the beams during atmospheric drying is minimal, and compared to other methods, this is considered the least “traumatic” for wood.

Unfortunately, atmospheric land has a number of significant drawbacks. These include constant changes in weather conditions that are almost impossible to control.

When sunny days give way to rainy ones, there are constant changes in temperature and air humidity, and as a result, the drying of wood often leads to damage to its structure. Among them are deformation of the material due to internal stress, the formation of small cracks and general shrinkage. In this case, the resulting wood defects can be quite significant, which is why it is necessary to reject large volumes of timber.

An alternative to natural drying is chamber drying of timber.

Drying wood at home

With this method, the timber is placed in drying chambers, in which, with the help of heating elements (heaters), fans and air ducts, favorable conditions for its drying are intensively maintained. Modern drying chambers can provide several drying modes and withstand up to several thousand loading cycles. Computer control of the process of chamber drying of timber requires entering the cross section and breed of the dried material, as well as setting its initial and final moisture content in order to obtain the desired result at the output.

Chamber drying of timber is much more efficient than conventional atmospheric drying, also because its conditions do not depend on the weather and can be varied. For example, the high-temperature mode, when the temperature in the chamber exceeds 100 C, reduces the time the timber stays in it to 20-30 hours, while natural drying of the same volume of lumber can take many months.

Timber drying can also be done using special high-frequency generators that supply high-frequency current to the wood material.

In this case, the wood in the generator circuit acts as a dielectric in the capacitor, converting AC electrical energy into thermal energy. As a result, the beam warms up and dries out. This method of timber drying is very effective, but its use is limited, since its use entails significant energy costs.

Heat transfer to the material can be carried out: 1) by a gaseous medium - during drying in air, in combustion products or in hot steam; 2) liquid - when dried in kerosene, vaseline and other hydrophobic liquids; 3) a solid body - in contact with the surface of a hot metal; 4) radiant heat - from special radiators; 5) with electric current passing through wet wood and heating; 6) The high frequency electromagnetic field penetrates the damp wood and heats it up.

Depending on the different methods of heat supply In dry material, we will give a brief description of the main drying methods for wood used in industry:

In atmospheric drying, moisture from the material is used to evaporate moisture from relatively dry atmospheric air. The wood can be root-dried, in logs, in the forest, in sawmills, and in other forms.

Dry the wood at the root (especially larch) when you are preparing it for rafting to reduce density and reduce drowning loss.

Atmospheric drying of wood in logs, uneven rods, cut parts of the trunk are subject to almost all examples of the use of these varieties. Drying time is 1-3 years.

Incomplete bark removal (with perforation, but better for rings, which is safer due to later cracks) significantly speeds up the drying of logs. A radical means to shorten the roasting time of fired wood is splitting it and laying it in a perforated plate that can explode. Atmospheric drying can be accelerated by blowing air through the fan material.

At many companies, atmospheric drying is the only way to reduce wood moisture.

When the artificial wood land (convective thermal winding, conductive, dielectric, etc.), we heated the moist substance (or hot air, hot stoves or electricity) to increase the moisture and vapor pressure of the wood to speed up the removal of moisture.

The positive characteristics of drying are the high density of the process, the possibility of wide regulation to achieve the final moisture content of the wood, minimal errors, the possibility of drying throughout the year, regardless of the air and the destruction of fungal infection and insects in heated wood.

Due to the high speed of such drying, large volumes of wood are required for dry drying. Thus, the technological process of production in the company can be more organized.

Convection drying with combustion products is similar to convection drying.

Its features are the preparation and supply of material in the form of a gaseous desiccant for combustion products of solid, liquid or gaseous fuels.

Dryers for this method are easier to operate and less expensive than dryers using air to heat air heaters.

Convective drying with superheated steam at atmospheric pressure is in principle similar to convective drying of material with heated air (see Fig.

Features of drying boards in the house

1.6). Its characteristics are the important temperature of the drying agent (above 100°C), no air in the chamber, more intense drying process, but the overheating power is reduced due to overheating.

Combination drying is usually a combination of atmospheric and convective heat or convective heat and dielectric wood.

Drying in hydrophobic liquids, preferably in a noose, as well as impregnating oils and antiseptics characterized by retention, has a higher process intensity even at temperatures above 100 ° C.

Weaknesses of this method - if necessary, to supplement the vaseline, contamination of the dried wood and, thus, the worst adhesion, greater fire hazard.

When preserved, drying wood in liquid preservatives can be very effective. This method is recommended for drying building elements (bridges, facades) as well as bars, sleepers,

etc., work in atmospheric conditions.

Drying wood (see 1, c) is used on plywood, furniture and in the manufacture of skis (when skis are bent). The process is characterized by high intensity.

Radiation radiation heating is used for surface drying of parts or products, such as their coatings, dyeing, etc., and also partially for drying veneers.

Drying using electric current and electromagnetic waves is characterized by the fact that the material is heated simultaneously over the entire thickness,

e. diathermically. As a consequence, thick varieties may win. The disadvantages of such a dryer are the complexity of the apparatus, high installation and operating costs, radio interference and maintenance hazards.

An interesting method of electric drying in water, slightly acidified, into which dehydrated wood is immersed. The electric current passing through the water is selectively directed to the raw wood, which has a higher electrical conductivity than water.

In this case, the wood is heated and dried. Then take it out of the water. When heated, it dries quickly, pouring it onto the surface of the air into the environment.

dry wood

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Dry wood and too damp does not rot.

Proper drying of wood at home

Dry wood is a dielectric. However, its electrical resistance decreases with increasing humidity and temperature. To improve the electrical insulating properties, wood is impregnated with transformer and linseed oil, paraffin.

Dry wood is very capable of absorbing water both when exposed to air and especially when immersed in water.

It is characteristic that the absorption by wood and the evaporation of water due to the anisotropy of wood occur unevenly in different directions. So, for example, in the longitudinal direction through the ends of the tree, water is absorbed and evaporated approximately 4 times more than in the radial direction, and 2 times more than in the tangential direction.

Dry wood is much stronger than wet wood, sticks together and paints better. Models must be durable, maintain the exact shape and geometric dimensions.

Therefore, raw wood is not at all suitable for models; when it dries, it warps or cracks. However, excessively dry wood absorbs moisture from the atmosphere to a greater extent, the greater the difference between the moisture content of wood and the environment. Moisture, which is part of wood cells, is called bound.

Dry wood has the ability to absorb moisture from the air.

Artificially dried wood at 70 - 80 absorbs moisture approximately 2% less than wood that has not been artificially dried. Wood dried at temperatures above 100 absorbs moisture from the air very slowly.

Dry wood of spruce is light yellow, almost white, mechanically it is not inferior to pine, but due to the low resin content (2-4 times less than that of pine), it is less resistant in the open air, so spruce is used for less critical structures and temporary structures.

For outdoor structures, rot-proof spruce wood should be used. It should be borne in mind that it is difficult to preserve (impregnate) with oily antiseptics.

Dryer wood releases gas too rapidly (at 35 - 45 min.

Since dry wood is not a source of nutrition for fungal formations, the formation of fungi is excluded in dry ventilated rooms and in dry wood.

The electrical conductivity of dry wood is negligible. This allows the use of wood as an electrical insulating material. Electrical conductivity is used to determine the moisture content of wood.

The electrical conductivity of dry wood is also low.

The electrical conductivity of dry wood is very low, especially in the transverse direction of the fibers, so it is a good insulator.

But with moisture, the electrical conductivity increases, which serves as the basis for measuring humidity by this physical property.

The saturation of dry wood with hygroscopic moisture obeys the general laws of the interaction of polymers with vapors of low molecular weight liquids.

With very dry wood, with suboptimal moisture content, in retorts with external heating, retort setting can occur when the exothermic reaction quickly spreads to all overcharred wood.

As a result, the temperature and pressure of vapor gases can quickly rise in the reaction space, which sharply worsens the process conditions.

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How to dry oak wood at home

Further processing of wood requires further high-quality treatment and drying.

Otherwise, the oak wood product may burst, change shape and size.

Board drying methods

Wood harvest is best in late autumn or even winter to avoid excessive moisture in the slabs.

Drying on the vine. Preparation for her tree should be in the spring. With the selected tree on its roots, a wide strip of bark should be removed. Thus, access to moisture is blocked and the head begins to dry. When the wood is completely dry, it can be cut and seen on the plates.
Atmospheric drying. This is the cheapest and most common way to dry wood at home.
How to dry boards in the garage

To protect the boards, you must make a crown on the board to protect them from the rain. Place the tree on a flat surface. For this purpose, logs, pipes, etc. are taken from the top side of the slab (the distance between the top point of the covering and the floor should not be less than 30 centimeters).
We must take into account that a natural drying chamber will dry out for several months.
Drying on a concrete base.
Cement soil absorbs moisture well, so this method is also popular. It consists in the fact that raw wood is placed on a clean, dry concrete surface and turned several times a day.
When self-drying a tree, it is important to know that:
This procedure is best done outdoors and we protect the tree from direct sunlight;
If the wood is dried indoors, it should be well ventilated, but without drafts.
Do not dry near heating appliances.

Fast drying oak wood

If the tree needs to be dried in a short time, you can use the old method invented by the ancestors: the sheet is wrapped with paper (5 to 15 layers), with polyethylene with holes on top.

The plate is then dried in a warm heater or window shelf and rotated several times a day.

For complete drying of thin plates (up to 3 centimeters), it will take no more than 4 days. The thickness of the plate is dried a little longer.

As you collect and prepare for the future use of materials of different types and sizes, you need to know where and how to store it, how to dry it, in what condition, in moisture, processing conditions. It is undesirable, for example, to cut a product from a new cut log (if the tree was alive), it is filled with moisture. This can lead to end-of-life work until your frustration breaks.

But after the wood is dry, its surface, in order to facilitate the initial rough processing, I advise you to wet it. At the end of a relief or sculpture, only a dry surface is required. It is better suited for mechanical and manual processing, so it is better to stick together and finish (polish, polish).

The process of drying wood consists in regulating the internal moisture content of the workpiece with the humidity of the environment in which the drying takes place.

In the manufacture of furniture, wood is dried in drying chambers, where the specified humidity, temperature, air movement, etc. are set and maintained.

and in some cases a chemical treatment is also used and the wood is impregnated with phenolic alcohol which releases water and then dried (after which the wood vibrates like a metal).

There are no such options at home, so the material naturally dries.

It should be remembered that the amount of moisture in a living tree is constantly changing: in November-December it is less, in July and August it is more.

A medicinal product with a visible high moisture content for faster and more uniform drying should be treated.

This is done simply.

Remove a large wooden plow or straight slant, but not completely, with log bark ends 10-15 cm wide. The binding ends with a composition impervious to moisture. It can be: oil paint, glue, varnish, var, plasticine. Cover, apply oil paper, newspaper or cellophane. Such treatment is carried out to prevent leakage of moisture from the mass of material through the ends of the spill.

The fact is that at the ends of the open areas of wood fibers, through which moisture evaporates more actively than on the side of the log.

If you have a keychain with uneven end pieces, I recommend cutting them at right angles to the axis of the case. Firstly, it is necessary to simplify the coating of the end of the protective layer before drying, and secondly, the so-called area can serve as an additional product for crosslinking or base, and does not need to be processed as if it were ready.

Keep in mind that donkeys, even when properly dried, often fall apart.

Such cracks do not always extend along the length of the wood, so place logs and slabs 10-15 cm longer than the required size. After drying before using the material, cracking ends can be seen.

Decide to store the material yourself, depending on the conditions in which you live, since drying will occur at the same time as storage.

If it's a suburb, country, or countryside, then use an attic, closet, boiling point, crown where the sun doesn't penetrate, rain where there's no moisture and no skewers. The magazines and boards lie in lines at a short distance from each other, placing dry boxes between them so that air circulates freely in the gap between the empty door. If the soil is crushed, then the foundation is better located at a height of 40-50 cm from the brick brick.

It is difficult to store a significant supply of wood and large material in a city apartment. In this case, use the balcony, loggia, mezzanine, wardrobes, some free space under the sofa, closet, etc. Always remember: the tree must be kept away from heating batteries, not on the sunny side, not in tow.

Well, when wood stock can be easily obtained, if necessary, choose the most suitable part.

For those who love creativity from natural materials (knots, snowflakes, suvel), it is desirable that supplies are constantly in front of their eyes. I don't recommend removing the bark - this will protect the wood from cracking, so it may be helpful to open the image. Every morning we must see the material every day, study it carefully and understand what the nature of the hotel will say.

Then one happy day will begin with joy, what kind of work from this chest you can carve. In my house, I was from small to large, almost everywhere, and on the loggia - even in the warehouse. Wait patiently until it's your turn. At this time, as it is said, "ripening", that is, dryness.

Drying time depends on thickness, type of wood and drying conditions.

If your wood is stored outdoors under a canopy for a long time, it can be moved over time to dry completely indoors. This is best done after a few dry, unwanted days, as damp weather increases the percentage of moisture in the wood.

Drying at home rarely occurs without cracks - sometimes parts of the workpiece along the fibers in two or more parts.

In this case, you can use each half to do a smaller job, or split the log over the crack and cross it with the whole array and then use it as a separate piece.

If you start working on a piece and make sure it is damp, insert it into a plastic bag for rest periods, unfold the size of the large plastic envelopes.

After one to two days, the inner surface of the polyethylene is contaminated from the moisture leaving the wood, then the bag must be removed, turned inward and placed again on the dry side after the next operation. Such drying leads to positive results, but requires patience.

National craftsmen use different methods to protect wood from cracks. Some of these methods often lead to positive results, although they do not give full guarantees.

Proper drying of wood

So, at least for 20-30 days, they are covered on all sides with kitchen salt or dry sawdust, which absorbs moisture. The drying process is faster and runs with fewer cracks.

Suveli, we cook hats in salt water! The method is not bad, at the same time it relieves all kinds of pests.

However, the color of the wood may change in the worst case, as the dyes dissolve during digestion.

When I'm working on mahogany portraits, to prevent the front from bursting, cover fresh spots with wax before breaking.

This keeps moisture away from the exposed inner but untreated layers.

Moving the work to another room, such as an exhibition, sometimes causes cracks due to changes in humidity.

If you start to cut any raw materials (vase, soup, box), choose as much internal volume as possible in one step, wall thickness 1-1.5 cm.

The maximum amount of moisture expires with the harvesting mass of wood, and the internal tension is removed. Then place the semi-finished product in a room where drying will be even. It can be a dry basement, closet, mezzanine. Useful and method with plastic bag. After 20-30 days (as soon as possible), continue processing.

Sometimes when drying thick logs, to speed up the release of moisture and reduce cracks in the core, the drilled hole has a diameter of 4-5 cm.

Practice has shown that without lime, lime, aspen, poplar with a diameter of 20-30 cm with proper drying, "ripening" without cracks 3-5 months. Birch, maple, ash, oak dry out longer and almost always with two or three cracks.

The foliage of fruit trees is very difficult to remain intact. 2-3 hours after removal from the roots, cracks appear on them, therefore, immediately after cutting, the ends should be covered with a waterproof solution and dried chest in a plastic bag in the manner described in the previous example.

I use some of the methods above, but there are so many parts that I can't follow through. Waste, of course, exists, but the percentage of good materials is significant, so there is enough work.

I pay special attention to the forest, which is of paramount importance: land, I follow and do everything necessary to give them the necessary characteristics before using them.

As mentioned, wood that is dried without cracking is rotten, which is very important for a cutter.

To use wood for construction, it must first be properly prepared. To do this, drying is used, which allows you to bring the material to the required level of moisture. How to dry a tree, what methods will help best? Experts recommend purchasing a tree in finished form, since it is much easier and better to dry it in a workshop, but with your own hands it is not always possible to organize this process correctly. Although there are some simple methods that will allow you to dry a small amount of wood for home decoration.

Rules for drying wood

For construction, only the use of dry wood is allowed. The problem is that this material not only contains a lot of moisture in its natural state, but also absorbs it perfectly. If you take a damp tree for building a house, then, getting into drier conditions, it begins to gradually dry out, the structure shrinks. Such boards can be severely deformed, cracks appear on the surface, the structure loses its strength and other qualities. The larger the workpiece, the slower the drying of the wood. The process can take from a month to several years. For example, it can take up to 7 years to dry an oak plank.

During the drying of the wood, moisture from the surface evaporates, while it moves from the depth of the wood to the surface, but the internal parts dry much more slowly. Natural moisture evaporates slowly; to speed up the process, it is recommended to use digestion and other methods, of which there are quite a lot today. Some of them can be organized independently, but for the rest, workshop conditions are required.

Drying is carried out in 2 stages:

Graph of the duration of atmospheric drying of softwood lumber.

First, the material must be brought to the moisture level required for atmospheric drying.
Finish drying is carried out already under the selected conditions, the humidity must be brought to a level that is acceptable for construction or for use in other processes. If the tree will be operated in open air conditions, then the humidity level should be 12-18%. Usually, drying of the material under atmospheric conditions is used for this; additional drying at room temperature is no longer required. If the material will be used for finishing internal heated rooms, then the humidity level should not be more than 8-10%.

To determine exactly what level of humidity has been reached, it is necessary to use special equipment. These are convenient electric moisture meters that allow you to accurately calculate the percentage of drying. In some cases, humidity can also be determined by eye, although professionals do not recommend using this method for construction. Chips of dry wood break easily in the hand, and are compressed in wet wood.

Drying under atmospheric conditions

Most often, do-it-yourself drying is carried out under atmospheric conditions. To do this, you must first free the site, clean the soil, make excellent drainage around the perimeter. All chips and debris must be removed from the site to prevent rotting of boards and lumber. After that, the blanks are laid on a specially assembled deck of poles. It is necessary to form the first row with a slight slope, and then cover it with dry boards. Then the second row is formed and so on until the end. From above, materials are also protected from rain by boards.

If logs are used for drying, then it is not recommended to immediately remove the bark from them, it will become an excellent reinforcement against cracking.

Drying, such a tree will best retain all its qualities and integrity. The ends of the logs must be lubricated with liquid glue, lime or saline solution. This is done in order to protect the materials from decay. But the upper edge must be protected from precipitation.

Atmospheric drying removes approximately 75% of all moisture from materials. The duration of the process depends on the type of wood, weather conditions.

Soft hardwoods and softwoods require approximately 1-2 years to dry, hardwoods require about twice as much, but may take up to 7 years to dry completely. On average, wood will dry out by 1 cm per year using this method.

Home drying is carried out before construction begins. In about a year or two, it is recommended to prepare the site and leave the material to dry. If you need to dry just a couple of boards, then you can use an attic or an open balcony, well lit by the sun.

Self-drying methods

To dry wood at home, you can use a variety of methods, they are all simple, do not require sophisticated equipment. For example, newspaper drying is only suitable for small volumes. The boards are wrapped in dry newspaper, then in a plastic bag. After about 8 hours, the film is unfolded, the damp newspaper is replaced with a new one. It will take about a month to dry, but it all depends on the type of wood. The number of newspapers in the package cannot be made too large, as the boards will simply crack. It is important to wrap the film tightly so that air does not get inside.

Straw can be used instead of newspapers for drying. Boards are laid with dry straw, and then laid under a canopy. If there are dry sawdust, then you can use them for lining. It is not necessary to change straw or sawdust every day.

One of the effective methods is digestion. Boards are placed in a large container filled with water. After that, they are boiled for 2-3 hours, laid out in an open space to dry.

This allows you to quickly remove natural moisture. You can lay out the processed boards on a flat surface in the shed, but the room should not be heated, be too damp.

When drying a tree, it must be remembered that the duration of the process depends on which species will be used. For example, oak boards can dry for a long time, this process in natural conditions drags on for 7 years. Some rocks crack when dried, and this only worsens the quality of the surface. If there is no certainty that everything will be done correctly, then it is better to purchase ready-made wood with the necessary moisture level.

Experts advise using 2 methods of drying wood:

The logs are sanded along the middle part, but the bark is left at the ends, the width of such a tape is approximately 100 mm.
The bark is not removed, but cuttings are made across the trunk to provide air access. The bark is not cut along, in this case it acts as an excellent tightening clamp.

During drying, it is necessary to be guided by what types of wood and how they react to the drying process:

Alder, linden, birch, aspen, poplar do not crack during drying. The surface of the workpieces remains smooth and of high quality.
Such wood species as larch, spruce, cedar, pine, fir crack to a small extent. They are often used for construction, as they have all the necessary characteristics. This material is durable, perfectly endures even heavy loads, has a pleasant aroma and color.
When drying, beech, hornbeam, maple, ash-tree strongly crack. When choosing such a type of wood, it is best to take already dried and finished boards that have been factory processed, since it is difficult to prepare them with your own hands, a large percentage of waste is obtained.

There are various methods for drying wood. In the process of drying, the boards can not only lose some part in volume (there is a lot of moisture in the tree), but also deform, become covered with cracks. And this is already unacceptable for building structures. That is why experts advise the proper amount of time to devote to the preparation of the material.

At the very beginning of the process, the air has a rather high humidity and low t °. The greater the initial moisture content of the wood, the more moisture should be in the air entering the chamber. This is necessary in order to prevent cracking of the material. As the rock dries, the temperature of the air gradually increases, while the moisture content in it, on the contrary, decreases.

Between air humidity and moisture content in the material there is a strict relationship. It can be determined using a special device - a psychrometer, which serves to determine the humidity and temperature of the air in the drying chambers. The latter are called sushila. There are various methods for drying wood.

The factory method involves the use of special chambers for drying. These are intermittent air-steam dryers with reverse circulation. The resulting material, unloaded from there, is aged for two or three days in the production workshop. At this time, the material is normalized, that is, it is released from surface and internal stresses acquired during the drying process.

There are also chambers for drying wood material. These intermittent devices use a special smokeless gas to get rid of unwanted moisture.

It is obtained by burning raw wood waste in furnaces. With the help of a high-pressure axial fan, through special gas ducts, it is fed to the stacks of lumber. The design of the system assumes the presence of a steam humidifier.

In the woodworking industry, gas appliances operating on natural gas are used. They are equipped with a firebox, the temperature in which during combustion reaches 1300°C. But before entering the dryer, the mixture circulates and cools, acquiring a temperature of 100 degrees by the time it enters the chamber. The working mixture is smokeless. If the operation of such a chamber is well debugged, then the lumber dried in it remains light. Each of them can accommodate four large stacks of boards. They are also used for ordinary, ordinary drying of coniferous wood.

For high-speed drying of building material, electric dryers are used, in which high-frequency currents are used. This procedure does not last long - the drying time is only a few hours, and its quality is high. The wood dries evenly: without flaws and cracks. The amount of marriage with this method of drying is much less than with the gas and steam methods - its figure is less than five percent.

Features of heating dielectrics and semiconductors (wood belongs to them) in a high-frequency electric field are that the temperature of the entire processed material rises noticeably in a short period of time. A wet board in three minutes can be heated to 100 degrees throughout its thickness. The power of the current absorbed by the material is regulated by the parameters of the electric field (its change through adjustment).

Home drying wood

In addition to industrial methods of drying wood, there are also domestic ones.

With a microwave

The advantages of this method are that when it is used, tiny cracks do not form in a solid wood that can turn up to one and a half centimeters of material from each end into marriage, and in some cases even break the workpiece into pieces. Under the influence of microwave heating, changes occur in the lignin fibers, due to which the object dried in this way loses its sensitivity to sudden changes in humidity.

For the drying procedure, a not too powerful, budget model of a microwave without unnecessary options is suitable. The main thing is that it has a low power mode. Usually it corresponds to the mark "defrost", or "defrost". The chamber must be large enough to accommodate crafts or wood blanks. Often the width of the chamber is larger than the depth.

Microwave drying of wood: technique

Separate blanks are more convenient to dry as a whole, some are better to cut. If it is already known what they are intended for, then they are sawn to the size of future products, with an allowance. It is allowed to dry a pre-processed workpiece, which should also have at least a small allowance. It should be remembered that the product may be deformed during the drying process. A round object can become more oval.

One who often works with wood gradually gains experience. Craftsmen can guess what kind of reaction to expect from which type of wood, how exactly which variety is deformed, and make the appropriate allowance. If you leave the processed raw workpiece on the table, it may burst.

During breaks in work (for example, when carving) or before drying in the microwave, it is necessary to put the product in a plastic bag.

Microwave: drying at home

Before starting the procedure, the workpiece is weighed, the weight is recorded. A thing wrapped in a plastic bag with holes made is placed in the middle of the oven, the minimum power is set. Processing time depends on the size of the item. Then the workpiece is cooled directly in the bag, and warmed up again. The condensate is drained from the bag, the thing is weighed.

The whole cycle is repeated several times until the mass becomes constant, ceasing to decrease.

If in the first attempt the thing cracks, it is necessary either to reduce the power further, or to seal the ends of the workpiece. Mouthguards are wrapped in newspapers before being placed in a bag. With other blanks, you can also do this: this will reduce the likelihood of cracking the tree.

After cooling, before the next cycle, the newspapers are changed to new ones. If there are resin pockets in the array, the latter can, having boiled, tear it apart and stain the furnace with resin. Paper wrapping will help here too.

If you continue the process of heating an already dried wood, it can char and even catch fire.

Natural air drying of wood

It's affordable and extremely easy. Boards are stacked under a canopy so that precipitation and sunlight do not fall on them. A special flat base must be prepared for them, for the equipment of which rails, logs, thick pipes or bars can be used. Lumber is laid across this base.

Between the ground and the bottom layer of boards there should be a distance of 0.3 m. It is better to cover the ground under the stack with sheets of roofing material, straw or hay. The forest dries for quite a long time: this process can take up to several years. In warm weather, the process is more active.

The ends of the forest are covered with a special mixture containing lime. From the sides, the stack is protected from jets of slanting rain and from strong winds. Special measures are taken to prevent rapid drying and cracking of the material. Across the boards, between the layers of dried wood, at a distance of a meter from each other, spacers are laid: the outermost of them are flush with the ends of the boards in the stack.

With this method of drying wood with your own hands, mandatory cracks form at the ends of the boards. For this reason, the length of the blanks should be slightly larger than the planned products. After all, after drying, the cracked ends of the boards will have to be cut down. With such drying, carried out in dry and warm conditions, remained in - - the largest online store selling furniture, lamps, interior decor and other goods for a beautiful and cozy home.

The main purpose of drying is to improve the physical and mechanical properties of wood, increase its strength, durability, prevent decay, cracking and warping. This article provides recommendations for the implementation of this process without the use of special industrial equipment.

Drying

Various wood defects during work can be avoided by one way or another placing the drawing on the prepared workpiece. But in any case, you need to take only well-dried wood for work, otherwise there is a possibility that after a long and hard work all your efforts will be in vain, in other words, it will crack and warp.
Therefore, before starting work, dry the workpiece well. But you should not immediately saw off pieces from raw wood that will not be needed later. The wood will not dry out any faster. In this case, you can simply ruin the bar - after all, during shrinkage, the fibers are compressed in different directions in different ways.

The smallest change in the size of the bar will occur in the direction of fiber growth. The bar will become even smaller across the growth of the fibers, i.e. in the radial section. Most of all, the bar dries out in the tangential direction.

All tree species can be divided into 3 categories according to their ability to shrink in size during drying: strongly drying out, moderately drying out and slightly drying out. The first category includes such species as oak, linden, elm, alder, beech, maple and many others. The second category includes: willow, poplar, pine. Only spruce and larch change their dimensions a little during shrinkage.

Drying wood requires a lot of patience. Do not immediately put raw wood to a strong heat source. First of all, bringing boards, hold them for several days on a glazed loggia and only then bring them into the room. If your loggia is not glazed, then put them in the pantry or in the corridor, where the temperature is always a little lower than in the living room, and even more so in the kitchen. Only in these few days, try to keep the workpieces away from the draft. Yes, and direct sunlight should also be avoided on the loggia so that one part of the workpiece has dried and darkened in the sun, and the other is still damp.

Lubricate slightly dried boards from the ends with garden pitch or PVA glue. Valuable blanks must be lubricated not only from the ends, but also from the sides, so that cracks do not form during drying. The same rule should be followed when drying the wood of fruit trees. The PVA layer can be replaced with plain paper, which is glued to the sides of the bar on a starch paste.

Lay the bars and boards prepared in this way near the central battery or near the fireplace or heater. The boards will constantly need to be turned over and ensure that the temperature in the room is the same, without significant differences. But drafts should also be avoided, otherwise the likelihood of cracks increases.
Depending on the size of the blanks you have chosen, the drying time may vary. Thick and long boards naturally dry much longer than thin and short ones.

If you dry the boards not indoors, but outdoors, then you need one that would protect the wood from direct sunlight and precipitation. The ground under the boards must be carefully leveled so that the boards do not bend during storage and drying. Lay a layer of roofing paper on the ground, then put a few bars so that air can penetrate under them.

Drying chamber

The drying chamber of the convective type works and dries the wood in a volume of 10 m3 by blowing with prepared air passing through the evaporator and condenser of the refrigeration freon system. Moisture is released on the evaporator and discharged to the drainage drain system, after which the dried cold moist air enters immediately to the air condenser, where it is heated and dried to the required temperature and humidity, and is fed to the product.
The heat agent - hot dry air, is directed perpendicular to the stack of lumber, saturated with moisture from the lumber and cools, transferring its heat to the lumber. To discharge the resulting excess moisture from the heat agent into the atmosphere and supply air with a low moisture content to the chamber, a natural supply and exhaust ventilation system is designed, which is provided by the automatic opening of 2 valves.
The drying process is automatically controlled by wood moisture content. Automatic maintenance of air temperature and humidity - for each stage of drying is achieved by controlling: the heat pump compressor, ventilation damper drives, blowers and circulation fan. The transition to the next stage of drying occurs automatically depending on the moisture content of the wood. can be equipped with both waste-fired boilers and gas-fired boilers.

Drying method used in drying chambers: continuous and microprocessor-controlled removal of moist air from the chamber. It provides a low moisture gradient across the thickness of the dried board during the entire drying process. This allows lumber to be dried to a final moisture content of 6% without warping, cracking and internal stresses, regardless of its thickness and.

To control the drying mode, digital microprocessors are used. This method of controlling the temperature and relative humidity of the air inside the drying chamber is reliable and easy to maintain. The operator spends no more than five minutes a day in order to take all the necessary readings from the instruments, determine the temperature, the relative humidity of the air inside the drying chamber and the moisture content of the wood.

Drying lumber in liquids

Liquids may be used in the process of drying lumber with a drying agent. These can be hydrophobic liquids that do not mix with water (melts of paraffin, sulfur, metals), and hydrophilic liquids - concentrated aqueous solutions of hygroscopic substances (salt, sugar, etc.).
Drying in hydrophobic liquids is a high-temperature process, which has some differences from the high-temperature process in water vapor - there is no moisture exchange between the material and the medium. Drying can only occur at a liquid temperature that is higher than the boiling point of water at a given pressure. Inside the tree, due to the boiling of free water, excess pressure is created, under the action of which the vapor escapes into the atmosphere, overcoming the resistance of the tree and the layer of liquid above the material. So, the main type of moisture transfer is molar vapor transfer under the action of an overpressure ingredient. Such drying is recommended for use in the construction industry and in pre-weep drying processes.

Drying in hydrophilic liquids has not found wide application in industry. As hydrophilic liquids (drying agent), hot saturated solutions of sodium and magnesium chloride, sodium nitrate are used. The temperature of the solutions can be several degrees higher or lower than the boiling point of water. In the first case, moisture transfer in a tree occurs under the action of excess pressure and the difference in partial pressures of water vapor in the voids of the vessels and above the surface of the solution, and in the second case, only under the action of a difference in partial pressures. Drying in a saturated magnesium chloride solution is a reasonable means of reducing moisture before it seeps out with water-soluble preservatives.

Surface antiseptic

Dry antiseptic is carried out on horizontal surfaces (for example, attic floor); in this case, powdered antiseptics with wet or sand are used.

The ends of wooden beams laid in a brick wall, in addition to antiseptics, are protected from moisture by waterproofing. However, at the same time, it should not be clogged, i.e., the ends of the beams cannot be covered with waterproofing.

The waterproofing wrap serves as a means of preventing the leaching of the antiseptic, for example, in structures buried in the ground.

In closed facilities for processing semi-dry and, moreover, raw wooden elements, it is necessary to use such means that would not interfere with the drying of wood, for example, antiseptic pastes.

In case of detection of wood-destroying insects - wood borers, grinder beetles, termites - insecticides are used to treat wood

When treating the affected areas, the antiseptic must be injected (with a syringe, oil can) into each hole or lubricated with a brush two or three times with breaks of two or three days, and then covered with putty, chalk, paraffin or paste soaked in antiseptic. If the elements are easily replaced, then it is better to remove them and burn them, even if they are slightly damaged by grinder beetles.

Determination of moisture content and drying of wood

There are several ways to determine the moisture content of wood. In domestic conditions, they use a special device-electric moisture meter. The operation of the device is based on the change depending on its humidity. Needles with electrical wires connected to them are inserted into the tree and an electric current is passed through them, while the moisture content of the wood is immediately noted on the scale of the device in the place where the needles are inserted. Many experienced carvers determine the moisture content of the tree by eye. Knowing the types of wood, its density and other physical properties, it is possible to determine the moisture content of wood by weight, by the presence of cracks at the end or along the fibers of the wood, by warping and other signs. By the color of the bark, its size and the color of the wood, one can recognize ripe or freshly cut wood and its degree of moisture.
When processing with a p / m planer, its thin shavings, squeezed by hand, are easily crushed - which means the material is wet. If the chips break and crumble, this indicates that the material is dry enough. When transverse cutting with sharp chisels, they also pay attention to chips. If they crumble or crumble on their own, this means that the material is too dry.
Very wet wood is easily cut, and a wet mark is noticeable at the cutting site from the chisel. But it is unlikely that it will be possible to obtain a high-quality thread as a result, since cracking, warping and other deformations cannot be avoided.

DRYING WOOD

Dry wood has high strength, warps less, does not rot, easily glues, finishes better, and is more durable. Any wood of various species is very sensitive to changes in environmental humidity. This property is one of the disadvantages of timber. At high humidity, wood easily absorbs water and swells, and in heated rooms it dries out and warps. Wood humidity up to 10% is sufficient indoors, and no more than 18% outdoors.
There are many ways to dry wood. The simplest and most affordable is the natural type of drying - atmospheric, air. It is necessary to dry the wood in the shade, under and in a draft. When dried in the sun, the outer surface of the wood heats up quickly, while the inner remains damp. Due to the difference in stresses, cracks form, the tree quickly warps.
Boards, beams, etc. p / m are stacked on metal, wooden or other supports with a height of at least 50 cm. Boards are stacked with their inner faces up to reduce their warpage.
It is believed that the drying of boards placed on the edges is faster, since they are better ventilated and moisture evaporates more intensively, but they also warp more, especially material with high humidity. A stack of p / m, harvested from freshly cut and live trees, is recommended to be compacted from above with a heavy load to reduce warpage.
During natural drying, cracks always form at the ends, in order to prevent their cracking and preserve the p / m, it is recommended that the ends of the boards be carefully painted over with oil paint or soaked with hot drying oil or bitumen to protect the pores of the wood. It is necessary to process the ends immediately after the transverse cuts into the cut. If the tree is characterized by high humidity, then the end is dried with a blowtorch flame, and only then painted over.
Trunks (ridges) must be debarked (cleaned of bark), only at the ends they leave small belts-couplings 20-25 cm wide to prevent cracking. The bark is cleaned so that the tree dries out faster and is not affected. The trunk, left in the bark, in relative heat with high humidity quickly rots, is affected by fungal diseases. After atmospheric drying in warm weather, the moisture content of wood is 12-18%.
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There are several other ways to dry wood.

Evaporation method
Or steaming has been used in Rus' since ancient times. The workpieces are sawn into pieces, taking into account the size of the future product, laid in ordinary cast iron, sawdust from the same workpiece is sprinkled, poured with water and placed for several hours in a heated and cooling Russian oven “languishes” at t = 60-70C. In this case, “leaching” occurs - the evaporation of wood; natural juices come out of the workpiece, the wood is painted, acquiring a warm, thick chocolate color, with a pronounced natural texture pattern. Such a workpiece is easier to process, and after drying it cracks and warps less.
Waxing method

The blanks are dipped in melted paraffin and placed in an oven at t=40C for several hours. Then the wood dries out for a few more days and acquires the same properties as after steaming: it does not crack, does not warp, the surface becomes tinted with a distinct texture pattern.

Method of steaming in linseed oil
Utensils made of wood are very water-resistant and do not crack even with everyday use. This method is still acceptable today. A blank is placed in a container, poured with linseed oil and steamed over low heat. https://

How ?

Working with uncured wood is quite difficult. This process can be quite compared with falling into a pit. There may come a time when you are seized by a panic that the newly installed blocks begin to deform and the glued seams crack. You can avoid this if you study the intricacies of drying wood. This will help you avoid getting into trouble while building with wood. You can use almost any wood and you won't be disappointed.

In fact, wood is a damp sponge that absorbs moisture from the environment. A tree will reach an equilibrium moisture content when the amount of moisture in the wood is in balance with the amount of moisture in the surrounding air. This rule applies regardless of whether the tree was dried in a drying chamber or simply was on the street.
If the wood is stored in a damp place, it will become wetter and larger. Accordingly, dry air will make it smaller and drier. The main trick is to keep the wood of the building in balance with the dry air inside the room. This state should be reached before the start of work.
The largest amount reaches 30% and it is observed immediately after the material leaves the sawmill. For air drying, the material must be folded into a pack in a ventilated place. And do not forget to put gaskets between each of the layers of boards.
For these purposes, the shady part of the site is ideal. As for the basement or garage, these rooms are likely to be insufficiently ventilated. This phase is the first and at the end of it the moisture content in the tree will decrease to 12-16%, depending on the climate of the area.
And although at the end of the first stage it will seem to you that the wood is already ready for use, this is not so. It is possible to avoid problems due to cracking and deformation of the material in winter only if there is 7-9% moisture in the wood. Therefore, the second phase of drying is indispensable.
Putting lumber under, in a heated garage or barn, you will not dry the tree even for many years. This takes a lot of time and warm air. It all depends on the thickness of the material, the moisture content of the wood after the first drying phase, the moisture content of the air and its temperature.
Winter is the ideal time to dry wood. Heated air in a warehouse or house is perfect for this drying phase. If you follow the rules described below, then this process will not take too long.
The wood must be allowed to dry after sawing it into boards and after planing the edges. Surfaces must be thoroughly dried after treatment. This phase should be repeated after each of the carpentry series.
It will be more effective if the wood is dried in a stack with spacers. By placing a home fan near the wood, you will speed up the process, as additional air circulation makes drying twice as fast.
After drying, do not immediately cut the material into smaller pieces. Let the material stabilize. During this time, you can, for example, clean the room. And after that, you can start sawing and planing.
Drying wood is not a special skill. Applying all of the above, you can properly dry any tree.
A moisture content meter cannot give you an absolute indication of the quality of wood drying. However, he will help you. The principle of operation of this device is as follows: through the surface of the tree, it induces a weak current and measures the electrical resistance.
Accordingly, the lower the resistance values, the higher the moisture content in the wood. All data is displayed on an analog or digital screen. Only freshly cut surfaces should be measured, because this is the only way to assess the state of moisture inside the material.
Before you start drying wood at home, evaluate your capabilities. Most likely, the purchase of industrially dried lumber will cost you not much more, but it will save you time and effort and is guaranteed to be of higher quality.

Wood drying - technology and features

Since ancient times, people have known that dried wood has a much greater biological stability and is much easier to process. In order to dry wood faster and have a more solid effect, several different technologies were used.

Evaporation was considered a frequently used technology, in which the tree was placed in water at a temperature of 70 degrees. The wood was sprinkled and kept in this state for several days, after which it acquired a unique flexibility, did not crack and had a strong structure. Another, no less effective method of drying was waxing.
Wooden blanks were placed in paraffin heated to a temperature of 40 degrees and kept in this solution for several hours, maintaining the temperature. After drying, which could take several days, the wood became strong and ready for processing.

It was thanks to the methods of drying lumber described above that Russian craftsmen made the famous wooden utensils, painted with various patterns. Chamber drying of wood To date, technology, of course, has become more modern. There are special workshops where chamber drying of wood is used.

This technology consists of several stages: initial moisture heat treatment directly the process of wood drying intermediate moisture heat treatment predrying conditioning Thanks to such drying methods, it is possible to process huge volumes of wood in a very short time. All cameras have modern digital control panels that allow you to set different temperatures for each of the stages, as well as the duration of their passage. https://

There are special programs for drying certain types of wood. This type of drying does not depend on external factors, which makes the process much faster and more efficient. Modern microprocessor cameras do everything quickly, allowing you to process tons of wood per day.

Primary drying at home usually occurs naturally in the open air to a humidity of 20-22% and below. On supports with a height of 50-60 cm, it is necessary to arrange a stacked place. First, cross-links of thick material are laid, and then a stack is formed. Boards are laid with gaps, providing free access of air. Each next transverse layer of boards is laid on the same thickness of the gasket. Thus, a stack is formed. A coating is constructed above it, which protects the dried wood from rain and direct sunlight.

The final drying of joinery blanks should take place inside the dwelling. There is a direct relationship between the relative humidity of the air in a living room and the humidity of the wood in this room. Gradually, the wood acquires the humidity of the room. In a damp room, dry workpieces will significantly increase their moisture content, while in a dry room, the moisture content of wood will fall until it becomes equilibrium with its moisture content.

Thus, the lumber must be dried in a warm, dry room until the wood acquires an equilibrium moisture content. The best place for drying and storing lumber is in well-ventilated attics of living quarters and sheds.

For you can use mezzanines, where you can store only small workpieces, taking into account processing allowances. Do not store lumber with bark: it can develop woodworm beetles. Round unbarked timber (especially from beech, poplar) does not tolerate long-term storage: they are susceptible to infection by fungi and the formation of marble rot.

How do you know the moisture content of wood?

At home, it is very difficult to determine the moisture content of wood. The master determines the humidity by eye, by sound (dry wood rings), by weight, remembering that the material has lain to dry for at least a year. Some practitioners determine the moisture content by the nature of the chips. If thin, long (so-called drain) chips can be tied into a knot without destruction, the wood is not yet dry. If the knot cannot be tied, the chips break easily, rubbed in the hand - the wood is dry. It should be remembered that the central part of the wood may be more humid, and therefore require a longer drying time.