Sawing and Drying

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Resawing air dried black walnut

5/12/14       
Mike Member

Three years ago I had a black walnut log sawed into ~2'x11' planks, each about 4 to 4.5 inches thick. I plan on building a live edge dining room table. THey have been stickered and air drying next to my house in a shelter I built. Looking back, I probably should have cut the slabs a little thinner so they would dry quicker. Similar tables have finished thicknesses closer to 2.5". I have two questions:
1) it seems wasteful to thin a 4" slab to a 2.5" finished thickness. Should I anticipate needing this much waste due to warping, etc?
2) how/when would you recommend I resaw planks into a couple that are 2" thick for another purpose? I'm concerned about warping if the centers are not yet dried. Even when they are "dry" the centers will differ from the edges with likely consequences. Should I instead cut thinner pieces from each face, leaving a 2" thick center piece? I would rather net two pieces that are 2" think though.

Thanks!
Mike (new guy)

5/13/14       #2: Resawing air dried black walnut ...
Gene Wengert-WoodDoc

Take a pin meter with insulated needed and see what sort of gradient you have. If none, the resawing should go smoothly.

5/14/14       #3: Resawing air dried black walnut ...
Dave Boyt  Member

Website: http://www.norwoodsawmills.com

Do you detect any cupping or other warping at this point? Determining moisture gradient is important, since you don't want to resaw when there is stress in the boards. Boards that wide can be tricky to resaw, I would rip them in half, resaw, kiln dry, surface & plane them, then joint and reassemble the pieces.

5/14/14       #5: Resawing air dried black walnut ...
Mike Member

Nothing obvious, but it's hard to tell while they're stacked and covered by my shelter. I've attached some pictures.

I have a pin moisture meter, but that's only good to an ~1 inch. The most effective way, and I did this after year one, is to cut off an end and measure the cut face. At the time, it was still obviously wet in the middle...football-shaped green center. I would rather not take too many cutoffs. Because the planks are so thick, the cutoff lengths get to be more loss than I would like. There's probably no other way though.

I can rip the planks narrower for the pieces that will be used for projects other than my table top. But I would not want to rip the table boards. If 4-4.5" thickness is too much or too wasteful for the top and I should resaw as a result, that's where it seems I will have the most difficulty unless they are bone dry. That's what I think I'm hearing here. Maybe it's not worth the risk and I should plan on taking the 4-4.5" thickness down to the final dimension without trying to salvage thinner pieces.

Mike


View higher quality, full size image (448 X 336)


View higher quality, full size image (448 X 336)

5/20/14       #6: Resawing air dried black walnut ...
Steve McGuire

A table with a 4" top will never be stolen. lol

FWIW:
I cut my slabs at 2 3/8" and I see many are cut at around 3". Walnut seems to be pretty stable from warping as long as there is enough weight on it. Thicker slabs warp less than thinner. Since they've been cut that thickness I'd go with that thickness. Maybe resaw the very center cut slab for legs to get rid of the heart center.
Drying can be done with a cheap Walmart dehumidifier and a Harbor Freight tarp. . Put the stickered slabs on a dry base (garage floor?), cover with a tarp tent so air can flow all around with the DH unit under the tarp and let it run. Thinner slabs need to be removed sooner other wise they will dry too much.


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