I purchased some “green” 4X6 pine timbers last fall for a timber framing project I am about to start on. The timbers were all planed smooth and I stacked them inside our building with spacers between each layer so they could dry. I even put end grain sealer on them to slow the drying process. Last week I was ready to cut some joinery, so I started sorting through the material only to find that they have all bent, warped and twisted beyond what is useable. Since they are already milled to size, I can’t remove more material to true them up.
What did I do wrong here? I’ve been told that they must’ve dried too fast in the low humidity building, or that they dried unevenly due to lack of air circulation inside the building- should I have left them out in the weather to dry instead?
Are there any fixes? It was suggested that I could soak them in water to straighten them back out, but not sure if i buy that theory. Hopefully there is a fix for what might become a very expensive pile of firewood!
Replies
Paging frenchy..............
You didn't really do anything "wrong" -- they didn't dry too fast, or too slow, or unevenly. It's just that wood, especially wood that size, will move as its moisture content changes.
The only way around this is either to mill up and assemble your project before the wood MC changes, or get oversized stock and re-mill it after it reaches equilibrium. The latter is how it's usually done. Also, how the wood was cut from the log has a bearing on how much it will move, with straight-grained quartersawn wood being the most stable.
You will not be able to straighten this stock without milling it -- I wouldn't even bother trying.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
You're screwed!
sorry, I know it's tough but when you work with green timbers you either let them dry and than do the finish work or you do the finish work and put them up green. Wood will do what wood will do and while it's possible to staighten out thin (say 1 inch) wood once warped you won't have any luck straightening larger timbers.
I dried all of my timbers for 3 years before I finished them and put them up yet still they have moved around massively on me.. 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch is not uncommon.. (that's on 6 or 12 inch white oak. Pine will move even more)
Now you need to step back and make a choice.. you can most likely still use the timbers if you haven't yet cut them to size or cut out the mortice pockets etc.. Look at the twists and curl etc. as charcter and realize that is typical of what wood will do anyway..