I cut some live edge slabs and want to use them within a month so I am fast drying them inside our home using a fan and stickers to allow air to flow between the boards.
I had cut some live edge slabs on my own lumber mill a while back and I want to give them out as gifts at the end of the year. But generally a live edge slab takes one year per inch of board thickness to dry properly. You can use a kiln to dry lumber faster but that is very expensive and takes up a lot of space.
I studied a lot online about kiln drying lumber and also how to dry lumber outside in nature. I also looked into drying lumber indoors. Nowhere could I find an article about drying lumber indoors from start to finish. Most articles I found told how to finish drying inside after slow drying outside for a year.
I also talked to a professional sawyer who gave me some tips. Back in the old days they cut green lumber and built homes with it. The old times have a lot of experience with many ways of drying lumber.
We heat our off grid tiny house with a wood stove so our humidity is very low in the living room. We have to keep a pot of water on the wood stove to add moisture into the air. So the living room is out of the question.
But we recently set up storage and my office in the spare bedroom. This room is not as warm as the living room and gets a lot of moisture from the bathroom. So I figured this is the perfect place to dry my lumber faster but without drying it too fast. Out in the living room the ends of the boards would split badly and the lumber would warp from drying too fast.
But out in the back room I think it will turn out nicely.
I have a fan blowing on the wood all night and then turn it off during the day. This keeps air moving over the wood all night but lets it rest at night. I am not sure if the resting is necessary but it is nicer to have it quiet and peaceful in the house during the day anyway so we shut it during the day.
The wood has been in there two weeks now and it is looking very good so far. It is a lot lighter than it was when I first brought it inside. Now this was already one year old when I opened it up on the lumber mill so it was no longer green. It just has a high moisture content from sitting outside.
The boards are nice and straight with no splitting on the ends so far. I think this is going to be a success. I will do a follow up video and article when it is finished in two more weeks.
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