I have this round that I had cut from recently removed tree. It's a 3.5' or so across and between 2.75-3.5" depth. I would like to dry it best to avoid cracks as much as possible. Also any ideas how to plane it down to about 2-2.5" thickness? I have a buddy who is checking with his woodworker buddy that may need some electrical work in exchange, which would be awesome. Either way I need to know the best way to dry it to lower chance of cracking and if there is any DIY possibilities for making it flat and uniform.

I'd paint both surfaces with watered down wood glue to slow the moisture loss. You will likely still get some checking on the edges but you may be able to minimize it. You may want to find a wood shop with a large thickness sander to finish the surfaces.

Ken

Personally, I would use a product named “Anchorseal” which is used for sealing endgrain on lumber.

Wonder if a lumber yard would put it in a kiln to dry it with a load of boards? I’m not even sure if it would work.

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Originally posted by Icabod:
Wonder if a lumber yard would put it in a kiln to dry it with a load of boards? I’m not even sure if it would work.

What I would do would be to embed it in a bunch of damp wood shavings wrap it up in brown paper and let it dry slowly. It works on the wood turnings I do out of green wood. I would suggest about a month of drying time, or even 6 weeks, given the size of it. Should make a really nice coffee table, for example.

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Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
Wonder if a lumber yard would put it in a kiln to dry it with a load of boards? I’m not even sure if it would work.

What I would do would be to embed it in a bunch of damp wood shavings wrap it up in brown paper and let it dry slowly. It works on the wood turnings I do out of green wood. I would suggest about a month of drying time, or even 6 weeks, given the size of it. Should make a really nice coffee table, for example.

I have all the grindings from the stump in the back yard which I could use. This is the type of info I needed, wasn't sure if I should dry indoors or outdoors. Do I need to worry about mold if I do it as you suggest?

Don’t expect to eliminate all checking, especially if the wood is still green.
All my experience involved using a dry kiln for soft wood which can be dried relatively quickly. Putting the hardwood round in a dry kiln would probably accelerate checking.
I’ve seen a varnish type coating used on the end grain of air dried hardwood lumber to reduce checking. Don’t recall the name of it.
As far as milling the thickness down, I don’t know of any wide belt Timer Saver sander owner that would tie up a machine long enough to grind it down.
Personally, I’d make me a jig using a couple pieces of angle iron set up to allow me to pass a router back and forth over the wood to cut it to rough thickness then use a belt sander and sand it by hand going finer and finer on the sanding belt grit.
Incidentally, you’ll want to let it dry flat on several narrow support sticks to minimize warping and cupping. Cutting a relatively thin round relieved a lot of inherent stress, but not all of it. Be patient. I’ve seen truckloads of hardwood lumber practically crawl off a flatbed truck when unstrapped. Wood will mess with your mind sometimes. Good luck

IMO odds are 99:100 that its going to crack. No matter what you do, that is what wood cut like that does, especially something so thin.

If I absolutely had to stop that from cracking, regardless of cost and appearance I would have a metal shop make a large, heavy duty (think 1/4”x 2” steel) hose clamp to go around the outside edge. Make sure the edge is 90* to the faces and clamp it as tight as possible, never to be removed.

I have never done it before but you might be able to do something similar to the jig this guy rigged up. Get one side level then flip it and do the other side. If possible do some rough planing with a hand held power planer to get closer to the thickness you are looking for. Then finish up with the router.
Good Luck!



Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQwwviE1ikM

Try soaking it in denatured alcohol for 2 days to prevent warping, cracking and to speed up drying time significantly. Then place inside plastic bag with wood shavings. (Google : drying wood with denatured alcohol)
Product called “Anchorseal” will reduce cracking. But try denatured alcohol first.

We cut a large Ash tree down from my woods and had it cut into slabs and kiln dried. Most pieces had some cracking and others had a lot of cracking.
The pieces that we did not dry cracked more.

We still have about 20 slabs of it. Ranging from 1.5" thick to 2.75" x 9'.

To reiterate what others have said:

It is unlikely that a full round like that won't crack, you've got the most likely cross section for separation and there will be tension.

The best thing to do to try to not have it crack, is for the moisture to come out of it as slowly as possible. Don't kiln dry it, absolutely not.

Basically, the slowest way to do it, is to have an open air shed, and stack this thing on some dunnage, or battens or whatever you'd like to call sticks that allow air to circulate. sit it on a few, then put some on top, then a bunch of large heavy objects on top of that. Leave it in the shed, out of direct sunlight, for a really long time. Patience will be rewarded.

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Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
Wonder if a lumber yard would put it in a kiln to dry it with a load of boards? I’m not even sure if it would work.

What I would do would be to embed it in a bunch of damp wood shavings wrap it up in brown paper and let it dry slowly. It works on the wood turnings I do out of green wood. I would suggest about a month of drying time, or even 6 weeks, given the size of it. Should make a really nice coffee table, for example.

I have all the grindings from the stump in the back yard which I could use. This is the type of info I needed, wasn't sure if I should dry indoors or outdoors. Do I need to worry about mold if I do it as you suggest?

I have never had any mold on the dozens of times I have done it. I currently have about23 rough turned bowls that I dried that way, no mold at all. Only problem I have is that they tend to warp slightly as they dry. Not a problem, really since I leave them about an inch thick for the drying process, then finish them down to about 1/4 inch thick.

Any warping of your round should be minimal, and easily taken care of when you start the finishing work.

Edited to add: Those grindings/shavings you have would work fine. I would probably fabricate some kind of wood box, out of slats, big enough to hold your round. Keep it off the ground, put in a nice thick layer of your grindings, put in your slab/round, put in more grindings, cover the whole thing with brown paper. You can buy the paper at several places. The idea is to dry the round, slowly. The shavings dry but help slow the process to where any splitting should be minor. I have done dozens of bowls like that and never had one split.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Elk Hunter,

This thing would take up half my shed and prevent me from removing my lawn mower. So my only options are outdoors or in my basement. Between those two options, would one be better.

Found Pentacryl suggested online. Anyone have thoughts on it?

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I’d make me a jig using a couple pieces of angle iron set up to allow me to pass a router back and forth over the wood to cut it to rough thickness then use a belt sander and sand it by hand going finer and finer on the sanding belt grit.

My grandson did this when working on a large "round" for a friend of his. Going to be an end table.

Regarding checking, somewhere they found a suggestion to use beeswax to greatly reduce/eliminate checking. Have not been following their progress, but the last time I saw it, the checking had largely been eliminated.

We have an arts/crafts store here in town that stocks the bees wax in blocks. One of which would be several times what you would likely need.

I use beeswax sometimes in my wood turning. But not to fill cracks. I use it as a finishing material. Applied while the piece is turning at medium speed, then "polished" with a paper towel.

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beeswax

Beeswax melted with heat gun and brushed in was one thing I also found.

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Originally posted by Skins2881:

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beeswax

Beeswax melted with heat gun and brushed in was one thing I also found.

What grandson and friend did was to simply rub the beeswax back and forth across the cracks until no more would go in. Leave it set. after a while it looked like some of that beeswax was pushed back out of the cracks as those cracks seemed to close up. How far they closed, I have no idea as grandson's buddy took it home to work on it. Oh, that round was from a tree that went down in a windstorm in my backyard. The stump measured 88 inches around. So that slab was pretty good size.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
Wonder if a lumber yard would put it in a kiln to dry it with a load of boards? I’m not even sure if it would work.

What I would do would be to embed it in a bunch of damp wood shavings wrap it up in brown paper and let it dry slowly. It works on the wood turnings I do out of green wood. I would suggest about a month of drying time, or even 6 weeks, given the size of it. Should make a really nice coffee table, for example.

The rule of thumb I've always heard for air-drying fresh green wood to dry, stable wood at moisture equilibrium is a year per inch of thickness.

A lot of online sources give that rule of thumb, e.g., https://www.wood-database.com/...drying-wood-at-home/

You could always dry it in your oven...if it fits.


https://splitwoodclub.com/how-...-practical-diy-guide

Looks like I didn't act quick enough. Tons of small cracks in it already. Dang it.