Prevent Twist and Warp in Doug Fir

[hbmcc]

Today I brought home a dozen above grade treated DF 2x4s. The lightest 10-footer must weigh 20 pounds. At 2 gallons volume, there needs to be extra lead in these things. DF is dipped and supposedly kiln dried. Nahhh!!! But the question is....

How do you dry wood and prevent all the twisties that want to happen?

[cputnam]

Sticker, clamp and then use your best incantations. Kind of like the joke about arguing with women, it doesn't matter what the theory is, it doesn't work.

[Rob Young]

The "treated" aspect is probably going to cause you some grief. But stacked, stickered and a bit of weight on top with room for air all around is probably your best bet. I don't typically stockpile treated 2x lumber but occasionally I browse the bunkers at the HD on restocking day and maybe buy one 2x6 or 2x8 and some 1x material that looks good. That gets stickered in the basement for future use.

No direct sunlight, no high-velocity air movement to keep things drying evenly. Usually works out.

Good luck with your pretzels.

[WoodTinker]

Today I brought home a dozen above grade treated DF 2x4s. The lightest 10-footer must weigh 20 pounds. At 2 gallons volume, there needs to be extra lead in these things. DF is dipped and supposedly kiln dried. Nahhh!!! But the question is....

How do you dry wood and prevent all the twisties that want to happen?

Best to find a better dealer where the treated 2x4s are already dry and pick from those.

You do not want it to dry in your shop, rusty tools are the result.

[Enigmatic]

Why bother? Buy better wood.

[rwe2156]

Today I brought home a dozen above grade treated DF 2x4s. The lightest 10-footer must weigh 20 pounds. At 2 gallons volume, there needs to be extra lead in these things. DF is dipped and supposedly kiln dried. Nahhh!!! But the question is....

How do you dry wood and prevent all the twisties that want to happen?

As wood dries, the board will assume whatever shape the internal stresses relax to.  All you can do is sticker it and hope for the best.  Straight grain wood will do well, wood with a lot of knots will usually warp and twist.

You can try banding it with cargo straps to hold it while it acclimates.

[hbmcc]

I am beating rotten sticks, rattling old nails, and offering tried-and-true incantations over the nasty things all the time.

Most of what I brought home will be bucked up into 14 -15 inch blocking. [And, not something I expected to do!] The yard I got it from is a first, a private dealer who does a very brisk business. The species used for 'dipped' treatment is Doug Fir (DF), maddening to try nailing into but the species probably has longer life than current cedar. 

I may just go back for dry, straight treated wood for the longer lengths I need. It will take some time to dry the wood I have and the project must be done the end of August.

I appreciate all your shock at our tribulations with wood on the left coast! 

[TraditionalToolworks]

Method #1.

Not really rocket science, but cut some stickers to allow air to flow between the boards, that will help them dry if they have moisture in them.

Stack on top of each other and put some weight on the top layer. Wood takes about 1 year per inch to dry, so keep that in mind.

Method #2

Use it as it is, dimension and assemble, hope the glue holds it.


IMO, if you're building a bench with it, just use it, glue it up and be done with it. If it warps, plane the top flat again. Once assembled and glued up it will not move very much and what it does move can easily be planed later.

Alan

[Bibliophile 13]

If it's anything like the treated stuff around here, it's going to be soaking wet and will take a year or two to dry out.  


Lots of weight on top of a stickered stack is about the best you can do.

[hbmcc]

If it's anything like the treated stuff around here, it's going to be soaking wet and will take a year or two to dry out.  

Oh, good! I'm in good company. I keep thinking SYP is the same as DF; nearly the same properties, but all I see of SYP are pristine boards that are knot-free. One of the traits of simple dipping is wet, harder wood. They said hemlock (soft) is used for punched pressure treatment, which makes sense as after 10 years it looks horrible.

Most of the treated wood is now firewood sized chunks, for blocking on my deck. Always the positive dude, I over-lengthened the boards about a 1/16th just counting on them to be loose sometime after I nail them in. Of course, this means none will wedge into place while wet.