I have always had questions about air dried lumber. I know people buy it and seem to get buy with the higher moisture content but I have always been scared to buy it. I am afraid one day it will explode. LOL So what is your take on buying air dried versus kiln dried lumber? I am not talking about lumber for turning a bowl. 

KD is about all that's readily available out here except for local mesquite and pine. With the arid conditions in AZ, the locally harvested lumber is dry before it hits the ground. 

 

 

I have and do use both air dried and kiln dried lumber.  If you keep moisture levels down then either is suitable.  To me, the biggest difference is that kiln dried lumber is somewhat more stable and less prone to warp.  Just my opinion.

Hawk, it also depends on where you live, what area are you in?

We want to get our lumber down to around 8% ideally and in my area in Southern CA, I live close to the desert and it's easily achievable. It all depends on the EMC (Equalibrium Moisture Content)

There are pro's and con's to both air dried and kiln dried. In my own opinion and my own experience in using both, here are the major pros and cons, remember, based on my experience, again, we are able to get our lumber air dried down to an EMC of 8% easily in my region so my results are ideal.

 

Air dried pros: Actually I can think of one right now, the color in the lumber, such as Walnut, or Claro Walnut retains its spectacular tones and sharp crisp colors. Also, since you air dried it in the region you are creating the project in, the lumber is very stable since you are working the same EMC the lumber was dried in.

Air dried cons: During the drying process the lumber can and most likely will have defects such as cracks, splits, cupping, all of which are reduced significantly if the person doing the air drying knows what they are doing (not me!) and stacks the lumber correctly and covers it appropriately to slow the rate of moisture loss.

 

Kiln dried pros: The lumber dries quickly ready to use in weeks instead of months or even years. The lumber is stable as well.

Kiln dried cons: The lumber moisture content can be brought down to ideal EMC around 8% (but keep in mind, once it comes out of the kiln into the natural EMC, it re-absorbs to an extent the moisture in the air which could raise the EMC up to twice what it was when it left the kiln, so that nice wonderful 8% you achieved out of the kiln, could change to 16%, thus the reason why in many regions you want the boards to stabilize in your shop for a week or more before you use them on that special project no matter if you use air or kiln dried).

The lumbers tones and colors, (is that called Tannins?) tend to run together on boards that are colorful, using my Claro Walnut example above, creating a hazy bleeding together of colors, because the drying process is quicker, the colors destabilize and blend together, this really happens! I've seen it!

 

That's all I have for now, remember, the above is based on my own experience, and location in a very dry climate,

Around here I'm better off getting air dried lumber. 

      If I get Kiln Dried especially from Menards I can expect at least 20-25% of it to become boat bows by the

      time I can get it home. 

Edited October 31, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

@John Morris It does not get down to 8% here. Kiln drying can burst the cells so that they do not hold water (case hardening) as well as before but KD lumber holds the same amount of water as air dried and will move the same. I do believe that air dried absorbs moisture faster when the humidity changes. By the way it is not written but might be a good idea to mix KD and AD in a glue up such as a table top due to uneven moisture absorption. Almost all the hardwoods I use are AD.

Thanks, guys for the very good answers. I have asked this question two other places and I didn't learn much. The bottom line is I am going to try some air dried lumber and see how I like it. I feel much better about trying it now.

Amazon has a decent moisture meter for around $22.

 But, hey, as long as you don't get sprayed when you cut it, your good. 

 

Edited October 31, 20187 yr by Gene Howe

Morris has a very valid point about color.  The colors of air dried lumber are Z”brighter” than kiln dried. As a point of discussion, our forefather woodworkers used air dried lumber for decades without any issues.  

I have all my lumber sawn from the tree and stacked and air dried. I’m only a couple of hours south of you, I have lumber air dried that will read on the meter in the 8-10% Range. We build a lot of furniture and other items and so far I’ve never had a piece come back because it changed shape. I had some kiln dried in Pulaski, TN and when I picked it up it was curved and cracked. They tried to take it down too fast and made it worse. 

I usually cut my logs long and if I have splitting on the ends I still have room to square them up and cut out the split end.

 

 

 

i just picked this Cedar up at the mill Tuesday afternoon. Already got it stickered and stacked.

 

 

 

33 minutes ago, John Moody said:

i just picked this Cedar up at the mill Tuesday afternoon. Already got it stickered and stacked.

John, in your experience, how long will it take until the cedar is ready to use?

Also, do you wrap your lumber with anything while it's drying or is it just stickered in your lumber storage structure? Thanks!

1 hour ago, John Moody said:

i just picked this Cedar up at the mill

that sure looks like redwood..

1 minute ago, Stick486 said:

that sure looks like redwood..

Stick,

I believe it's Eastern Red Cedar, I've got a few of those trees but nothing big enough to harvest yet.

4 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Stick,

I believe it's Eastern Red Cedar, I've got a few of those trees but nothing big enough to harvest yet.

don't see much ERC here..

WRC

 

 

Redwood

 

We'll have to wait on @John Moody to see what he says it is. 

2 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

We'll have to wait on @John Moody to see what he says it is. 

he already said it was cedar...

1 minute ago, Stick486 said:

he already said it was cedar...

But what kind of Cedar? 

If John Moody says it's cedar, you can rest assured it's cedar, he's been using it for years building his Green Egg tables. As far as the type of Cedar, it would make sense it's Eastern Red Cedar.

Perhaps our Wiki has information on it.

eastern red...

 

3 minutes ago, John Morris said:

If John Moody says it's cedar, you can rest assured it's cedar,

I believe him..