Drying Yellow Pine

[Chris Hachet]

Big Box store near me had some really nice SYP the other day, so on impulse I bought a good bit and brought it home. need to know who makes an affordable moisture meter, or how to tell when it's dry enough to start gluing up into a top. Cut it to length at the Store, because I drove my Miata in to pick up some air tool fittings for another project. Bought some lumber for framing up the base for a sharpening-dedicated work table also....it all fit in the car, barely. Stopped for a cup of Java at the local drive through, got some funny looks from the lady at the window....

[David Weaver]

What's the relative humidity where you live? I'd sticker it and use it in a month or two. It's not going to get to hardwood lumber KD numbers unless you live somewhere really dry, and it will be usable if it passes out part of the moisture that's in it. I wouldn't buy the moisture meter on account of a bench. You're going to be laminating stuff left and right, and that's going to negate a lot of the movement you might get if it's a tad wet when you build the bench.

[Chris Hachet]

I'll just sticker it then, it's pretty much what my gut was telling me anyways.

[Kees Heiden]

You can weigh one of the boards and check the weight periodically. After a while it will stop loosing weight. That's what I did with a bunch of beech, and it works very precise. Write the numbers on the test piece, so the meassurements don't get lost.

[dan sherman]

Sticker it in your shop for 2 or 3 weeks, and then rough cut all your boards over-sized by 1/8" - 1/2" depending on length, and then sticker for another 2 weeks or so. if you have a box fan blow air over it. I did this a couple years ago, and the fan coupled with the dehumidifier in the garage brought the EMC in the SYP down into the 8 - 10% range after about a month and a half.