Drying green wood for tops

[Audio Artillery]

Long story short... the only top wood I could find locally is a rather nice quartersawn red cedar plank. It was all of $9 so I'm intending to make the top for my first instrument from it.

Has anyone ever used something like this? I'm going to let it sit in the garage until I get antsy and then I'm thinking of using my oven to kiln dry it. I've seen some people say 24 hours at 205 F will work. Should I seal the ends of the pieces before I cook them? The ends of the plank are currently sealed, but I'll need to cut it down to fit in the oven. What should I seal them with? Needs to be food safe... mineral oil good enough?

[Stephen Perry]

Isn't it already kiln dried, being a plank? Unless it came direct from a mill.

I wouldn't cook, myself. I've taken planks roughsawn, and billets split from my trees, heavily painted the ends with latex, and simply left in my shed for 3 years.

I've also used kiln dried wood directly without trouble.

Spruce should chime in here.

[Rob Grant]

I've done the same thing in the past. When I first started messin' around with mandolin building I found traditional northern hemisphere tonewoods difficult and expensive to obtain (they bloody well still are!<g>). I located a timber supplier in nearby Cairns who was importing North American Red Cedar in thick, long planks for decking. I spent several hours checking out his stacks for well quartered material. I came up with several nice ten footers that I still use to this day.

I think you'll find that most of this sort of timber is already kiln dried (mine was). If you're worried about it, cut it up into wedges, seal the ends, sticker it and let it sit around for a few years. Or, just get your hands on a moisture testing device, see if its right and get stuck into building.

[barney 59]

It seems that the closer you are to the source the more difficult it is to find dry wood of the local type. I worked as a carpenter in Australia once upon a time and was amazed at the high quality of North American lumber that was available there, most notably douglas fir. I can now stroll through a fir forest close to where I live but would find it extremely difficult to purchase DF of that quality. When I lived in West Virginia we used furniture/instrument quality wood in our fires but to find the same thing as lumber already dry was hard to obtain. Many, and that includes me, believe that air dried lumber is far superior to kiln dried. Stash it away for a later date.

[Michael Lewis]

Cedar dries fairly quickly so don't rush the drying process or you may lose the material. DON'T put it in the oven unless you understand how kiln drying process actually works. Call a few cabinet shops to see if they have a moisture meter and if they can read your wood for you. If you are going to make more instruments invest in a meter of your own. I report from a painful personal experience that you are risking too much if you are making instruments without a moisture meter unless you are using wood that is known to be dry. Even then, if dry wood sits around for a while it will pick up moisture if the air is humid.

[Spruce]

Spruce should chime in here.

Yeah, right... ;)

OK, why do you think the cedar needs further drying??
Is it fresh off the mill, cold to the touch, or what??

[Audio Artillery]

OK, why do you think the cedar needs further drying??
Is it fresh off the mill, cold to the touch, or what??

The guy at the counter said their lumber was "green". I bought it at a place that sells stuff for decking + fences.

However, I did a rough weighing with a bathroom scale and it is between 6 and 7 lbs. A kiln-dried plank of that size should be 6.56 lbs. There's some room for error in my measurements (bathroom scale) but even accounting for it this plank is dry.

Sorry for the run-around, I should have weighed it first. Thanks for the advice, guys.