Redrying 4/4 Hard Maple
Tips for re-drying a load of wood that got wetted by rain, without incurring damage. December 31, 2013
Question
I have a load of 4/4 hard maple that was rewetted by holes in a tarp on a truck. I need to redry this and I am looking for a schedule or some advice. The packages are going in the kiln whole and most of the water was on the top layers and some ends of the packs also had exposure to water.
Forum Responses
From Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor:
Do you have a kiln? If so, go to 130 F and an EMC that is one percent under the average MC you want. Details are in Drying Hardwood Lumber. I seem to recall it is about page 108, but I am at Grand Canyon and do not have a copy.
From contributor T:
My redry setpoints for this type of redry are 130/100. I think that's an EMC of about 5.6%. Average time is about 72 hours.
From the original questioner:
When I do a re-dry I tend to have end and surface checking. I'm trying to work this out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
From contributor B:
If you are having issues with end and surface checks after redrying surface wet wood, consider that these might have been existing checks which, though once closed, have deepened and opened with the wetting and redrying. I think I'd be looking more towards reducing losses than finding a correcting solution to this issue. However I also wouldn't expect meaningful surface checking in 4/4 maple.
