Woodworking is the skill or ability to make wood products, including cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), carving wood, joinery, carpentry, and woodworking.
Many of us who deal with wood has probably felt the discomfort of wood warping, cracking, and changing shape at some point. This is something that has been studied by experts for many years and is still quite an issue in the lumber industry. No one will choose a faulty piece of wood willingly over a perfect, straight one.
That's why you still see two by 4s deformed or otherwise defective at home centers, which are removed from the neat piles of wood after people dig through the stack to find straight ones. I assume these faulty boards are returned to the lumber yard, and a refund is promptly received. This problem is reportedly costing millions of dollars annually in the US alone for the wood industry.
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Because working with wood is simple, convenient, and economical, these downsides also need to be addressed, not to mention potential issues of durability when untreated. Let's take a look at the science behind why wood warps and cracks, so we can better appreciate these problems and fix them. Managing wood defects properly involves identifying them first, and then understanding what to do with them.
We'll get into the whys and wherefores of the science of wood warping as well as wood cracking. There are many possible explanations for wood exhibiting geometric and structural defects, some due to internal knots and irregularities of grain and others due to post-cut conditions of climate.
Wood is an organic material, and as such, it is strongly affected by its climate. In particular, it is continuously attempting to reach a state of equilibrium with the ambient air. This is named "green forest" when the tree is first felled. Greenwood can contain more than 50 percent of its weight in water, depending on the size.
This water found in wood, naturally, is divided into two categories: free water and bound water. According to the terms, open water is water that is only retained within the wood by capillary action, and bound water is water trapped within the forest by bonding with hydrogen. Once the wood is dry, the first one to leave the wood would be free water.
Fibre Saturation Point of Wood (FSP)
This is a very significant junction in the wood-drying process and determines the moisture content after extracting all free water from the wood. Wood shrinkage and force shift will not be a concern until this stage. It is from this point that the warping begins, and the force shifts. FSP is typically obtained with a moisture level of 25 to 30 percent.
"Why does the wood need to be dried anyway?"
Unless, when you dry it, wood shrinks and warps, why do they? Well, as I discussed in this article earlier, wood is continuously on a journey to strike a balance with the surrounding climate. This means that if you do not dry it before use in a controlled setting, the wood will most likely shrink or warp in your "uncontrolled" atmosphere after you have cut and match it all entirely somewhere, leaving ugly flaws and creating all kinds of problems.
As a rule, when moisture leaves the wood, wood can shrink and expand as it enters. This is why you'd like to dry the forest in a setting close to the one you're going to use it in. Drying wood in a humid region and then transporting it to a drier one for use would, in the first place, defeat the intent of drying it, as you will get shrinkage!
The general rule of thumb is to keep your wood's moisture content as close as possible to equilibrium before use, so it won't have to force itself to do so later. That is the fundamental reasoning behind the wood-drying process. (Another trick some carpenters use is to make a clean and uniform preemptive cut down the middle of the length of the larger lumber to alleviate the stress.)
There are other advantages of drying wood too. Significant structural power is that, with wood drying below FSP, a force can usually increase. There are, of course, some exceptions. If too much wood is dried out, the impact is brittle and weaker. Below I will mention, for your convenience and reference, the key benefits of wood-drying:
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Decay and stain-causing species in wood can not usually survive below 20 percent moisture content. Most wood-loving insects are also only allowed to live in a green forest.
It is smaller, making it simpler and cheaper to carry and handle.
Dried wood has higher thermal and electrical insulation properties, in comparison to the greenwood.
Different finishes, preservatives, and glues work better on dry wood and often last longer. Dried wood helps certain substances to penetrate properly.
In general, dried wood is more reliable than greenwood.
Potential Problems related to Wood-drying
Now that I've discussed the positive points for dry wood let's check out possible issues. One of wood-drying's most significant challenges is to do it so fast to where it produces compressive pressures against the center called case hardening. It is potentially very risky when the tension is released unexpectedly after cutting. Wood must dry from the outside into the body.
However, if that process is not regulated, the wood's outer parts can dry faster than the inside. Since the wood's inner parts are still saturated, it does not shrink at the same rate as the outer parts. This will put what is called drying stresses on the outer sections of the wood, resulting in the case being hardened and cracked and broken. The solution to this is to monitor the drying process by either using kilns or sealing the wood partially with oil like mineral oil.
Mineral oil can penetrate the wood just 1-2 mm and can be planned off after drying. Sealing the wood partially will ensure that it does not air-dry too quickly, thereby significantly reducing the chance of cracks and splits. You may also cover the forest in a material that prevents moisture movement but must protect the wood against contamination with the fungi. They're going to do things like fuel or even oil.
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