Dried timber: positive factors and necessary equipment

The durability of the structure depends on the quality of drying of wood, otherwise the timber may warp over time, rot, and insects and fungus will always be created in it. So how to dry timber without cracks and residual harmful moisture? After all, only proper drying will improve the mechanical qualities of the wood, prevent its warping, rotting and cracking.

Note that the instruction states: the moisture index indicates the amount of water in the wood. By the way, this moisture is both free and bound. But free moisture evaporates well, lightening wood, and bound moisture leaves very slowly.

Features of dried timber

It is clear that at first the moisture from the outer layers intensively evaporates. This is what creates great stress in wood: stretching the surface and the appearance of cracks.

Types of timber

Experts specify how to dry the timber with a different drying rate:

• masoyaschayuschie - pine, spruce, fir, white poplar, cedar;
• Middle-drying - beech, oak, aspen, elm, black poplar, ash, small-leaved linden;
• strongly drying - hornbeam, Norway maple, birch, larch.

The percentage of moisture in a profile bar = mass of water in wood / mass of dry wood.

Properties of dried lumber

Let's summarize the goals of drying timber:

• increase the safety of the material;
• strengthen the strength properties;
• avoid cracking;
• strengthen connections;
• simplify construction work;
• increase insulating capacity;
• protect the wood by painting immediately after installation;
• reduce the inevitable changes in finished construction;
• improve the surface without additional cladding.

Ways to create dried timber

Atmospheric, natural

• Uneven bars stored in piles under sheds in the open air for several months.
• Cover the ends with glue or lime to prevent cracks.
• But due to changes in weather, humidity and temperature, the material is sometimes deformed, small cracks are formed.

Chamber

• The bar in the drying chambers, equipped with heating heaters, fans, air ducts, promotes uniform, proper drying.
• The effectiveness of such drying is indisputable: we are not dependent on the weather, and the process controls the computer, reducing the time, but increasing the volume.

Note! We dry the freshly sawn timber in the chamber, and then we profile it already with 20% humidity.

Generator

Drying high-frequency generators.

• Here, the wood in the circuit of this generator is a dielectric in a capacitor (the electrical energy of the supplied alternating current is converted into heat).
• Timber, heating, dries intensively and evenly.
• But the cost of electricity is significant, so the price of the bar is higher. By the way, ready dry timber is always 2 times more expensive.

Types of drying chambers

Convective

There are 2 types of such cameras.

• Continuous duct dryers, where the piles are pushed all the time further to a drier place in 4 to 12 hours. We load the tunnel from the “wet” edge, and unload it from the opposite, “dry” one.
• Drying chambers of special periodic action are smaller than tunnel ones, and can have only 1 door. But the parameters of the environment, airflow, ventilation reversion guarantee perfect drying. After drying, the chamber is completely freed and loaded with raw logs, from which the energy loss increases by 20% than in the tunnel cells.

Condensation

• The condensation chamber collects evaporating moisture from the coolers and leads to the sewage system.
• But here the heat pumps do not give high temperatures, so the cycle is slow.
• Electricity provides the compressor cooler.

Innovative

• Vacuum chambers with a pressure of 0.5 bar accelerate the drying of the beam with the complete absence of warping and cracks.
• Microwave cameras, electromagnetic dryers are also innovations, as are hot air dryers.

Drying at home

High-quality drying of timber at home can be carried out in one of the following ways.

Natural drying

Tip! It is worth knowing the time of cutting a tree under a timber: in the fall and in the winter there is no movement of the juice, which means that the humidity is minimal - the logs will quickly dry out.

Conditions for proper drying:

• Selection of material of one thickness and breed.
• Direct material in the stack: even stacks and lanes between the rows will increase air circulation.
• Lining at the base.
• Pegs under each other and intermediate boards in a row with pegs;
• Optimum air movement: not tight placement, so that the air passes horizontally.
• Air dampers for uniform airing stacks.
• The canopy will protect from rain and sun, and the purged site will speed up the process.

Note! Long-term drying of the timber drying of the timber at home guarantees a humidity of less than 18%.

Thermocamera

• Imitation dryer: non-residential premises with a brick stove and heating along the walls.
• We build piles with our own hands, lay them along the trellis rows and drown the stove, raising the temperature to 50 degrees.
• Then the room cools to + 20.
• Repeat cycle.
• In a week the timber is ready.

Tip! Final drying of planed timber is possible only in a heated room. Therefore, ventilated attics, heated sheds and garages, as well as residential buildings are the best storage facilities and dryers.

Conclusion

• Primary drying is carried out with warm air, minimum humidity, but in natural conditions.
• We build a platform on pillars.
• Crosswise and along we place the timber on thin strips (for free ventilation).

The humidity level of the obtained dried wood at home is not easy to learn. The master determines it by weight, by eye or by sound (dry wood rings when tapping).

Experienced practitioners will recognize the degree of moisture from the chips: they tie long chips in a knot. If the chips did not collapse, the wood is still damp, and if it breaks up, it is already dry. But pay attention to the heart of the timber - it is sometimes more humid, then it is worth a little more to dry.

The video in this article has additional information we need on this topic.