how long to acclimatise wood

[wallace]

Hi all, I am building a fitted wardrobe. I have constructed a face frame out of cls and now I want to cover it with maple. The wood was kiln dried but it has been in my workshop for a couple of years so its moisture content is unknown. I have cut all the pieces over size and I am planning on a final thickness of 10mm. So the thing I'm unsure of is how long should I leave the stuff in the house before I machine everything to final dimensions. I recently made a staircase and for the nule post I laminated a couple of lengths, when I planed it up their was no glue line. A week later you can see a line.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I would give it a good 6 weeks.

 

[wallace]

Thanks Bob, I wasn't expecting that long . The stuff is only 13mm

 

[marcus]

so its moisture content is unknown.

Which is why you need a moisture meter :wink:

If its only 13mm thick it should be fine in a week or two if it is not too damp, and nice and toasty in the house, but a meter would take the guess work out.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

you can buy cheap moisture meters which would give you a heads up as you go. Might only take 2 weeks, but without knowing the start point mc its difficult to gauge.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

LOL...crossed in the post

 

[custard]

I've heard some very knowledgeable and experienced timber merchants say that once wood has been dried to below about 10% (so most kilned timber) the cellular structure is permanently changed, and the wood loses some of its ability to take up and lose moisture. In other words kilned timber will respond to the environment and take up moisture, but to a lesser extent than before it was kilned. That tends to accord with my experience.

Incidentally, your 10mm timber isn't too different to the 9mm I aim for with most drawer sides. When I'm making drawers I put the roughly dimensioned drawer sides in stick in my heated workshop for about four weeks before it's needed. It's important that when you move your timber indoors you position it so that air can freely flow all around, otherwise you're pretty much guaranteed problems.

 

[Ed209]

It always amazes me how much moisture affects the timber I moved a chest of drawers out of heated bedroom to one with no heat for approx year couldn't open any of the drawers.
moved it back in to the room it originally came from but took a good three months before them drawers would open again.
It was a bought Pine chest of draws

 

[motownmartin]

I have glued up panels of a width of 500mm width x 12mm thickness and within 48 hours of bringing them indoors they have shrunk in width by 3mm which is good enough for what i want but they will slowly carry on shrinking for months, so if you don't want the glue lines to show then I would let them acclimatise for a few months, obviously its better in the summer.