peteroughton169":2mujvlrn said:
I've recently acquired some large oak rounds and was looking to get them kiln dried instead of them just sitting in my garage for a few years.
If the wood is already in the form of disks, thick or thin, and the large round surfaces (which are exposed end grain) are not coated with anything you won't have to wait anything like that long! The oft-repeated rough guideline for drying of a year per inch of thickness is for wood converted to boards.
As you might have heard wood grain is sometimes likened to a bundle of straws so end grain is like the open ends of the straws. Once you visualise it this way it's easy to imagine that moisture can enter and exit those at quite a clip. In order to slow drying, which helps minimise cracks forming, in commercial drying operations the end grain is usually sealed e.g. with a wax-based product.
On a board only the ends, the smallest surfaces, are end grain and they're still usually sealed to prevent fast water loss. On a slice of log the largest surfaces are end grain so they can dry out at a prodigious rate, and that's why they usually crack.
So what you really want to do is slow the drying. It's too late now to minimise cracking (steps taken as soon as possible after cutting, within the hour if possible, are the only way to do that) but you'll maximise the usable amount of wood if you seal off all the flat surfaces now. Then try to forget about them while they dry out for a few months.
