drilling logs?

[DavidC]

Is anyone drilling the center of green logs to help with curing? If so, does it help prevent splitting?

[adubar]

Most of our members simply rack/deck and air cure if we cure at all.

I'd be hesitant to add any holes to a log that were not part of the construction method I was using.

What kind of splitting are you seeing and what kind of building method are you using?

-A

[DavidC]

I was looking over some material on the 'net and came across some examples of logs splitting badly during drying. There was much talk of coating the ends of the logs with a sealer to retard drying thru the ends. I'm just trying to educate myself now.

I have the land and am talking with an architect about the design. I have not settled on a building method. If a notch system was used and it was pinned on 2' centers with rebar, would it be a quality equal to butt-n-pass?

[Loghomeguy]

You should not combine rebar spiking and notching. The rebar will prevent the settling needed in a notched or scribed building. That settling will keep your notches and or scribed lines tight.

Retarding drying thru the ends is a good idea for notched or Scandinavian buildings .

Other methods may not require it.

More in the members section or in class.

Mikey , Journeyman's class of 1988

[kayser]

I might be cutting in here, but in a different thread i saw someone mention rafters twisting (4x10's). I cant seem to find that one! So i will try to explain my idea here. I really like the full log look for rafters and joists. "My idea is" can you saw a flat plane 4-6inches wide and at each end cut the log into 4x10 for easy workability, at the cap log and ridge pole. I hope I was able to explain this the right way!

Thanks in advanced for any feedback!
Kayser

[GENE13]

David, It's my understanding from what I've read that if you're letting your logs air dry, then you should WAX the ends of each log, this keeps the log ends from drying unevenly with the rest of the log. :-)

[rreidnauer]

Contact USDA, request General Technical Report FPL-GTR-117. That's the USDA Forest Service division's book called, Air Drying of Lumber.

Like so many things government, this one is behind the times, and requests are to be submitted by snail-mail. (wouldn't stop me from trying a phone call first though)
Within the cover of the book I have, it reads:


Forest Products Laboratory. 1999. Air drying of lumber. Gen. Tech. Rep.
FPL-GTR-117. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest
Service, Forest Products Laboratory, 62 p.

A limited number of free copies of this publication are available to the
public from the Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive,
Madison, WI 53705-2398. Laboratory publications are sent to hundreds
of libraries in the United States and elsewhere.

There is also a GTR labeled Drying Hardwood Lumber also available from them, FPL-GTR-118

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT: Just found the PDFs online.

Here---> http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr117.pdf
and here---> http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr118.pdf