On 8/4/2011 3:11 PM, Jack Stein wrote:
On 8/4/2011 3:04 PM, Swingman wrote:

You do what ANY knowledgeable woodworker should do ... you take into
account the dimensional instability of your project material when
deciding upon your joinery techniques for that particular project.

Amazing how that ALWAYS works, regardless of the regional climate,
indoor or outdoors ...

One of the first wood projects I made many years ago was a record
cabinet. The front was solid wood with one drawer and 3 fake drawers.
The fake drawers were really a hinged door that swung out to hold
records. I spent a good deal of time getting the spacing exact so the
inset drawer and door had like a 1/16th gap. Looked great until winter.
Winter came and the gap grew horrendously to over 1/2". I was amazed,
but figured it would close up in the summer... Nope, it never closed up.
I still have it, and still wonder why it shrunk but never swelled. The
wood was kiln dried and I built the sucker in dead summer with high
humidity. I still don't like making stuff in those conditions.

Kiln dried wood will eventually regain equilibrium moisture content with
its environment, one way or the other.

In this area of the USm bringing your wood indoors into the shop will
generally bring it to an EMC that is consistent with the region.

I don't know about your area, but all of the hardwood dealers here keep
their wood indoors in unheated buildings, all with large access doors
which basically remain open during the daytime hours throughout the year.

I generally experience about an average 3% reduction in moisture content
buying from the places, then bringing it into the shop for a week or so.

There is fairly large difference in recommended moisture content for
different parts of the country for indoor use. Basically, the idea is to
keep the moisture content in the middle of the range it will experience
in use.

Here's a handy download:

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp...chapter_13.pdf

And another treatise on moisture content of wood in use:

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn226.pdf

That entire Forest Products Laboratory is a gold mine of wood related
information for both construction and furniture uses.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 4/15/2010
KarlC@ (the obvious)