JJM asks:
I have an opportunity to purchase 200 board feet of "air dried" white

oak for about $1.50 per board foot. The wood has been air drying for
11 months and I went there with a meter and it has an adjusted for
temperature moisture content of 8%. It is rough cut to 4/4 but I have
a planer so that is not an issue.


I want to make a roll top desk and my question is simply am I making a
mistake in not getting kiln dried lumber. What can I expect after it
begins to dry in the home after the desk is made?

A lot depends on the accuracy of your meter. With rough cut material, I
prefer a pin style meter, and I like one that lets you select for
species. Those two things can make a significant difference.

8% sounds a shade dry for air dried oak at just 11 months, but it is
winter time, when humidity is lower (or so it is said: this has been a
very, very wet winter here). You might want to take a #4 plane along
and skip plane some surface areas to see about getting a more accurate
reading.

Put the oak in your home for a month or two before doing anything final
with it--some heated area in the basement is fine. Then check. The wood
needs to acclimatize, anyway, with a minimum of a week indoors where it
will be worked before serious machining starts.

Most of what I've built in the past 20 years has been built with air
dried lumber, and it has never given me a problem my own stupidity
didn't cause. I try to get it under 10%, acclimatize as above, and
ignore the rest. That system, or lack of a system, usually works very
well.

Kiln dried lumber would work well, but it won't work any better, and,
if the kiln operator is not experienced and careful, could well be
worse.