Question
We are going to be drying a kiln load of 12/4 white hard maple soon. I have never dried maple thicker than 8/4. The schedule I have found for the 12/4 is T3-A1. Does anyone have suggestions on what to expect? The material will be loading at dead green MC. It will be trimmed and waxed. I need to maintain the good white color. My fear is this will end split very easy.
Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From contributor D:
You are correct that the 12/4 hard maple will tend to end split. If the boards contain boxed heart, they will split toward the boxed heart. To keep the lumber white, you should begin with low temperature (around 90 degrees F) with at least a 10 degree depression. I have had over 30 years of hands-on industrial drying experience (20 years with a large furniture manufacturer drying about 1.5 million board-feet per week), and drying thick lumber is still a challenge.
The typical schedule for 4/4 hard maple is 100 F dry-bulb and a 10 F depression. I cannot imagine how a 10 F depression for 12/4 will work even at 90 F without severe checking on the faces and probably the ends.
One common problem with thick hard maple is that the surface may be dried fast enough to give a white color, but unless the interior is also dried at the same rate, which means the RH must be lowered soon, the interior color will darken, giving a two-toned color to the wood. We can also see this darkened core color with other species, especially when the wood is partly air dried and then kiln dried. The outside is dried at one rate and temperature, while the wet core is dried at another rate and temperature.
Back to thick hard maple, shed drying with high air flow (when RH is not high or too low) to a fairly low MC and then kiln drying will give the best results on the average. Of course, proper stacking, uniform air flow, protection from rain, good outside weather, and other proper drying techniques are required, along with freshly harvested and sawn wood.
I think the schedule I was looking at starting with 110DB 97WB, 90 RH, 19.0EMC is on the other end of the spectrum. I do agree after more research that I'm going to stain with those settings.
I would like to start with a lower EMC and RH, but shouldn't I start with a higher temp so the material is drying more uniformly throughout the boards? I'm afraid this material will be going into the kiln at close to 100% MC, cut in winter. How does 110DB 105WB sound? 84%RH, 16.2EMC.
I like the idea of starting at a lower temp to maintain the color. I am still concerned about what Gene said. On this thick stock, the possibility of having a white shell and a caramel looking core is great! I really need this to come out of the kiln as white as possible through the whole board. The lumber will be getting machined, ripped, resawn - some will be a natural or light finish.
Keeping that temp lower than 110 until the core drops below 15% I'm hoping will help the color all through the piece.
