Just read that pine can shrink a full half inch across 8 feet if dried wrong

I was looking up some lumber specs for a dining table I'm building for a customer in Portland, and found this fact from the USDA forest products lab. Turns out green pine can lose like 8% of its width if you rush the kiln drying compared to air drying it slow. Made me rethink how I store my stock even for small jobs. Any of you guys had a project warp bad because the wood wasn't dried right?

2 comments

2 Comments

lewis.diana19d ago

Did you know someone who learned that the hard way? My buddy built a big bookshelf using pine he bought from a big box store, never checked if it was dry. Two months later, the whole thing looked like a roller coaster, gaps everywhere.

jackson.sarah18d ago

Big box store pine is notorious for that. I honestly think a lot of the problem is people just expect it to stay flat when it's basically framed with moisture content all over the place.