# air drying flame box elder



## jimmyjames (Mar 1, 2013)

I had some questions, ive located a pretty large mess of box elder trees and they do have bore holes, i drilled them with an auger bit and out came some.red shavings :) my question is, will flamed box elder continue to rot from the fungus after its milled and sat to air dry? Im thinking its probably a must to kiln this wood when cutting it into lumber and not turning blanks? I really dont want to get it milled and come back a year or 2 later and have a pile of rotten wood/sawdust....


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## Mike1950 (Mar 1, 2013)

I do not think so- It is like any other wood- sticker and wait- it dries pretty quick. I have gotten a few pieces from our fearless leader- all green. They have dried just fine. now maybe to kill active bugs-the kiln may be needed.


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## jimmyjames (Mar 1, 2013)

Yeah ive heard that box elder dries really fast, the local firewood guys say it seasons in 1 year


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## woodtickgreg (Mar 1, 2013)

Just sticker it and weight it down, the colors will hold. It may fade a little but as soon as you plane it the color will come right back.


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## Kevin (Mar 1, 2013)

jimmyjames said:


> I had some questions, ive located a pretty large mess of box elder trees and they do have bore holes, i drilled them with an auger bit and out came some.red shavings :) my question is, will flamed box elder continue to rot from the fungus after its milled and sat to air dry? Im thinking its probably a must to kiln this wood when cutting it into lumber and not turning blanks? I really dont want to get it milled and come back a year or 2 later and have a pile of rotten wood/sawdust....



It's like all wood. Rot needs moisture, which is why the term "dry rot" is a misnomer. Can't happen. And yes for FBE lumber you must kill the bugs before using it. Once it's air dried to EMC if you don't have a kiln you can build a makeshift one and put some 300W spots in it with a fan on low speed and bring the temp up to 135 - 145F for a couple of hours for 4/4 and add an hour for every inch more in thickness. Try not to mix thicknesses. 

If you haven't ordered Daren's kiln plans you should. It'll save you some trial and error too. Can't wait to see the pics.


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## jimmyjames (Mar 1, 2013)

Ds


Kevin said:


> jimmyjames said:
> 
> 
> > I had some questions, ive located a pretty large mess of box elder trees and they do have bore holes, i drilled them with an auger bit and out came some.red shavings :) my question is, will flamed box elder continue to rot from the fungus after its milled and sat to air dry? Im thinking its probably a must to kiln this wood when cutting it into lumber and not turning blanks? I really dont want to get it milled and come back a year or 2 later and have a pile of rotten wood/sawdust....
> ...



Yeah i may just go ahead and order his plans, i have seen his postings over on wwt and everybody has nothing but good things too say about his plans. This summer i may build a kiln to do some lumber in, for now its just going to sit in my dads morton building. Thanks for the info kevin and other kind folk


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