Easy Way to Straighten Lumber & Keep it straight UPDATE

Someone told me it is easy to straighten crooked, warped, cupped lumber. He said all you have to do is put it out in the rain. As it soaks up the water, it will straighten right out. In the first video, I took these extremely warped ponderosa pine boards and left them out in the rain to see what happens.  You can see that video here.

In the next video, we find out just how well that works. You can see that video here.

In this video, we find out, as expected, after they dry out again, they are just going to warp back to where they were. In this video, we will do an experiment to see if we can get them to dry straight. 

[DavidWilson-vxux]

you are a good YouTuber. Don't worry about the grammar! you come across as a very honest dependable person. It's appreciated.

[garydickerhoof]

Honesty and simplicity goes a long way when you're dealing with us folks

[donaldgarmon]

Thank You for your honesty in such a practical application. All homesteaders can benefit from such knowledge!

[TVPiles]

In Europe they used to leave the logs in a pond before cutting them for a time, that way the sugars and starches in the wood get dissolved. That reduces the warping by quite a lot.

[EOTE_TX]

I have a Woodmizer LT-40 and saw quite a bit of southern yellow pine as well as hardwoods. If you would build yourself a pallet the length of the boards you are cutting with supports for the wood every 1 to 2 feet depending on the wood species, stack and sticker your lumber and then band your pallets with ratchet straps they will air dry and remain straight. Just remember to keep your ratchet straps tight and check them weekly. As the lumber dries and shrinks it is imperative to keep the straps tight. Keep your pallets out of the sun when drying and cover the tops to prevent water from rain soaking the boards again. You will get better results.

[funkydozer]

Your honest approach to YouTubing is refreshing. I work with wood as an amateur furniture maker in rainy England and crooked planks are always a problem here, even store bought planed timber is usually warped from poor warehouse storage, drives me nuts that they can get away with selling it like that. Will be interesting to know how your experiments turn out.

[morgansword]

Not too sure why I watch any videos anymore as I need to go outside for fresh air and get the blood circulation moving better. I have a problem with Lymphoma, most likely the wrong word as its a infection and not cancer. I will be seventy five in oct and just got out of the hospital for a heart attack that came close to punching my ticket. I am not trying to whine or bore you with my life story but think I might add something to this challenge of yours. Central Alaska doesn't have a ton of variates in timber. We have some spruce but just what one is not in my brain. I did used to know as many things seem harder now for things I wish I remembered. Nice Birch, and up high elevations have some kind of pine. The timber for the most part is not big around/diameter and limbs clear to the butt of the tree. Where ever there is a lot of this spruce is mostly swampy bad ground to build on where the Birch is nice ground and since this part of alaska is known for excellent gardens as in record size pumpkins and cucumbers, just many great garden stuff. I was a mechanic/fabricator for the better parts of my life but hey when you needed you made or sawed or just about anything it takes to have something decent to live in. "In our dreams" is heard when buying a new home, costs of living is out of control... sliding again about this topic. One of the most common trees found here is Cottonwood and it does get seriously large but is known for unstable building material. It will twist while sawing it, that and if its dry then forget even sawing it. That is probably thee hardest wood when dry to cut on any kind of sawmill or even saw a worm drive circle saw. I was up against time and needed some lumber for protecting valuables till spring so cut what I had .... and that was green Cottonwood timber. My buddy who is even older than me (this is about fourteen years ago) said... quote: when sawing it, get all of the wain off of the boards and then toss it in the pond behind your home. Leave it there for a few weeks to let the oils in that timber soak out. Oil floats on water so it made sense to me. Granted you still needed to drill a hole in a board if you wanted to nail it down but it came out straight as a string. Even in a hot summer month that wood stayed straight and never curled, twisted or even split on my old building. I did use some old motor oil after a year went by for the looks of the boards were a faded look I wasn't happy with considering my place was painted and looked nice to me. This is rough cut as owning a planer wasn't a option for me. My big brother who was nine months older than me... as I weighed about two forty and he weighed one sixty soaking wet. I use past tense as he passed away in 2019 from cancer. He was a builder if any of us had the sense to just do what we knew how to do. We used cottonwood beams in his airplane storage building. The main header on the face of the building was sixty feet long and we just cut the tree by squaring it up so was around sixteen inches thick/square. We did this because of snow load and also we were in a hurry and the lake being right there tossed every board in the lake and floated it to the place we parked that old taildragger of his. I do believe that plane was built in the thirties as many planes do go back in time here in alaska. That building is still standing after twenty years and built from mostly cottonwood. Now days we do not see much sunshine, rain and then more rain with a outbreak of snow at any month of the year. As for nails in this kind of wood, the rules never change .... best drill those holes as soon as possible or forget even trying it.

[jumpj]

I screwed some wet pine to the joists in the basement for about a year took them down and made the frame for a screen door. works like a charm

[CYMotorsport]

your last video inspired me to triple check my thoughts they would redry warped, and yes, that's precisely what happened when you log them out. they dry straightn o problem. but you have mold still and once dry, they go back. that's how fibers work

[greggerstner]

Possible that simply letting the logs sit for a while before milling will reduce some of the stress (also not leaving the pith in). Some millers have had better results doing this with warpy woods like sweet gum. A woodturner/woodworker and arborist in SC, I know about sweet gum and warping. PITA.

Hope this works out. But if it doesn't, you can always sell these "prime boards" to Lowe's or one of the other big box stores.

Like many others, I appreciate the honesty and BS-lessness (new word!?) and wealth of information in these videos. A breath of fresh air and new subscriber here.

[MichaelStn]

The first YouTube channel NOT devoted to instant gratification. ;) fortunately for me, this update was from three months ago, and there may be an instant result… lol (laughing at myself)

[matthewnasci]

It's common to make assumptions and predictions. The only way to know is to experiment. But also, what may work for those few pine boards may not be the same for large lots, or other species. Attempt, and learn. Intelligent approach to find a solution to a problem.

[Ribs]

So glad I found your channel. I live near a locust only lumber yard, the off cuts are super handy around here.

[joeyrector]

Who says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This old dog learns something new everyday

[anthonymcinnis]

I really like this guy.
Will watch more.

[BulletproofPastor]

I haven’t watched the end yet but what you’re doing is a low temperature “steam bend”. It should dry straight. “Silo boards” (made to form circles) are the fault of poor milling and this might be a good rescue trick. Kiln drying kills wood destroying insects but moisture starts entering the dry wood as soon as it leaves the kiln. Without keeping it snickered and clamped down, warping is going to happen. Great content.

[lectro]

That mold is also called "Blue Johning" or Blue John.
Many inspectors will make you remove blue johned lumber in interiors.
Something you can look out for is that one board you held up and said "just look at this" .. I saw that a knot or limb went all the way across the board in both places where it was bucked and warped(that'll do it every time)
A really time consuming method but effective in limiting warping is quarter sawing.
But like I said, it's labor intensive and wastes a lot of lumber.
It does make beautiful grain or tiger stripe lumber., common in guitar making and very desirable in certain applications.
I do like your approach, simple and to the point.

[yvkwnrq]

Pro tip, if you accidentally hit a piece of hardwood floor with a hammer or an object, take a steam mop (if it doesn't have a seal), if it has a seal, use a little bit of hot water, the fibers will absorb and and fill in the gap. As a builder, we did this on trim carpentry jobs.

[charliesaul]

In my experience, if weighted while air drying, once dry, they will stay flat unless they are not secured or primed and painted when the relative humidity rises. Therefore, boards installed inside normally only require a few finish nails, while exterior use may require screws. I have seen a sidewall where many of the 8d galv. nails had backed out and fallen on the ground within ten years!

[Personalized_Workshop]

The speaking English segment got me to subscribe here. Great experimental series. Looking forward to more.