Working with green timbers

Hello All,

I am going to be working with some green timbers in the next couple of weeks. I am building a 10' x 10' Japanese timber structure for a booth I am entering in a trade show.

I usually work with dryer timbers, but for this project I don't have the time or capital to put out for something like RFK kiln dried timbers. These timbers can be cut and delivered to me by next week. The Trade show is on March 3-4 so time is valuable here.

My questions are

A) Is it going to be ok to work with the green timbers? I hope I am not making a mistake. I am told the timbers can be as high as 30%.

B) What can I do to reduce checking, warping, and twisting? The joinery I have designed will hopefully address these issues and hide the shrinkage. I have designed in thing like shoulders around any connecting timbers, and no housings that would show gaps over time. I was also thinking of running a kerf in the upper sides of the beams to direct the checking to the side that won't be seen.

C) Will it be ok to coat the timbers with Land Ark? http://www.landarknw.com/ this is my finish of choice. If I coat all sides and the ends will this help slow down the drying process and reduce checking, warping and twisting?

I am thinking that the time between cutting and the show dates, I should be fine on the timbers not moving too much. I plan on using the booth for future shows, so if any timbers really take off on me, I can just replace them at that time.

What are everyone’s thoughts? I have a good timber framer friend out here that uses these timbers all the time and says he has no troubles. Maybe I am OK? I would really appreciate any of your advice.

I have a drawing of my booth, but I do not know how to post it here. I do not see an attachment icon anywhere?

Cheers,

Tim

you are in BC, so i'm guessing fir?

Oh, yes it's Fir.

Also, the timbers will be 6 x 6, 5 x 5, and some 3 x 4,s

Boxed heart? Free of heart?

Boxed heart

Now you have me thinking, I should see if I can get them free of heart?

i'd go free, for a trade show booth.


i don't think those sizes will move that much, and likely that will be all FOHC anyway... (at least in my experience...)

you can tuck those into a conventional kiln to take some of the water out. if you have the time in the schedule.

The landark should help as long as the timbers aren't so wet they reject it.
I did a little experimenting with anchorseal (wax emulsion for end grain on logs) and managed to keep a 5x7 boxed heart black birch joist from checking by coating only the highest stress points. I suspect the fact I chose the tree specifically for that timber has something to do with it.

For green DF, you definitely want FOHC. It will tear itself apart otherwise. It will still shrink, but not check up too much. Put it together as soon as possible. CB.