How to stop raw wood from cracking and splitting?

everytime i try to build something out of logs ,like a day or a week later it starts to crack and split and i have no idea what to do.How to stop raw wood from cracking and splitting?
depending on the diameter of your logs they will take a long time to air dry. If you want to prevent checking then let them air dry slowly and try to ensure relatively stable moisture conditions, that is if it gets really really hot/ dry in the summer you may want to sprinkle your logs slightly.


Air drying can take a long time though, 1- 2 years. Your best bet it to look at how to better work with green wood, or consider using kiln dried wood.How to stop raw wood from cracking and splitting?
I'm going to go along with the other guys here...You're using over-saturated wood and it's cracking because it's drying out and shrinking. Your best bet is to let your wood dry. What you're making/working on determines exactly what you need to do to it, but your best solution is to let it dry.





If you're sawing up your logs into boards, you can let them air dry and it won't take quite as long as a whole log, but Kiln drying will be much faster. If you are using a whole log, I would recommend kiln-drying it or using older, dryer, logs.





There is one sure-shot way to treat your logs to ensure that they do not crack, and that's polyethylene glycol (PEG). This treatment takes several days/weeks to complete and may prevent you from doing any further work with your logs, but it will close them up perfectly.
Your wood is not dry. needs to be around 10% moisture to ensure no splitting. 14 % can still give you problems. If not dry it will crack and split on you. When drying make sure its weighted a secured (reasonably) so it can not worp and twist on you.





The only real thing to cure wood is time. Heat helps speed up the process, eg. klin dried but otherwise it just has to sit.
there is a product on the market (logseal, i think) that you can use, but a lot of guys just use a few coats of latex paint. here's what you need to do:





cut your logs to length


mill your logs down to size


coat the end grain of your logs. this will prevent most checking


stack and sticker your wood





this is an awesome site for milling info:





www.arboristsite.com
Logs are full of water and will dry out and crack.





You will need to find information on working with green wood. Green wood (not dry) has some limitations depending on what you are trying to make.