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Building drying racks.

Started by Florida boy, October 20, 2016, 08:34:58 PM

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Florida boy

Hi I've bought a sawmill less than a month ago. I've been cutting mostly 4/4 cypress but also some  black willow, pecan and white oak. Built a drying pallet from 2×6 and 1×4 , 12' long by 4' wide. Set it in a level spot in the yard   on top of blocks shimed level. Tin and blocks on top.
This was a lot of work plus I had to buy the blocks. Now I'm thinking of using some materials in hand to build racks for the pallets to rest on. Don't have any concrete pads. My thoughts are to take 4" electrical metalic tubing (emt) thin wall conduit, bury it like a post with sack concrete,  tops level at 1' above grade. 2 rows  4' apart. Probably 24 or 26 feet long, To try to accommodate several different combinations of board length. On top of the pipes I'll tack weld doubled up unistrut that measures 3 1/4 × 1 5/8 kinda like a tiny I beam shape. Clear as mud right?
      Supporting the unistrut every five feet do you think it will sag ? Has any one built a rack like this for drying? Using two rails 4 foot apart set dead level to support 4' wide drying pallets? Whatcha think? I hope I've explained it well enough. Thanks for your help.

ozarkgem

I built pallets out of junk lumber and sticker the lumber as it comes off the mill. Level gravel and weighted tin on top. Don't get to complicated.
Mighty Mite Band Mill, Case Backhoe, 763 Bobcat, Ford 3400 w/FEL , 1962 Ford 4000, Int dump truck, Clark forklift, lots of trailers. Stihl 046 Magnum, 029 Stihl. complete machine shop to keep everything going.

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

There is a US Forest Service book, called AIR DRYNG OF LUMBER that has pictures of a reasonable foundation.
Gene - Author of articles in Sawmill & Woodlot and books: Drying Hardwood Lumber; VA Tech Solar Kiln; Sawing Edging & Trimming Hardwood Lumber. And more

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