Economical stickers for small batches

[Greyhound]

Over the years, I've had ~6 Mbf of logs sawn into lumber from my property and a couple of nice road scores.  These come out from anywhere between 200 - 2,000 bf-ft per job. About 10 yrs. ago I asked a local saw mill (Groff & Groff Lumber, Quarryville, PA) to buy stickers from them.  They suggested buying 1x3x8 plastering lath and cuttting it in halves crosscut and rip.  This gives you 4 stickers that are 3/4 x 1 1/4 x 4 ft.  So, for the last 10 years I've had great success  with this method air drying oak (red, white), poplar, walnut, cherry, black birch and a little red maple.  For example, I have about 1700 bd-ft of oak and poplar logs on deck to get milled soon. I picked up 60 pieces of 8' lath at $1.59 each.  I crosscut each bundle of 10 in half on my table saw with cross cut sled and then ripped 4' board in half again on my bandsaw.  The whole process took less than 1 hour.  In the end, I wound up with 240 kiln-dried 4' stickers for $0.40 each.  Now realistically, there will be some waste, since lath is very low grade lumber, but even so it's under $0.50.  Local sawyers charges ~$1.00 each for 1x1x4 stickers.

 

 

 

[alan gage]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to see if my local yard can get some of that in and what the price would be. Just bought a small bundle of 1x2x8 to cut in half  for stickers. I think they were around $1.50 per piece so .75 per sticker.

Alan

[terrifictimbersllc]

Those are called 8 foot one by threes, or furring strips, at Home Depot. Actual dimensions three-quarter by 2 1/2.Same price. I tell customers to purchase them in advance, then I rip six of them at a time, at 8 foot length, to1-1/4 on my sawmill for them.They can cut them to whatever length.I tell them the good things about that wood are that it's dry, unlike a lot of framing lumber because it is stored inside, it is light colored, and and has only tiny knots so it doesn't fall apart when it is sawn in half.