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Sticks?

Started by populus, January 01, 2005, 03:03:10 PM

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populus

We are milling and KD'ing a wide variety of hardwoods and a bit of pine. Is there any 'best' material to use for sticks?  We want to minimize sticker stain and other artifacts.

Does it matter if  you use pine or cypress for stacking hardwoods? Should you try to match species?

Thanks!

Tom

There are arguments both ways with the fail-safe being to use the same sticker wood as the wood being dried.  I've found that pine works as good as anything if it is dried.   I believe that you will find that dry stickers is the answer regardless of the species.

I've used cypress with good results also.  The problem with cypress is that it isn't as strong as pine.  No big thing but can compress some under load.

populus

Thanks, Tom. I was taught to use stickers of the same kind, but that is not practical now - we are using too many species. And, I don't want to waste any of the beautiful rare stuff like holly and honeylocust.

Tom

I've even used scrap plywood from building sites.  They throw enough stuff away to put a kid through college. :D   I've pulled larger pieces from the dumpster and cut it up on a table saw.  Works pretty good.

You can strip longer pieces of their 2 x 4's on your saw too.

Treated wood can transfer colors, i'd stay away from that.

Fla._Deadheader


  We use Cypress for stickers. They dry real fast, and they are light to carry around.
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Don_Lewis

There have been a lot of studies on this and the conclusion is that the species doesn't matter. They should be dry, but not too dry. Don't put dead Oak green lumber on sticks that just came out of the kiln. They can cause checking under the sticks. If the sticks have been out of the kiln for a couple of weeks and are back to 12% or so, they are fine, otherwise dampen them.

Ga_Boy

I have some Red Oak that I let Ad for nine months.  I harvested this stuff specifically to use as stickers.  I am planing and cutting this stuff up now.

Anyone with knowledge on using Oak for stickers?

My thought was that the Oak would with stand the abuse that stickers seem to endure.



Mark
10 Acers in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Brad_S.

Mark,
I use almost anything for stickers and they all hold up equally well except when I run over them with the Bobcat, then none of them hold up too well. :D
If you have a shaper or router, I would put a profile on them to minimize board contact. I use a U shaped rounded groove, but a flat bottom square or V shaped groove would be just as effective. A powerfeed really helps in this department.
I also use some of those Breezewood sticks with the diagonal ridges on them which are great, but they are pricey and I got these for free. They also seem to be any species that the manufacturer had access to, including oak.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

oakiemac

I aslo use Breeze sticks and like them a lot. I was told they were made from soft maple. They seem to hold up very well. I bought them from a place up in canada that is close to Niagra falls so we made a weekend out of it. I got my kiln sticks and my wife got a weekend in Niagra-now there is a win-win situation!
Mobile Demension sawmill, Bobcat 873 loader, 3 dry kilns and a long "to do" list.

MemphisLogger

Mark,

I have a thousand or so quartersawn white oak stickers that I've used for 3 years now and aonly a dozen or so have gone bad. Some of 'em crook a good inch or so but they stay perfect on the quartersawn face  ;D  
Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

sawmillsi

hi guys

we tried using some kiln dried (been through the kiln at least twice) australian hardwood sticks on some mango we had just treated with permithrin and borax (so there was a stack of surface moisture) and about 15 minutes later the hardwood was leaching out. Some of the mango was beyond salvage.

We now have a firm policy that if we can't use the timber that is being sticked out, we use a real passive timber like pine (kiln dried, or at least real air dry) so there is no leaching.

We cut them on a resaw bandsaw (vertical) to 1" x 1" and after they have been through the kiln, we dress the top and bottom so they are 1" x 3/4".

I think that you would need a 4 sider or something like that to do the grooves in the top and bottom effectivly (and yes we have a real big router table and about 6 routers).

You got a web site for the 'breeze sticks'?

Simon

Frank_Pender

I use all 1" x 1" Douglas Fir stickers.  I rip them on my tablesaw from 1' material that may be regarded as scrap.  I make all stickers 54" long to accomodate the kiln dollie's width.
Frank Pender

Brad_S.

Simon,

www.breezedried.com  

Click on the bottom box on the left that says Breeze Dried. The only pics of the sticks showing the profile is the background bar on the left.
They must license out the patent because mine came from a local mill who only makes them for one customer. The sticks I inherited were really just the edgings cut off during production and therefor vary in width, but not thickness.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

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