ANOTHER kiln building post

[No_Dude]

Alrighty, so me and a buddy have a cabinet maker friend who buys oak from the state over for $5/BF and after talking with him he would like to be able to advertise that he has local wood. All he is looking for is cut and dried wood, he does all his own planing/finishing etc. When we asked him how much wood it would take to keep him fed, he laughed at us and said the odds of keeping him full up on wood was a long shot. We have a source of cheap logs, $100 per dump truck load, and a place to sell them once we cut them, now the question is how do we want to go about drying them? With as long as it takes to dry we were looking at trying to do 2-4 MBF at a time. I have a barn with concrete floors, and 4 inch foam board all around, and I was thinking about turning one of the lean-too sections into a kiln. So now the question is what would it take to dry a load about that size? We were thinking start out with the cheap floodlights and dehumidifier style kiln to start with, but I don't know how hard that would be to keep up, and for that amount of wood. What say yee people smarter than me?

[No_Dude]

Also forgot to mention we are also highly considering building a large solar kiln to hold at the least 1 additional load, preferably more so as to shorten the time that our wood has to sit in the kiln. We were told that he wants his wood at 13%, so we figured if it would take a month for green oak, since according to woodmizers chart, since we have to loose about 60% MC, and the daily max loss is 2.5%, we should be able to dry in 24ish days if I'm thinking right. Figured if we had the ability to hold 2 or maybe 3 loads, we could cut that time down by several days. Or maybe I'm just in lala land, who knows  :D

[Southside]

One word of caution. Junk logs (cheap) produce junk lumber. The best kiln won't fix that. You really need to talk with your buyer about grade expectations and make sure you can get logs that have the potential to yield such lumber, then have a sawyer who can saw that lumber before you try to dry it. There is a reason he is paying $5/BF.

13% MC seems high to me for oak. 

[No_Dude]

I thought the same on the MC, but whatever he wants 🤷

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I would bet that a dump truck log is full of stress, so flat lumber is not likely.  And then there is tramp metal that will mean a lot of new blades when sawing.  Of course, tramp metal also means discolored  (iron stain) wood.

The final MC of 13% MC is fine for exterior use wood, especially white oak.

Why not buy a truck load (12,000 bf) of lumber from a medium-sized local sawmill for under $1 per bf.  Then dry and resell it at $5...highly profitable indeed.

[No_Dude]

I hadnth even really thought about that. I know of atleast 1 local mill that sells for 1.5/BF, so I imagine shopping around a bit could push that down. Only reason why I'm opposed to that is I would like to be able to go from log to board, just so I'm not dependent on another person to saw me, I value being as close to the beginning and the end as possible

[No_Dude]

On the topic of Dump truck lumber and flat lumber, how bad can it be? Also would air dry before hitting the kiln help prevent the wood moving?

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The best hardwood logs go to veneer manufacturing, both here in the U.S. and exported.  The next best logs will be exported or go to sawmills that want to produce a lot of upper grade lumber, or speciality products.  

Finally, the typical logs will go to the typical sawmill.  These logs are the critical need of the sawmill. 

And most mills and loggers know that there are cull logs that will not be profitably sawn due to low grade lumber or high stress in the log leading to warped lumber.  It is these logs that are low value; and so typical logging and hauling techniques are too expensive.  So, we might haul them in a dump truck to a non-lumber-producing mill to be used for chipping or fuel.

It is from this "average" picture that I suggest that dump truck logs are not the way to go.

[No_Dude]

Ah I see. I'll have to find out where this dump truck lumber is coming from, my buddy didn't say who or where it was from, just that it's there. I know another source would be tree removal guys, but I'd have to deal with metal in the wood so  : But atleast I would still have a shoot at good wood.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Stresses in trees are worse in yard trees, plus branches are larger and more common.  Forest grown trees are better, except maybe a few poorer trees on the forest edges.

[WDH]

Hardwood Market Report for Southern area for green, FAS red oak, tractor trailer load quantity is $1.04/bf.  For kiln dried FAS red oak, it is $1.37/bf.  Like Dr. Gene, it seems to me to be less risky just to buy the lumber in quantity. 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

  Thanks for the HMR data.  I was thinking that the green lumber could be purchased at the wholesale price, dried at $.10 per BF, giving a profit of $.23 per bf.  Sometimes the price difference, green to KD oak, for FAS is $.40 per bf wholesale.

If sold on the retail market, a few pieces at a time, perhaps at $4 to $5 per bf, kiln dried, the profit would be $3 or more per bf, even with extra marketing costs.  

Note that as the grade purchased for green lumber drops, the green price drops and the difference between green and KD also drops...that is, the profit is less with lower grade lumber.  Drying No.2 Common is often close to non-profit.