We had considered pouring a slab under our mill shed to air dry lumber on and we have several stacks around on pt 8x8's and concrete blocks that do the job. The last time I checked the price of concrete locally it was $150 a yard. Friday, John and I used some extra 2x10's and some short pieces of utility poles to make some drying piers or platforms. If they work out right, we may make some more. I hit some barbed wire with three more boards to saw in the log and did not change the blade until the next log. The boards will be fine for uses like this. I stacked some 2x10x16' on it today. Hopefully we will have time to cut more tomorrow. We have about 25 Longleaf pine logs that have been sitting around too long and need to be sawn or burned. Hopefully we can get something out of them, even if it is just saw donkeys, pallets and platforms.
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Nice
Having that airflow under there will be a great help, not to mention reduce the copperhead population. Are you going to hand stack on top of the platform or build lumber pallets and use the forks to set and remove the bundle?
I hand stacked some 2x10x16 longleaf on the platform yesterday evening. The plan is to be able to use the tractor forks to stack with on pallets (we still need to build pallets). The platform is 16' x 42" to match the length of my forks. If this works well, we will probably add another platform on the back side of this one so it can share poles and be covered with four pieces of roofing metal.
I have never seen a copperhead here but plenty of moccasins, coral snakes, ground rattlers and a few diamond backs along with bookoodles of nonvenomous black racers, rat snakes, and banded water snakes.
WoodDoc posted a USDA link to drying lumber and there were some drying platforms in there. We wanted these up off of the ground a little but not so high that we could not easily cover it. We never seem to have enough space to stack. This was easier than building more sheds.
What makes these so useful is the large open air space underneath, which allows the bottom layers in the stack to dry quickly...as quickly (almost) as the upper layers. It is not just enough to lift the first layer up, but there must be an easy way for the air underneath to get out from underneath, as you have done here.
Remember that when you go into a kiln, it is the wettest lumber that determines the drying time, so anything to avoid slow drying and wetter lumber has a huge payback.
What a nice looking platform. And I just happen to have some short power pole butt ends that I've been wondering what to do with. I'll add it to the list of projects.
Alan
caveman: that looks like a great way to do it. nice looking. smiley_thumbsup
Quote from: caveman on August 05, 2019, 05:06:35 AM
I hand stacked some 2x10x16 longleaf on the platform yesterday evening. The plan is to be able to use the tractor forks to stack with on pallets (we still need to build pallets). The platform is 16' x 42" to match the length of my forks. If this works well, we will probably add another platform on the back side of this one so it can share poles and be covered with four pieces of roofing metal.
I have never seen a copperhead here but plenty of moccasins, coral snakes, ground rattlers and a few diamond backs along with bookoodles of nonvenomous black racers, rat snakes, and banded water snakes.
WoodDoc posted a USDA link to drying lumber and there were some drying platforms in there. We wanted these up off of the ground a little but not so high that we could not easily cover it. We never seem to have enough space to stack. This was easier than building more sheds.
Can't stand a copperhead. Be glad you don't have them in Florida. Although not as poisonous as the snakes you have, they don't fear being around humans and they are more aggressive than others (moccasins get an underserved bad rap for aggressiveness). Also, copperheads are darned hard to see.
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Thanks for the encouraging words. If this one works as planned we will probably build a few more.
MRedden, Florida has copperheads but I have not seen any where I live. I haven't seen any boas or pythons in the wild here either but they are evidently just a little south of us. Your copperhead is hard to see. As brightly colored as coral snakes are they do a pretty good job of hiding in leaves too but not as good as your copperhead.
We get lots of them. They like to hide under stacks of boards, logs, hay bales, just about anywhere. That one was hard to spot. I had to find the head first before I could see the rest of him. I would have gotten bitten by one last month if I hadn't had my boots on while cleaning up an old pile of lumber. Find one or two just about every time I clean up the slab pile.
Alright guys are you making this up? I don't see no snake. Banjo
tail in the Left lower corner, head to the left of the leaf. hard to see, and I guess that is the point! ;)
I still don't see it. How much of the snake is in the red circle? My wife will be up in an hour or so, I'll see if she can see it. I have been diagonsed with a macular hole in my right eye, maybe that is messing me up. Banjo
it is hard to see. look for darker brown triangular marks, the snake is in an S formation. the circle goes around the whole snake with a bit of margin. it is not your eyes but it is hard to see. even having seen it, I have to look each time. can you enlarge the image on your screen?
I see it now. Guess I would have stepped on that one.
Nice drying platform as well. I too have some short power poles that will work good for what you have there. Thanks for posting...thanks again Doc. Even after you told me exactly where to look, it was hard to see. Banjo
smiley_clapping :o :o :o :D :D :D :) :) :) smiley_hollywood_cool
Now I'm wondering about putting a little taller poles in the ground, so they're maybe 7' high, and putting rafters and a roof over the whole thing.
Alan
Caveman, how are you fastening your 2x4's? Timberloks? Toenail?
I got old posts too, how deep did you plant them, just wondering about frost heave.
So if you made the center poles longer and add roof and some shade cloth keep the rain off . That would get one 4) 8 ft lefts.
There ain't no frost heave in Florida, just sand heave :D.
I have some old conveyor V rollers and plan to mount them on beams so whole trees can be laid in them and cut at 16 inch increments for firewood. After splitting, I put the wood in metal totes from construction containers. I am thinking of making a tunnel with plastic for solar and a fan at one end to rapid dry firewood, as I still have a ways to go for next winter. many of the logs have been seasoned for a few years but not split. I will post as this develops. the totes are 4 x 4 x 3.5 feet and I will line them up and trap some solar heat and blast with air movement.
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I will begin a new thread when I have time to try this out.
Quote from: WDH on August 06, 2019, 10:42:51 AM
There ain't no frost heave in Florida, just sand heave :D.
So, like a 'Dry Heave', sort of?
@caveman (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=12883) that is a great looking foundation and will create an organized platform for stacking and drying. I have thought about building a dedicated firewood dryer/kiln. I like the look of the perfectly flat and long construction. It is inspiring and helped with the idea to dry my firewood. did not mean to misdirect your thread. :) . Thanks for sharing your construction.
Doc, elevating your firewood bundle should help it dry and stay dry.
WDH beat me too it on the frost heave. We don't get cold enough for that here. I am not even sure we had frost last year at my place. We usually get five or so frosty mornings a winter but nothing that would affect the soil. The snow load is usually pretty low too - our mill shed has about a foot of fall over 40'. We do have to sweep the roof once a year due to leaf load.
We dug the holes down about 2- 2½ feet deep (the holes started filling up with water).
We used 5/8" galvanized hardware to mount the 2x10's to the poles. We cut the poles so that the 2x10's sit on a flat shelf and the bolts just hold them. The 2x4's were just toenailed to the 2x10's on 16" centers. They seem to be secure enough.
I set a transit up near the tongue of the mill (under the shed due to the rainy weather) and John marked the poles. I cut the notches for the 2x10's 9" below his mark to allow the 2x10's to be 1" proud of the top of the poles after cutting on his first mark. Using the transit was much quicker than using a level for the layout and afterwards we checked it with a level just for giggles. We pulled a string across the tops of the 2x4's to ensure they were in the same plane (we shimmed one or two very slightly with small wedges.
We will probably use shade cloth and thinner stickers if we use this platform to dry live oak. With the pine that is on it now we are using 1" stickers and no shade cloth. The metal is overhanging the stack by about a foot on each side and two feet on the ends.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on August 06, 2019, 12:27:09 PM
Quote from: WDH on August 06, 2019, 10:42:51 AM
There ain't no frost heave in Florida, just sand heave :D.
So, like a 'Dry Heave', sort of?
or heaving extra long posts for all that sea level rising. lol
A simple firewood kiln will have a heater separate from the kiln, with the kiln being a simple, insulated box. The fan is the same one that blows the hot air into the kiln. There is an exhaust vent opposite from the input.
A key feature is that you have a positive, tight closure for both the input and the exhaust, so that you can remove all oxygen sources if you have a fire. In case of fire, open the main door only when the fires hoses are running with water. Due to the dust associated with firewood, the wood is more flammable at lower temperatures. Certainly sweep out the kiln after each use and remove all dust.
Sinkholes in Florida and here in South Georgia.
caveman: you commented on shadecloth. Would you have the details on the type you will use and how you will attach it?
By the way, looks very secure. What diameter were your posts you set?
I did not measure the posts but they have probably 10-12" tops, just some I had after we re-did some corners and braces on the fence around my yard/pasture. Shade cloth is generally sold by the percentage of light it filters, similar to window tint. I have a bunch of it left over from when I used to help with Christmas tree lots. We used it to keep the sun off of the trees that we were selling. The less light it lets through, the more wind resistance it has. We have some hung on the south side of our mill shed that is retractable. Since Irma knocked over 80 trees at my place, we need some shade to the west too- we may extend the roof or add shade cloth.
I have checked on the 2x10's I stacked on the platform the other day and they seem to be flat and staying out of the rain and splash zone. Hopefully we can add some more tomorrow.
Footings under a post are a good idea to prevent settlement under load. For "average" soil we usually use 2,000lbs per square foot bearing capacity as a safe number to prevent uneven compression of the soil. A 10" diameter post has about 1/2 a square foot of area, so 1,000 lbs capacity. If you put a square foot of concrete or even a flat rock of that size the capacity doubles, if you put an 18" square footing under a post the capacity goes up to 4500 lbs per post. Just make sure it is thick enough that you don't "punch through" the footing. Sort of like putting on snowshoes to keep from sinking in the snow.
I have zero experience with snow shoes but adding pads under the poles is a good idea. I considered it with this project but did not. Next time we probably will. If it starts to settle, we will jack and shim as needed.
The day we did this, it was hot, humid and we had already cut through enough 4" oak roots with my homemade implement of torture/tamping tool (ax head welded to 5' of 1 1/4" solid rod) to do too much extra.
Hard to do much extra with this heat in Georgia.
Danny, my house AC decided to give up the ghost a couple of days ago. The two AC techs I have on speed dial are out until next Wednesday. It is hotter than blue blazes here and the humidity (never understood what our Yankee friends said about humidity until I left this place and went to Alaska for a couple of weeks in 1989). I have my shop fan in the living room and a couple of window shakers doing their best. Reminds me of my youth staying with my grandparents, they did not have AC. The news readers said the heat index was supposed to be 110° today, whatever, it only got to the mid 90's in real degrees. It is too wet to mow so John and I sawed a little pine this afternoon.
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The cant on top did not behave well so I did not waste any more time on it. someone may want a beam or something. We have enough 2x10's cut. Now we need to get busy on some 1x8's and 1x6's. John's uncle only needs 14' 2x10's but since we only have 16' logs he is getting bonus.
Oh my! I know that it is awful in this stifling heat and humidity. Yesterday, my wife gave me a lecture about changing my clothes once I get sweaty. The problem is that EACH time one ventures outside for more than 5 minutes your clothes get sweaty :).
The only problem with air drying platforms is that they fill up too quickly.
John (JMoore) had an idea today that we may implement tomorrow, depending on what Dorian has in store for us. He wants to build a platform like the first one we built but not bury the posts, but rather, put them on pavers or something solid so that the platform would be portable. That seems like a plan to me. We could build it in the shade in the driveway, level a spot and start stacking wood. It would probably require a couple of more bolts per attachment point to keep everything in alignment.
We still need to make several trips to Tampa to get pond cypress logs and get our gooseneck trailer squared away (we have broken brakes) but we currently have more logs to saw than we have places to stack lumber. This idea appealed to me because of the exertion I expended cutting roots with our implement of torture to make it possible to dig post holes on the first platform. The implement of torture is an axe head welded to about five feet of 1 1/4" solid rod-it does do a good job on roots but younger, more enthusiastic men operate it better than I.
Probably easier to make it like a deck frame and use solid blocks to get the height you want instead of using the posts bolted on. You could still sit the blocks on pavers to provide a larger bearing area.
I've done a couple that way and they work well. I haven't had to re-level from settling but that's the nature of the ground here. I use asphalt shingles to fine tune.
I think I'm gonna make a couple like your first one though, because my ground is hard to level unless I put down some crusher run.
The shingle shims are a good idea. Thanks for sharing.
That base is the way to go. Don't waste your time putting cants on top for weight. Stickered bundles of 1x is what goes on top because it will dry faster and lay flatter than any thing thicker. You need to pile as high as possible always putting older 1x on top and then a tin roof pallet that overhangs on 4 sides and will not blow off. Handling lumber is where the work is.
We got around to finishing the portable platform yesterday. It is the same size as the first on but it sits on top of the ground. We spent 10 minutes or so getting it leveled.
For those of you who are looking for a good way to torment your chainsaw, cut some heavily creosoted poles lengthwise.
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We need to build several more.