air drying platforms

[caveman]

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.


 

[btulloh]

Nice

[Southside]

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? 

[caveman]

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.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

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.

[alan gage]

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

[E-Tex]

caveman:  that looks like a great way to do it.  nice looking.  

[mredden]

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.

[caveman]

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.

[LeeB]

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.

[Banjo picker]

Alright guys are you making this up?  I don't see no snake.  Banjo

[doc henderson]

tail in the Left lower corner, head to the left of the leaf.  hard to see, and I guess that is the point! ;)

[Banjo picker]

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

[doc henderson]

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?

[Banjo picker]

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

[doc henderson]

 smiley_clapping :D :D :D smiley_hollywood_cool

[alan gage]

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

[btulloh]

Caveman, how are you fastening your 2x4's?  Timberloks?  Toenail?

[rjwoelk]

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. 

[WDH]

There ain't no frost heave in Florida, just sand heave  :D.

[doc henderson]

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.





I will begin a new thread when I have time to try this out.

[Old Greenhorn]

There ain't no frost heave in Florida, just sand heave  :D.

So, like a 'Dry Heave', sort of?

[doc henderson]

@caveman  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.

[caveman]

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.

[rjwoelk]

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