Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   The problem with lining up the stickers with the one below is you can only see one end - the one facing you - and the other end may not be directly in line. If it sticks out on the other side you can see and line that end up too. I'm not talking leaving them sticking out a foot so so to get in the way, I'm only talking a couple of inches.

    I use stacking skids too when I am sawing at home but there are none to be had at the mobile sites.

   I guess everybody else has a helper picking up the other end of their flitches when edging so they don't need to use a short stick to make a pivot.

    Also sliding the boards to rest on the end of the mil so you can finish sawing the cant only applies if you have to stack your own lumber. I may use that technique the next time I have a slow customer slowing me down.

OCH,

   Yeah, I guess that is our lot in life for people like me and you not to be recognized for our talents when dealing with lesser men.

[SawyerTed]

SOP here is longer stickers, trimmed to 1-2" longer than the stack is wide after the stack is made. Scraps get used sometimes for small stacks and stacks of live edge but most go in the firewood bin.

SOP on a portable job is cut stickers per customer specs.  Sometimes they want something specific.  That's one of my on site questions for customers, "How do you want stickers cut?"  They often don't know so we talk about their plans for stacking and drying.

Genius has its limits...some of us are more limited than others.  

[doc henderson]

longer is easier to line up, even after the fact could use a straight edge.  I made a 90^o square out of Masonite so I could bump my sticker in line and perpendicular to the stack. 

[doc henderson]

long stickers is starting to sound like an accommodation.

[TimW]

I cut my stickers one inch longer to 49 inches.  If the stickers snag you, your cutting too many corners.

[TimW]

Howard,
     I leave air gaps between my boards on each level.  This way, I can see the sticker and put one directly over the one below it.

[Magicman]

Weather again.  I was scheduled to saw tomorrow morning, but the customer texted that he had 5 trees down in his front yard plus the other storm cleanup. 

We had gotten over 5" of rain this week before yesterday and last night.  The ground is soaked so it does not take a huge amount of wind to tip trees over.

I know that it will all get done in due time, so I will have another day off. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Chance of thunderstorm and showers predicted tomorrow. I am still loaded for a mobile job this weekend for a couple of repeat customers at their camp down on the Greenbrier River. The weekend looks nice. I can use the money as I have to buy gas for a trip down south.

    I do not charge for cutting stickers. I guess that would be another advantage to ho9urly rate sawing as I'd get paid to make them. In the last case I told the customer to leave me a smalls ticker log in front and he left a 7' log about 8" diameter and a 6' one about 12". I made stickers to get me started and sawed some 4X4's for dunnage for my 8' stack After that I just sawed my edgings in 1" drops and the ones with more than 4' of clean wood went int he sticker pile The barky ones went in the slab pile. 

   I tried lining up 10-12 stickers to saw to length then found it was easier to just grab 3-4, stand them on end. lay them on the stack and saw with my cordless 6.5" circle saw, repeat as long as I needed stickers then stack. My little battery powered saw worked real good on the small stacks but tended to get hung on the bigger stacks. I'd get enough stickers off each set of edging to stay a long or two ahead. 

   The WM service team will be here tomorrow to do a service. It is time for the 50 hour service anyway but I assume the service loop does everything I would be doing anyway. I'll put brushes in a spare hydraulic motor while they are here. I bought the brushes right after I replaced the motor and just never put them in. This way I know they will be done right. 

[barbender]

Here I thought you were calling Howard a Simple Old Person.

[WV Sawmiller]

BB,

  I think your phone is ringing. You better go answer it.

[WV Sawmiller]

Howard,
    I leave air gaps between my boards on each level.  This way, I can see the sticker and put one directly over the one below it.

Tim,

    This brings up a good question. Are air gaps needed, useful or desirable when stacking lumber?

     I am sure I read here on the forum somewhere when I first started sawing lumber  that stacking the wood against the next board was fine for drying purposes as long as it was properly stickered with good air flow from the sides.

   How many others leave gaps or do you stack the boards tight against each other?

    I know it makes it easier to see the sticker below but it would make it harder for me to tally at the end of the job as I just measure the width of the rows. on my last job since I was doing the stacking every row except the last one was exactly the same as the one below and made the tally process dirt simple and accurate.

[doc henderson]

I would say tight is fine with good air flow.  the question is what good air flow is.  airdrying outside is questionable as you have no control over or consistent airflow.  drying shed with fans better.  kiln great.  if you stack your boards that are all the same width with same gap, you can subtract the overall gap amount from your side width.  On a still day with no air movement, the top wood will dry faster on the top.  the bottoms will be impacted by humid air from below, and overall, I expect the lower levels to dry slower.  the air gap might help even that out.

[SawyerTed]

In practice, boards are stacked edge to edge as often as not for air drying.  

Customers do and don't even though I suggest they do leave space.  Spaces get lost sometimes when stacks get moved with a fork machine. 

USDA/Forest Service guidance is to leave a space.  Kiln drying benefits from the space. 

[jpassardi]

I would agree with Ted on this. I leave a space between boards as well.
If there is no space between, the air can only travel horizontally, with space there is potential for some vertical flow as well as the 4th face of the lumber to get exposure to air.
The disadvantage is without enough weight from above, it's less apt to help prevent crook as boards dry.

[beenthere]

I stack each layer with the outside edge boards aligned straight to the outside board below, then fill in as best you can with what fits between the outside edge boards. Stack then looks like teakwood's. 

[TimW]

Howard,
    I leave air gaps between my boards on each level.  This way, I can see the sticker and put one directly over the one below it.

Tim,

    This brings up a good question. Are air gaps needed, useful or desirable when stacking lumber?

    I am sure I read here on the forum somewhere when I first started sawing lumber  that stacking the wood against the next board was fine for drying purposes as long as it was properly stickered with good air flow from the sides.

  How many others leave gaps or do you stack the boards tight against each other?

    I know it makes it easier to see the sticker below but it would make it harder for me to tally at the end of the job as I just measure the width of the rows. on my last job since I was doing the stacking every row except the last one was exactly the same as the one below and made the tally process dirt simple and accurate.

I just thought, since airflow is wanted under and over the boards, one would want airflow vertically thru the stack.


 

[WV Sawmiller]

  Well, I am down for a few days. WM service team came by and repaired or replaced several items but a linkage in the blade tensioner broke and not a part on the truck so I'm down till it gets here and I replace it. Part was less than $14 so not a big cost. Went to replace the bearings in the idler wheel and found too much wear inside so had to get a new wheel also not on the truck. That one was about $188. Another simple replacement and apparently I have been over tensioning the blade which caused such wear. They replaced the rollers on the rails where getting grooved and my alternator belt was shredded. I had a spare and need to order another replacement. I was well pleased with their service under the circumstances and the training is always a valuable as the repairs and service made. They showed me how to replace the brushes in my hydraulic motor so I have spare ready to use not. Not hard but not what I was expecting - my ignorance not design or such.

CORRECTION: It was not the blade tensioner it was on the clutch assembly. I looked high and low in my manual last night to make sure there was not a second more difficult part to replace that was needed and I could not find the part. This morning I thought "Clutch" equals Engine and there it was and just the one part. I don't know why it chose to break when Logan pulled down on the arm. It is not a part you can abuse and just luck of the draw it broke for him. I am sure it would have broken in my hands if I'd have been the next one to pull down/engage the arm. I still bet it made him feel bad but honestly I see no way it was abuse just normal wear and tear.

[barbender]

The original idle side bearings on my 97 LT40 were not up to the job. I went through a few sets of those, until mine also walliwed out the bores. Actually,  one set wallowed the bores, and I put a set in with a Loctite product that is made for loose bearings and sleeves. Since they were basically glued in, when those bearings failed, I ordered the new, updated wheel which has a much beefier bearing.

[longtime lurker]

My understanding is that space between the boards in a pack is problematic when kiln drying.

When you have no space air is forced into the stack on the high pressure side and exits the same course on the low pressure side.

When you have  vertical gaps it forms chimneys so hot air entering a course can rise as it goes through resulting in uneven drying. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Lurker,

   But this lumber was stacked for air drying.

    Should there be a difference in stacking for AD vs KD?

[Resonator]

Spruce and pine.
The snow finally melted here and had warm sunny weather last couple days, so I got my mill fired up and made some sawdust.
Began working my way through my winter logging pile, starting with the spruce and white pine. The spruce was mostly standing dead trees that I just wanted to salvage what I could from them, mostly 6x6 and a few 2x's. The white pine were all healthy trees and made some nice 8', 10', and 12' 2x's. I also wanted to get the pine cut before the bark boring bugs start making tunnels.

Got about half of the closer pile cut, still have a few to go. Other logs piled up are an assortment of black cherry, black ash, and good old stinky pulp poplar.

[barbender]

It has been excellent sawing, and softwood lumber drying weather, the last few days👍👍

[TimW]

Resonator,
  Nice looking stack of lumber.  Glad Y'all are thawing out up there.  I have had the 5 foot fan running behind the sawmill, the last 3 days, down here.

[Resonator]

Thanks, I gotta drive down to Georgia in a couple days and may have to find me a sombrero to keep the sun off my head.

[Nebraska]

It would seem to me that tightly stacked green fresh cut lumber will develop air gaps quicky as it dries anyway. My stacks are never that tight.   FWIW.