Newbie in need of advice on air drying Eastern White Pine!

[MaineVein]

Hey all!  A friend of mine is clearing several big Eastern White pines from his land and he is letting me mill them.  I've started cutting and everything is going well so far.  I'm cutting 6x6 timbers, 4x4, Lots of 2x and lots of 5/4".  I'm using 1x1 poplar as stickers at about 18" apart.  I'm trying to cut everything before the snow melts and the bugs get to it so I'm in a bit of a hurry but I don't want to do all of this cutting only to find that I missed something!  Please, any advice you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

Keller

[Den Socling]

Green Poplar holds a lot of water but dries fast. Are your sticks dry?

[MaineVein]

I'll meter them tomorrow but I would imagine they're still wet.  I milled them roughly three weeks ago.  Although, the trees had been down for a couple months before I milled them.  What percent MC should I look for?

[thecfarm]

MaineVein,welcome to the forum. Must be in Maine somewheres?? Eastern pine is pretty easy to dry. As long as you have a good foundation and sticker it right.
Whatcha you got for a mill?
There is a real nice woods expo coming to Bangor.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,80761.0.html
Sawmills in motion and small scale logging equipment to look at. Big stuff too.

[MaineVein]

Hey, Thanks.  I'm glad to be here!  Right now, I'm in Chester, MA.  We do go up to Maine a few times a year.  Both my Wife's and my family have property up there, I love Maine but haven't become an official resident yet!  I have a Norwood MN 26 on a 6.5 x 22 foot trailer I custom built.  I worked at a mill that produced flooring from salvaged beams that came out of barns and factories.  That's where I got my experience with a band saw but green lumber is a whole different ball game I'm starting to discover!  My units are nice and stable, how do you recommend I sticker?  Also, will the pitch harden sufficiently with air drying?

[MaineVein]

Also, is EWP suitable for framing?  Does it make sense milling to 2"?  Thanks again.

[WDH]

The pitch will not harden with only air drying. 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

SAWMILL & WOODLOT magazine had a series on sawing and air drying white pine.  You might have to contact them to get the exact issues.

http://www.sawmillmag.com/app/home/index

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

If the poplar sticks (this is aspen poplar I am assuming), you need to buy some 1x2 pine from the lumber yard and use that.  If the sticks are even the least bit over 10% MC, you are asking for trouble with staining.

It is risky to air dry EWP due to stain risks if the weather is warm and the humidity is high.  At the least, use a good cover to prevent rain wetting.  Make suer there is adequate air flow.

[MaineVein]

Gene, it's white popple, not poplar.  At least that's what the loggers here refer to it as.  It's at around 13%, but I do have a rain cover on it when needed and it is very well ventilated as the area where the unit sits is consistently windy.  I do have access to some old pine barn board that I could plane down and clean up.  Maybe I'll go that route, just to be safe.  Thanks.

[red oaks lumber]

use the dry barn boards for stickers, stack your lumber in a well ventilated area and you won't have any issues. we air dry ewp all year long with very little problems i don't use pile top covers but, thats just me 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Aspen and white poplar are the same.  Yellow poplar is entirely different.  Aspen is too soft for stickers most of the time.  It also needs to be dried to under 10% to avoid staining.

Your air drying techniques do sound pretty good.  They should work well much of the time.  Although we can air dry EWP in WI, the much higher RH in Maine on many days discourages that process when the whitest color is desired all the time.

I, like Red Oaks, think that your barn boards are good for stickers, unless they are more valuable as barn boards for art projects, etc.  Then, 1x2 from the lumber store is the best.  You do not need treated 1x2s, but rather just regular 1x2s.

[Greenie]

We have been milling white pine for 12 years. It has to be sawed early or it will stain. We have been spraying bleach and water on the boards as it is stacked. I don't know for sure if the bleach helps reduce sap stain but I'm afraid to stop. The stacks are stickered with spruce 1x1's and covered to keep rain and sunlight off the top. The tarps are used so the sides and ends are not covered. Despite all that we still have a fair amount of sap stain. We usually start planing and sizing in September. It's all boards except 2" stock that we use for sign making. The 2" stock we now truck to a mill so they can set the pitch by baking it at 160 degrees. That process seems to also harden the wood a little; it works a little different once the pitch is set. Sap stain is not only an appearance issue but it makes the wood porous wherever it occurs which encourages rot and mold.
We don't ever use white pine for structural lumber - for that we use spruce.
The popple we stickered inside a shed that has some air movement. We put weight on the top of the stack to keep it from warping while it dried. It took a longer time for the popple to dry than the pine - 7 months vs. 4 for the pine. We made all 1" boards from the popple and it came out pretty nice. It has a reputation for not liking to be stacked outdoors.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Greenie makes a good point.  The conditions (slow drying and warm temperatures) that favor fungal sap stain also are favorable for decay or rot given enough time, as well as brown or coffee stain.

Although it does cost for electricity, using fans in air drying to move air across the load when above 50 F and when below 90% RH is very effective in reducing stain.  Nothing beats fast drying when at high MCs.