Stickers Questions

[pezrock]

I have been mostly using the cheap 1 X 2 X 8's that cost about $1.89 at Home Depot. They are just convenient and cheap but I get stain sometimes and they aren't ideal. I mostly mill hardwoods and don't want to mill a board for making stickers for each different log I mill. I also want to minimize sticker stain. I did a lot of Google searches and shipping costs more than the stickers from some places and others want to only sell tremendously large amounts. I looked into cutting plastic conduit in half and it just does not seem like a great solution. I would be willing to drive up to 2 hours to pick up a load. 

What are you guys using? 

Where can I get them for a reasonable price?

Any other advice?  

[terrifictimbersllc]

I tell customers to get 8' 1x3s and I rip them down the center 6 at a time for them.

[Nebraska]

Mine are  usually Pine or Green Ash made off of the mill(white wood)  usually out of flitches and not so great stuff. You know, the designer firewood that you produce every so often. Let them dry a bit and I break them down with a compound  miter saw to length.  The ones that get twisty/wonky from knots and funny grain become kindling for the stove.  ⁷/⁸  by 1 ¹/⁸ using the mill scale.

[moodnacreek]

You have no edgings?

[WV Sawmiller]

   I use a lot of tulip poplar and ash at home largely because that is what I am cutting. I sticker and dry them just like I do my lumber and they dry pretty quickly. Somebody posted about making them out of pine and laying them on hot asphalt to dry quickly.

   As Moody mentions above I make mine at most customer sites from the edgings.

[Nebraska]

Edgings lumped into the not so great stuff. So yes definitely. 

[Tom the Sawyer]

I have many clients who want live edge or flitch cut lumber, and thicker boards, so there aren't many edgings, and the majority of that is walnut.  I primarily custom mill my clients logs but I do keep a supply of various logs on hand for those who don't have their own logs, or the right species.  I buy most of my logs from tree services and sometimes get offered 'utility' species like cottonwood, soft maple, hackberry, etc..  I get very few requests for those species from clients.  

I'll just turn an entire log into stickers.  A 24" diameter by 8' log should yield about 200 bf of 4/4 boards.  I'll dry them, run them through the planer and rip them on the table saw, should yield 450-500 4' stickers.  Sure, there is some time involved but a log that size only costs me $60-70.  

I ran into the same issue as some other posters when I considered using name brand stickers.  I think a pallet full of 4' stickers was something like 1500 @ .80 but shipping to Kansas seemed excessive, and that was well before the current shipping issues. Apparently, Amazon Prime doesn't have them.  :D

[K-Guy]

To avoid sticker stain, the best way is to use stickers made of the same species to be dried or the link below is another option.

Home - breezedried

[Resonator]

When I have "cull" boards from sawing my own logs, usually those become stickers when their dry. I use whatever wood I have, as long as it's dry. I'll spend an afternoon with the saw and cut a stack, if they are from wavy boards I'll run the stickers through the planer to flatten them out. I have found I can never have too many, as customers will often pay extra for them after I saw their logs into lumber. One suggestion I've read is to use plywood and rip it down on a table saw, also any free demo lumber could be ripped down and used.

[Joe Hillmann]

In the past I used edging boards to cut my stickers out of but now I pick a few dozen of my best boards and cut stickers out of them.  I usually cut them into 1x1 and the last one that gets cut is a 1x2.  By using my best boards I don't have to worry about knots bad grain causing the stickers to break.  I usually don't worry about sticker stain so I use them green.  But once the pile of lumber is used I save the stickers and can reuse them again and again as long as I keep them stacked neat and out of the weather between uses.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Update on pricing.  I checked the Breezewood site, a pallet of 4' stickers was 2080 @ .85 = $1768 + $600 shipping, or about $1.14 each (3/4" thick).  When I asked for a price I didn't notice that they were in Ontario, Canada so that probably influenced shipping.

[Stephen1]

I use breezewood stickers. 7/8" 1..25". I buy them 2000 at a time. No shipping as they have an outpost  yard in my town. I bring them to my portable sites when sawing hardwood. I charge $1.25 a sticker and when they bring the wood to me for kiln drying I refund them .75 cents.  It's a great way to fill my kiln 8)
No sticker stain , except on pine I will see a slight depression from them 

[burdman_22]

I get my stickers from a cabinet making company about an hour from me. They sell/give me bundles of their offcuts, which are kiln dried and planed to 0.88 inches (or something like that). Each bundle I get from them yields a few hundred stickers (I have to cut them to length). When they do charge it is only $10. 

[kelLOGg]

When someone wants boards narrower than slabs I have cut off I will put the slabs on the mill and cut down 1" per pass and save the 1 inchers for cutting stickers. They are usually pine. 

[pezrock]

I think I'll mill myself. I wish i didn't have to buy minimum orders of 1200 of these things and pay crazy shipping costs. Was hoping for some other cheap simple alternative. Thanks guys.

[Lasershark]

In the past I used edging boards to cut my stickers out of but now I pick a few dozen of my best boards and cut stickers out of them.  I usually cut them into 1x1 and the last one that gets cut is a 1x2.  By using my best boards I don't have to worry about knots bad grain causing the stickers to break.  I usually don't worry about sticker stain so I use them green.  But once the pile of lumber is used I save the stickers and can reuse them again and again as long as I keep them stacked neat and out of the weather between uses.

The best boards technique is an interesting take on it, I use edgings and the quality is pretty low since they can break at a knot any old time. I'd imagine your stickers are high-quality. 

[YellowHammer]

There are other manufacturers of the spiral fluted stickers for less money and lower shipping.  I've been using this style for years and they really work exceptionally well.  I don't use Breezdried, but do purchase that style.

If you have a dado head you can make some very effective "H" shaped stickers that are almost as good, and way better than solid stickers. We've made thousands and thousands, and theses will not sticker stain except in the worst conditions.

Here's a video of us making some on our table saw with a power feed.  At the end of the video, I show a closeup of the end profile.  

https://youtu.be/jcrfH66gBI4

I don't worry about using the same species of wood, but I prefer hardwood simply because that can be reused many times before they start to see wear.  I don't like using highly colored wood such as walnut, or closed pore wood such as white oak, but other than that, no issues.  Pine is fine, they just split easier and don't last.

Poplar, cherry, red oak, etc, no issues. The key to good stickers is to dry them and keep them relatively dry during storage.  

I don't like to hot swap stickers directly out of the kiln and use on the next load.  I like to let them get a little moisture back from the air, otherwise they tend to cause reverse sticker stain and leave white stripes.