Storing dried lumber

doc henderson · April 05, 2020, 09:26:25 PM

anybody good with a rubix cube or those little square slider puzzles that spell words or make pictures? might help with arranging a system to access the wood after it is back 40 feet. cause you know which one you will need first.

If it was for a building, you could reverse mill it, so it came out in the order you needed. could use swivel casters and have an isle and a row of stacks. maybe a winch cable to help pull them out. or get some of the roller tables to roll in or out down the middle or side. you are living the dream. are you young enough to do parkour over stacks of lumber?

alan gage · April 06, 2020, 05:22:42 PM

Quote from: YellowHammer on April 05, 2020, 08:28:24 AM
There's got to be a way to load one with a forklift, but I haven't figured it out yet. Any ideas?

I think the best answer is spend the extra money for a container where the whole side opens, like Doc has. I think they even make 40' ones that do that. But that's more money and then I get to thinking that I could build a decent building for that much money. But of course that takes more time and isn't moveable.
I can't bring myself to buy an end loading container if the only purpose is storing wood just because of the labor and inefficiency of loading/unloading. But I can't quite bring myself to spend the money for a side open model either.
Alan

Stephen1 · April 13, 2020, 10:27:04 AM

Lets see, We have samills and we are talking about buying a steel container to hold our wood :

I would just build something to hold my wood. Does not have to insulated, as the containers are'nt. Start small and design to keep adding to one end as the needs arise.

doc henderson · April 13, 2020, 10:38:38 AM

the advantage of the container is it is well sealed. If you build a building for kiln dried wood, it will have to be insulated and airconditioned to mimic indoor home humidity. If the wood was air dried that would be fine. I think most wood structures breath a little. I run a DH in my container from time to time.

Stephen1 · April 13, 2020, 10:51:04 AM

Quote from: doc henderson on April 13, 2020, 10:38:38 AM
the advantage of the container is it is well sealed. If you build a building for kiln dried wood, it will have to be insulated and airconditioned to mimic indoor home humidity. If the wood was air dried that would be fine. I think most wood structures breath a little. I run a DH in my container from time to time.

doc, most containers are not insulated, well sealed yes. Line the inside of a storage building with 6mil plastic, seal the joints, as good as a container. if it is not perfect you can still run your DH and maintain the moisture.
It is looking like some of us will have lots of free time as this mess continues.
Cheers
Stephen

doc henderson · April 13, 2020, 10:53:53 AM

I agree with that. If you got the time to seal it up with plastic, that should work. can also just wrap a tightly stacked pallet with plastic as well. good luck! It is usually the doors that give people trouble, in terms of sealing and or getting good access.

farmfromkansas · April 13, 2020, 12:57:03 PM

Can anyone share how much increase in temperature you would get in a container if you painted the roof black?

doc henderson · April 13, 2020, 09:09:28 PM

mine is yellow and gains about 20° over ambient daytime. I know that @GeneWengert-WoodDoc had mentioned it, we can see if he has numbers.

farmfromkansas · April 14, 2020, 08:58:32 AM

Wooddoc posted once that maybe I should paint the roof of my reefer container black, it is also running about 20 degrees over outside temps, but is far from reaching 140 degrees. Reason for my solar kiln is the hope for 140 degrees plus. Hate those PPB's.

Al_Smith · April 14, 2020, 01:20:35 PM

Just paint in general anything with red pigment will eventually be pink .Green for some reason holds the color better .Black absorbs heat .White or silver reflects heat .Think of a black car in the middle of July or black seat covers .

GeneWengert-WoodDoc · April 15, 2020, 11:16:34 PM

It is extremely rare to get Lyctids PPB in air drying lumber if the MC is 20% MC or higher. So, worrying about them in a kiln and trying to get 130F may not be needed.

caveman · May 09, 2020, 01:20:34 PM

I mentioned yesterday's project on WDH's heart pine table build thread but it may be more appropriate here. Recently we have begun using our solar kiln more. With the weather we have been having it has been drying our previously air dried lumber in two to three weeks. We have sold a small amount during the shutdown and built and sold a few benches in addition to the wood that the local hardwood lumber store has sold for us.

The problem was that we have had dried lumber stacked on saw horses, benches and leaning on the few empty walls in my shop. I could not even access my radial arm saw or chop saw. We are currently storing dried lumber in the hot box and the kiln.

Yesterday morning we selected a couple of longleaf pine butt logs to saw into 2"x4"s. We got 60 and a 1"x12" out of those two. One, by the way, had 49 growth rings in a 2"x4". We built a rack to store lumber inside the shop. We loaded it this morning. It works for slabs but should really work well for boards. It took us most of the afternoon to build but all of the weight bearing boards were recessed 1" into the uprights rather than just relying on the strength of nails for support.

I know many of you have built storage racks/bins. If you have any suggestions of what we should have done, feel free to share. I hope that we need to build more storage.

TCove · May 09, 2020, 08:22:17 PM

That's almost exactly what I have, in a large pole shed. Wall to wall.
Love it. Works well.

busenitzcww · May 25, 2020, 08:46:43 PM

So I'm wondering, how many of you have climate controlled shops? And also how many of the big hardwood dealers/builders have climate controlled buildings? It seems ideal to be able to monitor wood after it comes out of the kiln but how practical when your talking volume? I know some of you guys mill/dry/sell volume. What's your approach? I hate handling everything by hand.

WDH · May 25, 2020, 08:51:05 PM

I keep my inventory of kiln dried wood climate controlled using dehumidifiers. I keep the storage areas at 40% humidity.

caveman · May 25, 2020, 09:45:07 PM

The largest hardwood dealer in town here has huge roll up doors open during business hours and the office is the only room in the 12,000 square foot building that has a/c. Their wood is flat stacked on racks and their slabs stand upright in bins along a wall.

YellowHammer · May 25, 2020, 10:39:15 PM

For us the key is not to store wood, but to sell wood. As the inventory of wood turns over, with newly dried and processed wood replacing dead stacked inventory, the building air stays remarkably dry. By the time the wood might have a chance to come up moisture, it's sold and gone.

We leave our doors closed except during during business hours, and run a dehumidifier when the humidity gets too high. However, the faster we can process the wood, and more importantly, the faster we can sell the wood, then the less problem we have with inventory issues, such as bugs, moisture, mice, etc.

I much prefer to store inventory stickered under the air drying shed, and only pull it into activity when I predict a need for it. So it doesn't get kiln dried and finished until I need it.

GeneWengert-WoodDoc · May 30, 2020, 05:47:18 PM

If wood changed its MC quickly, like with an open door for eight hours, we probably would not need kilns. Of course, after eight hours, you need to close the door and run a dehumidifier (electric cost), so make sure that the open door policy sells lumber. I think that Yellow Hammer has a good approach and we know that any customers will be impressed with the care he takes with the lumber.

ONE THING TO ADD TO YOUR STORAGE OR SELLING BUILDING IS A FEW ROCKING CHAIRS FOR FRIENDLY CONVERSATION. Maybe even a small pot of coffee. Social distancing and maybe masks. I know of a few friends that did this and the customers once in a while brought doughtnuts.

Stephen1 · May 31, 2020, 09:40:19 AM

Quote from: GeneWengert-WoodDoc on May 30, 2020, 05:47:18 PM
If wood changed its MC quickly, like with an open door for eight hours, we probably would not need kilns. Of course, after eight hours, you need to close the door and run a dehumidifier (electric cost), so make sure that the open door policy sells lumber. I think that Yellow Hammer has a good approach and we know that any customers will be impressed with the care he takes with the lumber.

ONE THING TO ADD TO YOUR STORAGE OR SELLING BUILDING IS A FEW ROCKING CHAIRS FOR FRIENDLY CONVERSATION. Maybe even a small pot of coffee.

I like that idea, especially as the warm weather has arrived. I seem to be very busy talking to customers from where this all started.
I am open on saturday mornings, it started out as puttering day while the GF ran her Karate classes next door. I really was not looking to have any retail sails.
More and more people showing up as they find out I'm there.
The Karate classes have been shut down for 2 months now(covid)
I now have the hired 1 of the Karate students (14yrs old) to help me on saturday mornings, sweeping, general cleaning of the shop and yard, stickering.
This Saturday morning store is slowly expanding from what I started.