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Is there a better way to sticker?

Started by bushhog920, July 21, 2021, 11:26:28 PM

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bushhog920

I've been stickering by hand in my small operation even with two people it get almost too much especially when you get chest high. This is also my biggest bottleneck I'm to the point of getting a 500lbs bridge crane that will cover a 20'x50' area and I can sort and lift each layer at once and walk it to the correct stack. Looking for ideas to better automate this process for under the $10k range.

doc henderson

good morning.  I remove the stack of wood from the mill with forks, and can then sticker off the forks.  when stacked and banded, then move it to the location I want.  if you make pallets that line up then you can stack until you are done with the height, then start a new pallet and stack it on top.  that is if you have forks on a bucket on one of you tractors.  
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Magicman

 

 
I stack a couple of 2X4's or a 4X4 between each lift.  I have found that a skylift/telehandler is the best style loader for handling and stacking lumber.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

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tacks Y

Have you made a sticker box? A box with the right end open and ribs on the back to line stickers up. 4x4s on bottom to lift stack out, the left end closed to hold boards against.

I went with pallets as I am slow/own-use type mill. I move the pallets about double stack.

longtime lurker

IMHO if I had 10k to throw at this issue Id install a long greenchain rather than a bridge crane. Send everything down the chain and slide directly into pack where required, jogging the chain back and forth to avoid walking.

You could probably pick up a second hand semiauto racking machine for that out the change... second hand greenchain goes cheap at every mill closure.

It's just one of those boring monotonous essential tasks in the production of lumber. And it is essential... and attention to detail here does pay because the best sawing job in the world can be undone by a halfhearted stickering job. Get it right and your timber lays flat in the stack and flat when dry and you can dry bowed boards straight. Take shortcuts and you can dry a bend in timber that came off the saw flat.

I don't like pallets, I strap dunnage to my packs instead. It's all the same thing.
The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

YellowHammer

Pallets and forklifts.  Lots and lots of pallets (or dunnage).  The lumber come off the mill, goes on a pallet, and never comes off.  Here's a picture from a mill down the road.  



YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

bushhog920

 
thanks for the replies I have a system similar to what you suggested. I have 2 bobcats and a moffett forklift that I couldn't get by without what I'm looking for is to step up my game to something more ergonomic than sliding boards off forks you are still having to pick up each board one at a time. 
 

handhewn

Any suggestions on how I might utilize my two 12' bed boom trucks (one with extendo boom) in the milling operation I am setting up. I do not have a forklift. If I slide lumber right off the mill onto a boom truck stickering as I go, I could then move/lift/place the stack anywhere. Anyway, that's the plan for now unless somebody has a better idea. Does anyone out there have an idea as to what sort of contraption I could use to connect the single lift cable to a stickered stack of lumber?

doc henderson

the roofing industry has trucks to deliver pallets of shingle and make an off set fork rig that can be lifted at a single point.  I will try to search but do not know what they are called.  @customsawyer used the drag back and conveyor/rollers and the boards off the mill fall into place with more scootin than lifting.  still had one guy offloading/stickering.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

VB-Milling

Drywall/wallboard loaders act the same way.

Wonder if you can just buy the articulating fork attachment at the very end  8)

Drywall / Wallboard Cranes for Sale & Rent ? Custom Truck One Source
HM126

doc henderson



no price on this one.  another company whos name I will not mention had similar for about 2 to 3 K.  Looks like you could make one custom for your crane and pallet style.  Need to check you lift limit a length to see if you crane/trolley system could handle it plus the weight of the wood.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Joe Hillmann

I wouldn't make my stacks that high.  I would start my stacks on a table so the first row is about knee high, then stackthe pile about 3 feet higher.  Then move the stack for storage/drying and stack them 2 or 3 stacks tall with 4x4's between each stacks to make room for forks.  That way you never have too bend over too far or reach too high while stacking.

Don P

Those telestick forks have their place but are an exercise in frustration on anything but flat and level. If you don't need to boom a forklift is much more fun.

Satamax

Quote from: doc henderson on July 22, 2021, 04:24:09 PM


no price on this one.  another company whos name I will not mention had similar for about 2 to 3 K.  Looks like you could make one custom for your crane and pallet style.  Need to check you lift limit a length to see if you crane/trolley system could handle it plus the weight of the wood.
Over here, you can have a brand new one for 750€ About 890 dolls. 
They are indeed an exercice in frustration, using those on your own. A plus would be to have a  "rotator" 
Teleboom, telescopic forklift, telehandlers or whatever you call them, are great. But you need the space to move. 
Bushhog920. 
Here is your solution! :D 
TS Accu-Placer Precision Stick Placer & Stacker - YouTube
French CD4 sawmill. Latil TL 73. Self moving hydraulic crane. Iveco daily 4x4 lwb dead as of 06/2020. Replaced by a Brimont TL80 CSA.

Satamax

All jokes asside. 

May be an inclined surface on forks of a forklift, onto which you could load at the mill, with boards. Turn the forklift, then raise the inclined surface just above the last stickers you have laid, and push the boards on top of those. May be that could be done just with the forks of a telescopic forklift. Time consuming i would think. 

See the TS manufacturing video above. They slide the board onto the stickers.  May be there is a way to do that on the cheap. 
French CD4 sawmill. Latil TL 73. Self moving hydraulic crane. Iveco daily 4x4 lwb dead as of 06/2020. Replaced by a Brimont TL80 CSA.

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