First time...Stacked and stickered right away. Now what..

[rasman57]

I need to get some education about air drying my first time with fresh milled lumber.  I posted (some good photos too) over on the sawmill section about my Red Oaks and Ash project.  Wilt and EAB got them and I used the resource of the forum to learn about turning them into something other than firewood.  I located a fellow forum member who travels with his mill and hired him to saw.   I have a barn and cabin project where I can use all of the milled boards in the future.   

This nice pile of lumber, about 1200 bd. ft. was taken right off the mill and swept and blown off before stacking and stickering in my carport.  It is not against the fence or garage and has air space along with the open two sides. The first pic shows about 3/4 of the wood. We filled in the open space with another stack but left the center aisle open to keep my log arch in.   It was very hot and humid here in northern Illinois when stacked so I used a couple box fans to keep the air moving now for about a week.  It has cooled off now to the 60's and 70's. 


 


    


 


 


I found a couple threads that talk about too much air flow not being good for the oak?  Most threads I found seem to lean towards lots of air flow to reduce problems.  I have the fans on medium and move them a bit every day or so to not focus on any one area too much.  The gable end of the carport is open to the south and the sun really shines on the last few feet of those long boards otherwise the roof keeps them dry and covered but that sun concern me as it does not equally warm the front.  Is this an issue I should be concerned with for the oak.  The majority of the stack is oak and the 8 foot Ash boards are under the oak near the bottom of the front stack anyway.   

Also when it rains and snows with any wind, the carport can get a little and sometimes enough to accumulate.  How long is a reasonable time frame in this kind of storage before I can safely restack the boards in a closed garage that is not heated.  Can the stickers come out?  Should I cover the stacks in the carport before snowfall?   Eventually I want to move the boards inside the garage for storage but want to maximize the drying while I can.  I had sort of planned on needing a year to work on the drying but not sure how much of that needs to be out in the carport.  Once moved and out of the direct sun (partial stacks) I also can have plenty of air moving in the storage garage with a fan or two.     What advice can you give me.  Trying to learn a bit more about the process as I am sure I am going to do more.  My goal is to eventually move the boards inside and out of the partial sun and hard blowing snow or cover them, but only if I am not going to create other drying problems.  Of course I would like to be able to store them finally without stickers but only when I can. 

Thanks for any sage wisdom and experience you can offer me.

[WDH]

Oak is more forgiving in drying slow without stain or mold than most species.  That is in your favor.  The fans are a good idea, but the fans should not be blowing directly through the stacks, but rather parallel to them.  When it cools down and the humidity get low, turn off the fans as the oak might dry too fast and it will split, check, and possibly honeycomb.  Your carport is not the best place to dry wood without 4 open sides, but I believe that you will be OK if you only run the fans as long as it is hot and humid, you run them on medium or slow speed, you do not blow air directly through the stack, and you just use the fans to keep the air in the carport moving a bit.

You cannot cover the side of the stacks with a tarp, for example, as that will kill the air flow and bad things will happen.  I do not have experience with snow, so I cannot offer you any opinions on that. 

[thecfarm]

Come on up in January and I will give you a lesson about snow.  :D  One of my step son came up in December with someone that had never been sliding. We cured that. First thing I told him,Don't let go of the sled. What was the first thing he did? The sled went by me with no rider.  :D  We got some nice pictures of him. Him meeting the snow.  :D He had a real good time. So did I.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Almost all air drying is done outside with no protection from wind.  This still allows for good drying and few, if any defects.  Fast drying is important for best color on ash especially.  However, we do know that keeping the rain and sun off the lumber does improve quality.  So, you need to increase the air flow substantially.  Keep the piles well away from the solid walls.  Also, it is very important to lift the packs up off the ground.  The pallets you are using do not count as elevation because they do not allow air flow under or through them.  Instead, use a 6x6 or larger placed in the same direction as the stickers.  What happens is that the air int he pile picks up moisture and cools.  This cool, moist air needs to leave the pile.  Being cooler, it will migrate downward.  In your case, it will be trapped because of the wall and the closed space underneath.

An open carport with 6x6s or larger at the bottom would be perfect for oak, but even that might be too slow for good color in ash, so use fans on the ash, blowing directly though the load.

I hate to say this, but I do suggest that you start over and restack in a better drying situation.

OK?

[Jim_Rogers]

When you move your stack(s) to an enclosed building, later on, the wood will only dry until the air in the building is saturated with moisture. Then the wood will not dry. You'll need to remove the moisture from the air. One way to do this is with a dehumidifier. If you keep the air dry then the moisture in the wood will have some place to go.

Temperatures above 60° F will help to dry the wood. Below that it will dry but at a much slower rate.

Jim Rogers

[Den Socling]

Yeah, you need to restack. It looks like some packs don't have stickers in the ends.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Stickers on the ends of the piles and good vertical alignment are paramount to good drying of hardwood.
Also end coating with anchor seal or equivalent is also a good idea.
I am not nearly so fussy with my EWP and hemlock.

[red oaks lumber]

i like saying... air flow air flow air flow
i get so much air flow i'm always picking up boards that blew off piles. ;D

[rasman57]

Okay thanks for the good advice.  I am going to partially restack and clean up the stickering where a few of the the ends are not supported.   The fans and open sides are doing a decent job of moving the air so far.  The Ash will get some extra air flow.  Generally speaking, how long in terms of months does the 5/4 Red Oak need in a covered air drying situation before it can be broken down and stored without stickers indoors?   The dehumidification of the indoor storage area is a good idea and will be done too.

[SawyerBrown]

Got me thinking ... most of the folks I mill for have little/no experience in stacking/stickering/ventilation/etc/etc that is important for successful drying.  I try my best to talk them through it, but it sure would be nice to hand them a piece of paper they could refer to with the do's and don't's, maybe a little diagram/picture, etc.  I started putting one together, but I haven't been able to find a diagram that I'm happy with ... and I'm certainly not an expert anyway, and I don't want to forget something important.

So, rather than gleaning all the sage advice from these FF posts and making my own, does anybody already have something you hand to your customers for reference?  If so, would you be willing to share?  If not, is there a good comprehensive reference I could use to make sure I don't forget something important?

Thanks,

Pete

[beenthere]

Some around
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G5550

http://www.norwoodsawmills.com/lumber-drying/air-drying-lumber

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr117.pdf

[mesquite buckeye]

Leave it to beenthere to know where the good stuff is. ;D 8) 8) 8)

The only thing that I would add, is in warp prone material, putting the stickers closer together helps. I sticker mine at 1 ft. Really helps with branch wood and other figured woods.

I think this carport is a really good drying location. If the wind blows a lot where you live, you shouldn't have any mold issues. After the initial heavy water losses from boards, the water leaves more slowly from deeper in the wood, so it is easier to get rid of it as it reaches the surface. After a month, I doubt you need the fan anymore. 8)

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I have written such an article for Sawmill & Woodlot magazine and you can order back copies

[mesquite buckeye]

I read that one, Gene. It was also a good one. ;D 8) 8) 8)

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The best overall article is "Stacking & Air Drying Basics" which was in the Dec 01 / Jan 02 issue. 

Other articles include "Stacking" Apr/May 98, "Accelerating Air Drying" in Oct/Nov 08, "Air Drying Time" in Oct/Nov 12, and "Real Cost of Air Drying" Apr 09.

These all appeared in SAWMILL & WOODLOT magazine