Air drying horse stall vs outside? pine & RO

[DAlston]

We have a choice of air drying chainsaw milled boards in a horse stall with a dirt floor or outside in our home yard.  The stall would seem to require less work prepping the ground and allow protection from rain.  But outside may allow more airflow.  We have RO and S. yellow pine to dry.  Trying to get 2x4s out of the pine so plan is to cut at 2.5" thickness.  Not sure about the RO yet.  Was thinking we might use the RO for trying to floor one of our bedrooms for "fun".

[WDH]

I used a horse stall to air dry pecan once.  Never again as the lumber gray stained badly.  Not enough air flow.  It is a poor choice for the pine.  Oak might handle it better but I would look for a place with more air flow. 

[Southside]

Your pine will turn all kinds of funky colors in the stall. Will these be exposed when installed? That is a lot of over cut on a 2x4. 

[K-Guy]

I would recommend you do a little research on air drying both species and follow what is best.


By the way, did you ask the horse about how it felt about sharing the stall with the wood? ;D ;D

[scsmith42]

What Danny and Southside said.

Additionally, if you want 2x4's and you're milling longer than 8' you're better off leaving the boards wide and then ripping to width after drying.  The extra thickness won't provide much benefit; your greater challenge is not having the boards crook during the drying process.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I agree that SDR, saw-dry-rip, is best for SYP, as this is a high warp species, especially with small trees.  

A dry 2x4 is 1.5".  So, consider a green size of 1.8", which allows for shrinkage and planing, and a little warp.  Also keep in mind that some building inspectors want the self-made lumber to be graded.

Also, keep in mind that if the rings are not centered, side to side, when looking at the end grain, you will get excessive warp.  Also, the center piece with the pith will likely warp too much.

We need to dry pine ASAP and as fast as possible too.  So, the horse stall is a bad idea for pine.

Oak drying is quite different...somewhat slow drying is required to avoid checking.  Again, the stall, without air flow is a bad idea...mold and stain with some cupping too.  read DRYING HARDWOOD LUMBER for all the info you need before you start sawing.

[YellowHammer]

Dry it outside, under cover, open sides, and it will do fine.  Lock it up in a stagnant room, and the wood will not like it it and come out a mess.

I think 1/2" overage cutting for 2x4's is a little too much, I'd go for 1/4" at most. If you are going to use them for studs, the thickness won't even matter, it's the width that will be critical, so I'd cut them where I could rip them on a table saw or edger or whatever piece of equipment you have to get uniform and straight edges.  You could run the sides through a planer and clean them up quickly, also.  Sawing 1\4" over would shrink to less than 3/16" per side, which most planers would easily handle.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Unless you have a very powerful planer, it is often better to rip the dry pieces to just over the correct width and then a single pass in the lander should finish the job.

[DAlston]

Thank you for the advice.  I'll plan on stacking them outside.  I was thinking splashing of rain off the ground would be a problem and inside the stall would be better.  I have a concrete pad but it doesn't drain that well and water stands there sometimes when it rains a lot.  I would guess that's not good either.

[DAlston]

I would recommend you do a little research on air drying both species and follow what is best.


By the way, did you ask the horse about how it felt about sharing the stall with the wood? ;D ;D

Horses are too expensive.  We keep only one now.  Lumber work is much more profitable.  Ha, ha. Not at these current prices.

[DAlston]

 


How do you think this old open stall/free stall barn would work for SY Pine, red oak, white oak, and black cherry?

[Southside]

Cleaned up the hardwoods might do fine, depends on airflow, but with SYP you can't get too much air across it. Better to have it up off the ground, with some old tin on top to keep the water and rain off, and in the middle of a 100 acre bare field. 

[YellowHammer]

Thats a lot bigger space than I envisioned.  
That's big enough to dry pine if you put a lot of air across it.  So 2 of the 40 or 48 inch fans would work.  I'm doing that right now on some Poplar.  A stack of wood on the suction side of the fans, two barrel fans, then another stack on the exhaust side.  

Run them for a couple, three weeks, and the pine will be almost dry.  

Don't do that for the oak or cherry.  Cherry won't sticker stain so don't worry about it.  Oak will sticker stain, but it will also surface check, so I would put real close to one of the open sides or doorways.