pallet system for timber storage

[teakwood]

Hi guys, i'm looking for a forklift, my back is tiered of hauling wood from the storage to the planer and back.

what pallet do you guys use? i now pile them by hand on some 4x4 on the ground because i do it manually, but with a forklift every pile of timber needs to be mounted on some kind of pallet. i think i can stack them double, so i will double my storage volume. 

do have insights and fotos?

thanks

[WV Sawmiller]

   I think most of us make our own lumber pallets to stack and store lumber. Because I have short forks on my FEL I make a lot of 24" wide pallets. I use 2X6's for runners and 2X4's feet. Many people use 4X4 for feet. I nail the first row of stickers down at 2' intervals and a big advantage is I can readily tally the amount of lumber in a stack. Yes, you can stack stacks on top of other stacks.


A couple of examples of what I use.

   I remember seeing one member made little peaked roof-tops he put on top to keep the lumber dry and to add weight to help the lumber dry straight. He was able to lift the roof with the forks on his MHE.

[Ron Wenrich]

I'm not sure where you're going with the pallet idea.  We always had a bunch of 3x4 skids that we used to put bundles on.  For the most part, they were 4' long.  We could put bundles up as high as it was stable.  If you can come around on both sides, you can put some 8' skids to tie the sides together if you are going high. 

The most important thing is to keep the skids in line as you go up, especially if you have small bundles.   We usually used 2 skids on 8' bundles and 3 skids for 12" or longer.  But, we weren't storing bundles for very long.  If we were storing boards on sticks for air drying, then we would put a skid under every stick to support the boards all the way up. 

For bundles of heavy timbers, the number of skids aren't as critical. Here's a pretty good example of using skids between the bundles. 


 

[WDH]

I make mine with full size 2"x4" for runners that are on 16" centers and deck with full 1" boards.  I sticker on 16" centers so I want a runner under each column of stickers.  In the photo below you can see packs of stickered lumber on the pallets.  At far left is two empty pallets stacked one on top of the other.  



 

[longtime lurker]

I just use dunnage, slip it underneath packs of lumber as required. I've got bins of 100x75x 900 scattered all around the place... my packs are mostly 800 wide give or take a little.

I think pallets would be a good idea if you're shifting your stock around a lot. If you don't have to do that they pointless. I can mostly take a pack from the mill and set it down for air drying, next shift is to the kiln, next shift is being broken down and restacked post kiln... and some packs might be years air drying.  I also dislike big air gaps in my stacks in kiln and just have my regular size sticker between packs in there. What I do works for me.

[teakwood]

ok, now i have a better idea. my stickers are 70cm long so that's the standard width for my bundles. will make pallets out of 3x3" which i have plenty. why do you guys sticker so much? every 18"? on a 8' board i do 3 stickers, left right and in the middle and the boards dry straight and evenly. i do stack the layers counterwise, one layer bow up, one layer bow down

[kantuckid]

You might get by fine with certain CR species and less sticks than USA woods. Just depends. 
The type of stacking system is derived from what's around to lift it not so much what it's stacked on?  

[Jim_Rogers]

You can see my method for storing lumber and making lumber pallets in this story:

My Lumber storage story in Sawmills and Milling (forestryforum.com)

Jim Rogers

[WDH]

In many species, with 8 foot long lumber and only 3 stickers, the boards will not dry flat.  It all depends on the species and the end use. I saw, air dry, kiln dry, plane, and sell furniture grade hardwoods.  The boards have to be flat to garner the best price.  Fence pickets would not need to be so exacting. 

[teakwood]

Excelent topic Jim.

How about a stacking/stickering help gismo? Does anybody have one? So when you sticker and stack the fresh sawn boards they alingn nicer and faster

[Bruno of NH]

Excelent topic Jim.

How about a stacking/stickering help gismo? Does anybody have one? So when you sticker and stack the fresh sawn boards they alingn nicer and faster

Someone on here made one 
Maybe Dave Shepard?

[Jim_Rogers]

I always set my stickers by hand.

Jim Rogers

[maple flats]

I set my stickers at about 16" spacing (guessed not measured). 
I suspect sticker spacing might in addition to the previously mentioned reasons be related to your area's humidity %. Drier regions will result in faster drying, more humid regions will see slower drying. I think the faster drying areas might need more stickers because the quicker the lumber dries may result in more twisting or bowing than what you get in more humid regions.

[Stephen1]

I stack and sticker an 8' bundle will have 5 stickers per row. 0-2-4-6-8. I try to get them as close to the ends as possible. They are probably at 20" spacing So far this works great for me. 
Since I do custom drying I am now stacking and stickering cstomers wood into bundles with these measurements .I strap either with ratchet straps or plastic sraps.  It is making my life a lot easier to move and store bundles. I can also charge the customer by the bundle, I make the bundles even. 

[Don P]

This is a good reference for air drying;
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr117.pdf
Chapter 5 fig 39 shows a simple sticker guide.

If you move the end stickers out to almost the very ends of the boards it will reduce end splits, and yes I would have 2 more stickers in that stick for anything but low grade. We'll do something like that if in a hurry to get some air between the boards but that would be restickered very soon. I've got some wood coming off the mill at 18' right now that is only getting 5 sticks and piled loosely, half those sticks will probably end up in the driveway as I take the trailer down the mountain. I'll sort it all out in the next day or two when I set up the drying piles.

[YellowHammer]

My packs go on pallets when they are sawn, and come off when it's sold.  They are a great timesaver and also serve as a standard "cookie cutter" shape so that all packs have the same dimensions and stickers all have the same placement, from air drying through kiln drying, as well as for organization and storing.  It also allows stacking of bundles higher easier, as dunnage doesn't have to be manually placed or strapped in placed to allow fork removal between bundles.  

I get loads of wood in from other sources that use dunnage and it is a total inconvenience.  In the time it takes me to get off the forklift, set the dunnage where I want it, and then replace the lumber on the dunnage, I could have moved two bundles on pallets and not have to get off the lift.  So the first thing we do when we get lumber packs in is put them on pallets.  Life is good, then.  Take steps to save steps. ;D

Our packs or skids are set up so that the runners have the same spacing as the stickers, so the runners also serve as a guide and land perfectly on the stickers of the pack of lumber it is stacked on.  So there is no random or unsupported pressure to kink boards, either when they are air drying, kiln drying, or just dead stacked.  I have seen many, many bundles of wood that was stored on only 2 dunnage skids take a temporary and sometimes even worse, permanent and unsellable bow or dip in the center on the pack. Three dunnage boards, two on the ends, one in the middle worlds fine, but it's just one more dunnage board to hand move when moving packs.

Here is a picture of one end of our building, you can see all the wood is stacked on the pallets, except one, which was just purchased and delivered, and it only has two dunnage boards under it (seen over the handle of the pallet jack).  I swear as I look at the picture, I can see the sag in the middle of the stack from here. These packs are transferred to pallets or skids immediately.  



  

[teakwood]

How about your stickering gysmo?  I have seen a pallet just for stickering with a fixed backboard and one side wall, so you align the fresh boards at least at two sides. On the back wall you can paint the sticker spaces with some paint, vertically 

[btulloh]

I use pallets instead of skids for stickered lumber and the first row of stickers is nailed to the pallet. That sets the spacing for the layers above the first row.  I like using pallets because the bottom boards create basically a torsion box so the full pallet can tolerate a bit of uneven ground when shuffling things around. If my area was graded better or i had more concrete floors I would just use the open bottom skids.



 

 

[btulloh]

In a previous thread about pallets, someone had a picture of a vertical thing with slots to align the the stickers. It sat behind the pallet being stacked so it would set the sticking spacing and also held the back end of the stickers in place while stacking boards. 

Of course the ideal thing would be a device that laid down a row of stickers perfectly spaced when you pushed a button. Might as well have it stack the lumber as well. A bit more complex, but that would be a nice machine to have.

[Don P]

 

 

A "wall" on the left end of this pile along with the sticker guide wall along the back would do what you are describing I think. This is from the publication I linked above.

[teakwood]

I will definitively build such a gismo in the next weeks, but first i need a forklift, nothing good around, everything is trashed and/or expensive. i did find a nice moulder, in the drying and processing section under old weinig moulder 

[PoginyHill]

Does anyone have experience with 3-point hitch pallet forks? Are they useful? Cumbersome? Certainly not as good as a forklift, but maybe better than a FEL for lifting heavier loads?

[btulloh]

I used forks on the rear before I had any alternatives and the were very useful. They don't cost much and they're worth having around. Certainly more capacity than front forks on a small or medium tractor.

I have good forks and decent capacity on the front, but I still have the rear ones mounted. They still come in handy. Most of the time I carry a 1000lb weight box on the rear forks.  I can leave the weight and carry a big log on the back in addition to what I'm carrying on the front forks or grapple.  

Get 'em!  You won't regret it.

Add:  if you've got a spare rear remote adding a hydraulic top link makes the 3pt forks really handy. Not essential, but makes them even handier. 

[KenMac]

I bought a set of 3 point pallet forks for lifting really heavy logs with my NH TN 75 but was very disappointed in them until I got a hydraulic top link for the lift. Now they work good. Different brands may be designed differently and some are better than others without the hydraulic top link.

[TimW]

I put bottoms on my pallets.  Then I attach sacrificial fork lift pallets.

 

I just made an 8 foot pallet. Instead of two fork lift pallets, I added Red Oak 4x4s.  To protect the oak better, I added treated corral boards under the 4x4s as shoes.

 

Once I get moved to the yet to be built sawmill shed, I will be on concrete and leave the bottom boards (and fork lift pallets) off.  Then a pallet jack can be used.
hugs,  Brandi