Sticker stain?

[WoodChucker]

I'm a little confused about sticker stain, because I'm a newbie and have not had a problem with stain yet. How deep does the stain go into the wood?  I'm guessing it must go all the way through because I never hear anyone say after a sticker stained board is planned that the stain is removed, would that be correct?  Thanks!

R.T.

[GarryW]

The depth of staining depends on a lot of factors. I've had ash that was only on the surface and planed out easily. But I've had pine where it penetrated deep enough so that I could not get it planed out. Most of the time, when the wood comes out of the kiln there are minor sticker marks and they seem to be only on the surface.

If you do get sticker stain, you can always try to work around them or try to hide the stained side. Of course, you could put the stickers so close together so that you can create denim striped wood.  :D And then sell it for quite a bit.  8)

[Rick Schmalzried]

WoodChucker,
The oak I have dried with green stickers has almost always ended up with sticker stain.  Sometimes it has been shallow and sometimes deep.  I have had instances where I planed 4/4 lumber down to 1/2" thick and still had stain showing up.  Other times, a single pass through the jointer cleared it up.  Unfortunatly, most of the time, at 3/4" it is still visible.  I would try to avoid the stain in the first place if you can.


--Rick

[GarryW]

It looks like the Dura-Stick stickers are now available again. They are plastic stickers shaped like little I-beams. Check out the following link:

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product.php?search_id=78275

They are fairly expensive at $2.75 each in quantities of 50. But they look like they should help to eliminate the sticker stain.

[WoodChucker]

Ok,  thanks everyone for clearing that up for me, I'm sure sooner or later I would have found out the hard way, but I will try to prevent it the best I can.

GarryW, I checked out that link and there now $2.99 each, they must be selling like hot cakes to jump in price that fast hey?  lol

Oh you said in quantities 50, sorry I didn't see that at first.  

R.T.

[GarryW]

The $2.75 for 50 came from their catalog.

1-9     $2.99
10-49 $2.85
50+    $2.75

I figure that I need around 500 for the kiln. I'm tempted to call them up and see if they have a larger quantity price. But, with the planed stickers that woodman brought me last year, I may figure out a better way to spend my money.  :

[Larry]

WoodChucker,
Use at the minimum air-dried sticks on oaks and walnut and you should not have any problem with stain.  With the lighter color woods like hackberry, hard maple, and to a lesser degree ash you need kiln dry sticks and you have to keep the air flow up to promote faster drying.  

My kiln sticks are all 3/4" by 1-1/4" that I ran through the planer so they would all be an accurate thickness on the 3/4" side.  I did make a few sticks just for the light color woods that have a concave surface after I ran them through the shaper.  I only use these for light color woods and I keep them clean and don't use them on oak or walnut.  I am sure those Dura-Sticks would be ideal but sorta chock on the idea of a $2.00 plus stick.

If you are the least bit in doubt just dry a little at a time and see what happens.  I have ruined 500 BF of hackberry and a small amount of hard maple by not using the proper sticks.
Larry

[Brian_Bailey]

I took all my hardwood stickers which are 1 1/4" wide and 7/8" thick and dadoed a 3/4" groove, 1/4" deep on both sides. Made my own I-beams.  It took care of most of the sticker stain that I was having trouble with.

[ADfields]

I dont know the first thing about a kiln but what pops in my head is PVC or ABS pipe for stickers.   Thay would have less contact and not stain, cheep (buck fiftey for 10') and I dont think 3/4" or 1" would crush under the load, may dent the wood but that should plane out.   Would it work, what do you think?   Must have been tryed befor and not worked?
Andy

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Andy, isn't It a little early for you to be on, you must work the grave yard shift!!

 Good morning to you
Jon

oh yea, about the topic at hand... i don't know nutin.

[Rick Schmalzried]

I have heard of people trying to use plastic pipe, but the problem is keeping the pipes from being a good set of rollers.  I have heard of  one person putting a slight bend in the pipe with a heat gun, but I don't see how you would then keep the stickers directly on top of each other. ???

One of the previous threads mentioned cutting 1 1/2" pipe in half.  This is the best idea I have heard but I don't really want to deal with the plastic sawdust that will get all over everything.  The static electricity generated caused me to have plastic stuck to the ceiling the last time I did anything like this.  :D

[Minnesota_boy]

If you can bend the pipe with a heat gun, what will happen when you put this pile of wood in the kiln?

[ADfields]

Well my ISP has been down,  sorry I took so long to look back in hear.

Weekend_Sawyer, no telling when I may be on and no I dont work nights but it's hard to tell with all the dark this time of year. :D   I think that post was around 2am Alaska time and I was just up becous I could not sleep, as I get older I seem to need less sleep and find I'm wide awake at odd times. :-/   See I'm at it now, : it's 3:30am hear :(.

 Rick Schmalzried, see I knew there just had to have been tryed but some how I did not think of that and I have even used it for rollers a number of times. :   Should have been sleeping so the little gray cells would work!

 Minnesota_boy, it should be fine in the heat of a kiln.   Sk40 PVC is rated at 600psi @ 73F and 400psi at 175F, you can get sk80 if you need it to hold more psi's but I dont think you would need more.   ABS I dont know what the hi temp rateing would be as it's a waste pipe and it's not stamped on the side like PVC that is used to plumb hot and cold taps.
Andy

[Don P]

What about some of the plastic decking? Rip and groove it?
We had a truckload of t&g that got to a job rewetted a couple of years ago. Sent the homeowner to the local sawmill for stickers to try to dry it out. He came back with some moldy fungaloid junk that had been banded and thrown on the ground to compost :. He put them in a trash can with clorox solution, turned them to get the other end then ricked them to air dry for a day or 2 before stickering the wood.

[GarryW]

I see that Grizzly also has the DuraSticks at a little better price.  $49.95 in a pack of 20. (about $2.50/ea)

http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=H3021

Supposedly they bought the company in Canada that made them before.

[Curtis Koth]

Yellow poplar is another wood that sticker stains deep from too slow of drying and wet stickers. Had a bluish grey cast.
Had some 4/4 that didnt clean up after surfacing to 3/4".
Curt

[OneWithWood]

I've been told that aspen is excellent wood for stickers becasue it will not stain.  Can anyone verify this?  I have a bunch of aspen I want to clear and much of it is to crooked to get much else out of.  Cutting sdtickers may well be my first actual sawing experience this spring.

[Paschale]

I'm a little concerned about sticker stain myself.  I've got some Ash drying, and it's been stacked outside since October.  I'm assuming that part of the issue with sticker stains is the time that the pile is sitting there.  I called L.L. Johnson Lumber (in Charlotte and Grand Rapids, MI) and they said what they do to avoid sticker stain in their lumber is restacking the piles every two to three weeks.  That's pretty labor intensive, and with the busy schedules that most of us probably have, a bit prohibitive.  But I've spent too much time, energy and money on this stack of Ash to let sticker stain happen, so I'm considering it!  Any thoughts on how long you can let a stack sit before staining is a problem?  And what about kiln dried pine as stickers?  That's what I used, based on the recommendation of a guy who's dried a ton of wood over the years.