Planer tells the tale

[Stephen1]

Yes you do, sawmill operations  eat stickers! 

[Wlmedley]

Got my lumber rack put in place today. Not very level next to my sawmill shed so I had to improvise a little. Made it for 2' sticker spacing but if I ever use it for thin lumber I can add 4more 4' 2x4s and have 1' spacing. I plan to run a string line across bunks and plane them if necessary to make sure they are all true with each other. I've got quite a bit of white oak I need to get started drying.

[Wlmedley]

White oak leaning against my woodshed will go on rack.I have dried thick lumber this way and it worked out okay but this is some nice stuff and I think stickered on the rack might work out better.

[Wlmedley]

Got my lumber on my new drying rack. Around 120bf. Now I need to round up some tin to cover it with.

[beenthere]

Looks like a good beginning, but will you add more weight before the tin ?

[jpassardi]

My suggestion: put another row of stickers then metal then slabs for weight. 

[Wlmedley]

I've got some pretty heavy timbers I'll put on top of another row of stickers before covering with tin. Got a little more oak I'll probably add also.

[Magicman]

I really like your drying rack idea.  

[SwampDonkey]

A fella with a band mill could make a large covered shed with open sides with lots of over hang and maybe have 4 of them racks under it with a path to walk up the middle.  I'm full of ideas. 

[doc henderson]

used to hear about T sheds that had a row of poles down the center of a roof of trusses spanning on both sides.  lots of open space without posts along the sides.

[Stephen1]

Doc that's even a better idea. I have a kayak rack, and its a centre pole idea with access from both sides. Lumber storage could be the same. 

[doc henderson]

If you had a kayak trailer with racking for many kayaks you could pull the wood at 70 mph and speed dry it.  

[jpassardi]

A true mobile kiln... 

[Old Greenhorn]

The question is: how many miles per board foot would you get?


EDIT: Maybe I have that wrong. Perhaps it's Board Feet per Mile (BFPM)?

[Resonator]

What I do is add another row of stickers on top of the lumber, then tin, then weight. I like to make sure the tin has overhang over the ends at least a few inches, to kick the rain water away from the stack. One caution with tin overhang wind can catch it in a storm, make sure it has enough weight to hold it down. My experience the pile that the tin blows off, needs more weight. 

[Wlmedley]

This is my first attempt at drying lumber outside. I've got another similar rack in my shed so this is a experiment for me. I'd rather have a roof over it but I thought I'd see if this would work. Never know until you try.Hopefully by this fall it will be dry enough to flat stack it in shed. I've got a place to put it inside but it is hard to sticker it as I've only got good access to one end.Maybe I'll screw tin down to timbers to keep it from blowing off.

[longtime lurker]

If you had a kayak trailer with racking for many kayaks you could pull the wood at 70 mph and speed dry it. 

Actually I've done it quite successfully. Lucky accident but I was coming back from a portable job years ago. I had stripped the timber out when sawing intending to tarp it for transport so I didn't have to restack it when i got home. It started rain athe forecast was good all the way so I didn't bother to tarp it. It was raining, it ain't going to dry out is it?

Wrong!!! 2 things dry wood fast... heat and airspeed. I got home and parked in the shed and i could see the looseness of the strapping and figured I'd lost the entire load to drying degrade for sure. Tractor trailer load, call it 8000 BF, lot of dollars blown because I was too lazy to kick a tarp out.

Narrowleaf Red Ironbark is a slow dryer but it was at 10% within a week of the trees being harvested. But because it was raining there was the lowest amount of degrade I've ever had for the species. So imma say the best schedule is showers to rain in patches, and 3 hours at 60 mph.

[Resonator]

I've screwed tin down to hold before too. Had a customer a while back where all the lumber I sawed from his logs, I also agreed to store until he was ready for it. Ended up building basically a pallet on top of each stack, and screwing tin down on top.

[Old Greenhorn]

Hey Bill, how about something along these lines?


Photo shows it before a tarp was laid over the top and stretched out to trees. It almost made it through 2 winters until a RO got snapped off in an ice storm and broke the ridge board. Always meant to add corner posts and then run rafters. This one is 16' long, which as far as I would go. I have another that I built in a shed style for drying short bench slabs. I put rafters on that one and a tarp over the top and it is still holding up very well but needs a n3ew tarp or roof decking.

EDIT: I found a photo of the smaller one. Note one side is full tarped because that side faces south and I wanted to keep direct sun off the wood.


Later I added a sticker rack in the overhead for the dried stickers and I am still picking stickers from there 4 years later.

[doc henderson]

I get the 4-foot bottom boards that are scrap at Lowes (if you ask the right person) and put them on top and bottom of single stacks and pallets.  they have the groove for steel or plastic banding.  they hold the whole stack together and I can screw tin or plywood down to the whole bit.

Tom, how about % reduction per day per board foot per mph.  I think Gene Wengert could figur it out, may God rest his soul.

[Andries]

Bill, here's what I use.

These were air dried under the same tin roof pallet.
The cap is a bit bigger than the top stack of ten footers, then eight and then sixers. This makes a rain shadow for the bottom stack of oak.
Open bottom lumber pallets are the best Forum invention ever.
The only thing better is a HEAVY roof pallet.  

[doc henderson]

I have thought about making a form/pallet to pour the left-over concrete after pours onto and then having it to place on top of my standard pallet stacks.