Building air drying stacks

[Larry]

The only flat spot on my entire property is an old road bed.  It's also in a good location to air dry.  Next to the forest which slows down that hot dry spring breeze and keeps the stack in the shade.

I put down concrete blocks than put an 4" X 4" oak timber on each end all 2' OC.  Run string in an X shape from the corners.  When the string touches in the center the 4 corners are in the same plane.  Add timbers in between and shim with wedges so they all touch the string.  The best base tilts a bit so any water that blows in will run out.  The important thing is that the base is all in the same plane.



I hope the SYP is gone in a few months, than I'll check the base again for settling...in fact I left the string in place and it will only take a few minutes.

Eventually I'll have a stack for each length.  In this case I just put the different lengths together as there weren't enough to warrant separate stacks.



Out of sticks again.  I'll top the stack with a cap when finished.

How do you build your stacks?

[Knute]

I have used the same method as you in the past. Yesterday I made a new base using a little different method. I used just 4 blocks and ran an oak 6x6 between them and set oak 4x4 at 2' intervals on top of the 6x6's. This is for an 8' pile. I won't know how well this works for awhile. For the top, I make a 2x4 frame and fasten sheet metal to the frame.

[tyb525]

I do it just like you, except for a 10' pile I only use 4 timbers, then I put 2x4s on top running lengthwise, then stickers on top of those to start the stack. I've never had any warping problems on the bottom boards, so that must mean they are supported well enough.

[metalspinner]

Mine are just like yours, Larry.  

The first few years I was into this, my stacks were 8' wide, but that proved to be disaster when I finally got to unstacking the pile.  First, more boards needed to be moved to get to what I wanted.  Then the lower inside boards were moldy from lack of ventilation.

The four foot wide stack has been much easier to manage and maintain.  I use some old heavy metal roofing picked up at a salvage yard for the covering.  Block it added on top for weight.

It would be nice to have some sort of machine - any machine - to help with stacking, but it's all by hand for me. :(

[Norm]

Mine are like your Larry except I have them inside a 3 sided shed. I have a top layer of lesser quality boards so if they get some moisture on them it's no big deal.

I have in the past weighted down the top layer with heavy concrete blocks but am not sure if it really helps or not. What do you do?

[kderby]

I had access to an old road bed and made the same kind of stacks. The old road was wonderful as it was solid.  It was also sloped just enough for superb drainage. 

The picture looks good.  You can't have enough air circulation.  Mine are four feet wide and I use a ton of stickers.  The wood stores beautifully like this so you don't have to worry about getting it out of the stack.  It will oxidize (grey) on the out side.  Inside the stack will be dry and bright when you get to it.

kderby

[Radar67]

This is how I stack mine. It is a lot easier to level up IMO.

[Tom]

that's the way I level on bare ground too, radar.  I found it easier to have 4 points that kept the stack straight even if a corner dropped some.  I used a couple of heavy timbers to run linearly to create my own "ground" and then developed the stack from there.

You can always shim the heavy timbers but it's a lot easier than building a many-point bed.

The trick is to keep it straight, if not level.  As a matter of fact, a little off-level might even help to run water off of the stack.

If a fellow is going to be anal about anything on the stack, it should be in the area of creating a line of stickers that is exactly one above the other to form a column that carries the weight of the topmost board to the ground. (a wavy stack of stickers puts all of the weight of the wood above it on an unsupported board.)

[WDH]

Chris,

I learned the wide stack lesson as well.  Four foot wide is much better.  I stacked some maple six foot wide and I got a lot of gray stain.  I had mildew problems with yellow poplar.

[tyb525]

Something like this:

[Larry]

Ty, you got a stick a 1/4" out 5 layers down and third row from the left. :D

I never was able to stack anything...even square bales fell off the wagon when I put em on. ??? ???

[WDH]

Ty,

That wins an Olympic Gold Metal for stacking (if it was an Olympic sport  ).

Nice job!!

[Dan_Shade]

I have this on my website, and provide to folks when I do a job for them, I've put it on the forum before (I actually copied it from another post:   https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,37703.0.html )

Typically, for air drying lumber, it takes one year per inch of thickness for the wood to dry to a usable state. In the Mid-Atlantic region, wood will air dry to approximately 12-14% if properly stacked and sticked.  Lumber over 2" thick is difficult to dry, and may develop specific drying defects.

It is best to have the lumber stack as level and flat as possible.  Variations in the stack will translate to the lumber in the pile, if the stack is not flat, the wood in the pile will dry warped.  Stickers should be aligned on top of each other in the stack and be placed 18-24 inches apart.  The stack should be well supported with blocks to combat the beams sagging from the weight of the lumber.  The bottom of the lumber stack should also be elevated 12-16" off of the ground, to keep weeds and animal impacts to the pile at a minimum.  The platform should be constructed as long as the longest lumber is, and stack width is best when 4 to 6 feet wide. 

The pile should be weighted down and the top covered.  Covering the sides of the stack with a tarp will result in moldy lumber.  Air must be able to move through the stack.  Lumber should be stacked and sticked within 24 hours of being sawn to avoid mold problems.  Mold develops quickly during Spring and Summer on pine wood.  A light mixture of bleach sprayed on the wood stack helps inhibit mold growth, but mold may still develop if it is warm out.

Wood stacks should be left in an open, but shaded area where airflow is not inhibited.  Direct Sunlight may cause drying defects. 

Lumber losses due to material degradation (warp, check, stain, etc.) can be expected while drying.

Additional information can be obtained from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, General Technical Report FPL-GTR-117

[tyb525]

It's not difficult to do, just when you lay the stickers for each new layer, look straight down at the stickers below it to eyeball it Or it could be I have a knack at eyeballing things. That doesn't make up for all the other knacks I don't have, such as an organized shop ;) :D

That stack was from two years ago, it's all poplar, and now dried and stacked in the barn for future use

[Handy Andy]

  I have a question, doesn't it help to keep termites out of your stack if you use concrete blocks on the ground? My farm has an old building site, probably back to homestead time, and when I built my steel building, put some form lumber on the ground next to the building, and termites went through my 2x4's.  Been thinking of buying one of those termite baskets and trying to give them a treatment.

[jim king]

Here a photos of air drying long boards and short hobby woods.  The long boards are dried about 10 days prior to going into the kiln and flipped bottom end to the top every couple of days.

The short lumber was the dense high figure hobby woods air drying before going to the kiln.  Then all was cut to size, S4S and shrink wrapped.
 

[tyb525]

Wow! That's a lot of lumber!

About how long does it take to accumulate that much?

[jim king]

We can cut about 8000 feet a day when things are going well and there is wood



.

[Tom]

What are the tags/labels on the tops of the boards?  Are they something that you are using for Marketing?  If they are, that's a good idea.  What's on them?

[jim king]

Tom:
Yes , each peice of wood had a label and was shrink wrapped to protect it and to give a good presentation in the stores.  Each customer had a different label.
Sorry I didn´t reply yesterday but we had a couple of bottles of rum that needed taking care of.