Looking for more advice on kiln drying...

[Bob Smalser]

Dee Dee,

. Wengert knows his stuff but he has a hard time relating to small operations. He thinks in terms of huge stacks going into huge kilns and can't really relate to situations outside of that world. Small scale operators just can't afford steam stress relief systems for their kilns!

Kilns and large commercial ops are Dr Wengert's bread and butter, so that's the only advice you'll get. Me, I don't kiln dry anything...nada...zilch...and I achieve excellent results with maple, madrone and other difficult woods.

Air drying for 5 months this time of year in my yard will take most 4/4 hardwoods down to well below 20%. Not worth the labor at that point to kiln it from my point of view.

You don't want it at 6% anyway, unless it'll be flooring beneath subfloor heating....you want it at 8-10%. You'll have that in the existing stacks by next April or May. Build with it at 6% and you may have expansion problems unless you're in Arizona.

Just make sure your stacks are in a spot with good natural air flow and are well shaded. Cover the tops with tar paper or the sapwood boards, leaving the sides open.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...=drying+stacks

[Donnie Raines]

They have plenty of electric.....around here there are large(By Amish stds) numbers of them selling diffrent products. All of their buildings are wired up....heat and a/c....

[Bob Smalser]

BTW....Gene isn't what I'd call a big-time woodworker, but if you press him, he'll tell you that the wood for his personal use goes right from the mill to his attic for drying. No kilns.

[Dee Dee Martin]

Dee Dee,

I own a small sawmill/lumber operation. I air dry (shed dry, actually) my lumber before using a DH to finish off. As mentioned, I try not to cut light colored woods in the heat of the summer, but when I have to, I re-stack the pile about two weeks later making sure the stickers are not aligned in the same spot again. This really cuts down sticker stain, and I haven't experience a noticable loss of brightness as Dr. W. warned you of.

Thanks for the info, Brad.
You actually restack your lumber, eh?
Well, I've got about 3000BF, it looks like, so that would be a good afternoon of work, but if it'll lessen the chance of sticker stain, then I'll probably do it. Also, I made my stack too wide. 8 feet. So, restacking, will allow some of the center boards to be moved to the outside.

[Keith Outten]

For what it's worth I own an Ebac dehumidification kiln (miniature het pump) and have been drying wood for about 15 years. My kiln is setup for small loads, 400 to 500 board feet. My preference has always been to load my kiln with wet lumber, I try to be at the mill when the logs are sawed and hustle the lumber right home and into the box.

The drying process is very gentle and uses very low heat so the lumber is pristine when dry. There isn't any internal stress in the lumber and the ends of the boards don't even crack or check. It takes 6 to 8 weeks to dry 400 BF of 4/4 lumber depending on the species. For a small shop the dehumidification kilns are the best bang for the buck in my opinion. Air drying wood before placing it in the kiln certainly reduces the kiln cycle time but the quality suffers. For me the idea is to be able to produce the best quality lumber in order to make it worth my while, oh and the money savings ain't bad either

[Dee Dee Martin]

Keith, which model do you have? The LD800?

[Keith Outten]

Dee Dee,

Yes, I have the Ebac LD 800 model.

[Dee Dee Martin]

That thing goes for over 2 grand, right?

With my local kiln operator drying for 16 cents/BF, it's hard to justify drying lumber myself.