storing wood without stickers?

[Scott Driemel]

I always sigh with envy when I look at pics in magazines or sometime posters who show a gorgeous shop with a small lumber rack neatly against a wall that has about a dozen total pieces of wood on it. That is beautiful. Unfortunately for me, I need to buy in bulk if the opportunity arises to save a few dollars so I am jammed with wood. I often buy, or mill myself, green wood and "air dry" it for years. Here in the NorthWest I seem to get 12-14% MC at best outside. My question is once it's down to that level, I'd like to bring in large amounts to my shop. The thought of "stickering these pieces again (which just about doubles the height of the piles) is not what I'd like to do. If I simply stack 12% MC boards on top of each other in my shop, would they dry to the 8% needed or would I still need to bring them inside the house for a couple of weeks? My shop is not particularly warm in the winter but is dry. I don't mind doing that if (bringing them inside the house) if that is what is required, but I really want to stack the wood from outside without stickers inside the shop. Helps keep it flat better as well. And yes, the future "solar kiln" is still ... in the future! Does anyone know where to buy 5 gal pails of anchorseal here in the BC area or in Northern Wash? I've bought the 1gal sealer from Lee Valley in the past but ouch .. it's expensive.

[dave toney]

Lumber dealers don't sticker lumber, it is strapped in bundles from the kiln.
Dave

[Rob Damon]

Scott, once I bring the wood into the shop, I do sticker it for a week or so to acclamate to the conditioned shop space. I then vertically stack and band them together by species and size. The poly strapping and metal binding clamps came from northern tools. Rob

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[Scott Driemel]

Interesting Rob. The idea of strapping pieces together is new to me. Be a great way to keep same boards from a specific log together. But I know that I'd open a bundle, hmm & haw, open another bundle .. select 1 or 2, move on to another and have to re do several afterwards after picking my boards. I don't heat my shop in the summer so my humidity is the same as pretty much outside. It seems that stacking it flat or verticle wouldn't be an issue for moisture inside the shop. I normally stack it with stickers to dry, then a few years later re-pile it inside a barn with no stickers. (again to save space as I can pile 2x as much in one footprint) So far so good with that strategy. Just didn't know if anyone else has a great system for keeping a bunch of wood in the shop year round. (without having a spare 100sqft to do it in as a dedicated storage space)

Is there anybody up here in BC or Northern Washington that can steer me to a good source for anchorseal? I can buy it in 5 gal pails out of Bailey's in California but the shipping is killer.

[Scott Driemel]

I guess if the 12% moisture isn't a deal breaker then another question to ask is, I wonder what percentage of people store their wood verticle versus horizontal on racks? Hopefully best of all is if they have tried both and why they choose which particular method. I've got horizontal racks now and find that they don't utilize space all that efficiently. I love it for seperating species, but having to dig under several boards or then moving them off the rack to access what "treasures" might be hidden behind the front boards.

[Tom Scott]

I store mine vertically, but that is because I don't have a wall or space to store long boards horizontally. This does give me the opportunity to more easily leave gaps between boards, though, to allow air circulation.

[Thomas S Stockton]

Scott
They will dry quicker if you sticker them. Sounds like you have a moisture meter, I would experiment some make a small stack of each and see what the moisture content does, If it doesn't change I wouldn't worry about stickering but if the stickered pile goes down a couple of % points you probably should. Once you hit equilibrium you can stack it without stickers. The reason dealers don't stack is because they are selling kiln dried material so it is already at the desired moisture level. I find that when I resaw air dried wood into veneers it is important to stack and sticker the veneers for about a week before working with them. This is especially true of crotches and other wild figure, it really helps to cut down on movement and cracks appearing after lay up.
12% is about as low as I can get in Northern California unless it is the very end of the summer and I live in an area that during the winter is pretty wet, we average around 70" of rain a year and well over 100 this last winter.
Tom

[Scott Driemel]

thx Tom. I don't mind the issue of say stickering boards that I've moved from the say the barn to the shop & had piled flat for X amount of time. It is the "cost" of working with non kiln-dried wood. My issue is also with buying bulk from a mill (kiln dried) to say 8%, bringing it home in the spring/summer/fall when I don't really heat my garage shop. The wood I presume would slowly return to it's say 12-14% moisture within what? a couple of months? So I'm back to same old problem again even if I buy kilned wood.(if I'm not using it all right away). I also presume that wood stacked in a tight non stickered pile must be slower to re-absorb moisture than a pile that is stickered? (One would so think based upon surface area, although the end grain is the same openess)

[John TenEyck]

IMO, aluminized roofing cement will work just as well as Anchorseal to seal the ends of lumber. You should be able to buy that locally for a lot less. About your air dried wood. You never said what the EMC is for the pieces of furniture you make from your wood. Where I live the average humidity goes as low as around 40% indoors in the winter and as high as around 65% in the summer in an un-airconditioned house, but maybe to only 50% in one that is air conditioned. The 40 - 65% humidity range leads to an EMC of 7 - 12%. I mill a lot of my own lumber and, like you, it doesn't dry much below 14% when left outside, no matter how long. So when I bring it inside my shop I have to dry it further. I used to do this by resticking it and waiting several months for it to dry down to around 8 - 9% which is the EMC for my 45 - 50% RH shop. But now I put it in a dehumidification kiln I made that can dry about 275 BF of wood at 14 - 16% moisture to 8% in about 2 weeks. Regardless, you have to dry it so that the wood is somewhere within the EMC range that the wood will see in its final "home", and it's better to dry it somewhere closer to the middle. If you band it tightly with no stickers it's going to take a long, long time to get there and, if you have any wet spots, you risk staining and rot developing. I know what you're saying; I've got wood everywhere in my shop, but that's the "cost" of getting wood cheap. At least now that I have the kiln I can dense stack it after it comes out. Hope this helps. John

[Thomas S Stockton]

Scott
kiln dried wood can be stacked without stickers no problem. It probably won't absorb that much moisture if stored inside since it sounds like your shop is fairly dry and I doubt it would go up to 14%. After reading your first post again your not going to get air dried wood down to 8% with out a kiln, 10 to 12% is fine as long as you keep in mind wood movement or resaw it into veneers. Some other tricks are to cut your pieces to rough sizes and store them stickered and weighted near your heat source or in your house, but don't put them right next to a heat registrar or wood stove. I'm willing to bet if you bought kiln dried wood in the middle of winter and checked it with a meter it would be closer to 10% than 8.
Tom

[Bruce Gray]

I have bought Anchorseal directly from the manufacturer...UCCoatings. The last 5 gal pail was about $50, delivered. That was about five years ago, so I'm sure it's gone up, especially the shipping.