Logs on the ground, calling sawyer

[Mike Holbrook]

I had to clear an area for a septic line for my dog training building. We had to take down 2 Tulip Poplar, 1 Sweet Gum, 1 Elm, 1 Pignut Hickory. These trees were at the edge of a dense hardwood forest. They were very tall, (tallest around 100 ft) not exceptionally large in diameter 12- 24 inches, mostly somewhere in the middle. I will end up with at least a dozen 8 -10 foot logs, probably more like 16-18 before I am done. I am cutting 10 ft. lengths with 8 ' at the end if I can not get 10' (allowing an extra 3-6 inches on each log. I am also planing on taking down a very large Sycamore that is damaged and a good size Oak that was killed by a fungus. I have two Black Walnut that are too close together and I may take one of them too. There appear to be some mice Ash too, but maybe I already have more than I can use.

So I am going to have a bunch of hardwood and a pretty good mix. I can use the area under my training building deck to store lumber. It is a 55 X 10 foot area that I can use 30 X 10 or more of. The building is facing South with a cleared field in front of it (full sun). I have 10 pieces of 16 foot Galvanized tin roofing I can use. I had a sawyer out pretty recently and plan to call him right after I finish this post.

I am wondering If I might be able to set up some sort of "pore mans" solar Kiln under my building. The deck is around 9 feet above a deep gravel floor. With lots of 6/6 posts that I could staple green house plastic and or insulation board too it seems like I should be able to rig something up to speed up that drying process. I have a Solar Kiln plan from Weed Web but I would like to make something using the existing structure. With all the building projects I already have I am hoping I can do something simple so I can get around to doing some wood working sometime soon.

Using the wood calculator on Wood web I figure I should be able to conservatively get 4800 board feet in 10x10, 6 foot tall stickered stacks. Two or three stacks like that should fit in the area I have. There will be 10 feet of decked & roofed space behind my wood drying area, but I need that space for training. That area will remain open, saving chain link fencing though so I should get good air flow.

I have the digital camera charged up and plan to post some pictures tonight. I am hoping you guys will have some good suggestions concerning caring for this lumber.

[Dev Emch]

Mike...

1). Read my post I posted about finding lumber today.

2). If at all possible, get the sawer guy to quarter saw the sycamore tree. You will be pleased and may even be able to sell some of this lumber.

4). Be careful about your calculations on yield. You will find drying losses will take more than you plan on. Checking, spliting, etc.

5). Kilns can result in honeycombing. I have seen virtually whole kiln loads ruined because of honeycombing. Check out the woodmizer web site and see how they build solar kilns and also examine the ones you have.

6). Some folks find that air drying hardwood in the 4/4 and 5/4 thickness results in a better board. I have not had enough experience here to say one way or another.

[lou sansone]

I agree with dev that the solar kiln can cause more problems than it can solve. Unless you are really in a hurry for the wood, just sticker it and let it air dry under cover for a year ( old timer rule of thumb is 1 inch per year ) and then move the wood into a heated building to finish it off for furniture building.

a couple of other thoughts are :

have a % of the wood sawn into thicker sections 6/4 and 8/4 and 10/4 and 12/4 . You will find that they will be needed for leg stock and other heavy sections used in building furniture.


Do not try to include the heart ( central pith section ) in any of the boards. That will result in ruined lumber due to checking. A good sayer will know all of this, but just in case you have a newbe.

Try to use dry stickers for the lighter color woods. hickory is very susceptable to sticker stain and dry stickers tend to minimize that. You may still have problems, but it does help. dont worry about it with walnut, I have never had a problem with it.
lou

[Tom Sontag]

You may want the sweetgum quartersawn as well as the sycamore - both are unstable flatsawn.

Lou, some sawyers legitimately keep the pith in a wide quartersawn board so that the tendency to crook while drying is balanced. If ripping the pith out later is no problem, it can be done, but it is true that any pith in a board is a useless section.

[lou sansone]

hi tom

I have sawn a fair amount of wood and have always found that leaving the pith in caused checking and degrade to the whole plank, more so than just throwing the last 3 inches away. I take your word for it though. If you come across a good reference to that practice I would honestly be interested in looking at that. I have a lot to learn.

thanks and kind regards
lou

[Tom Sontag]

Gene Wengert on Woodweb has encouraged the practice. I do not do it because I want my sawyer giving me salable product without further work since my lumber business lacks its own means of production and I have not had much crook in my QS lumber anyway. I mention it only.

[thomas prevost]

get a sawyer that has a hydralic turner on the saw. he will (should) keep rotating the log to get the best faces. He will then end up with a 4X4 cant from the center. These can be cut to 4ft length and used to set the first row of boads on. be sure to place stickers exactly on top of each other. cover top. Be sure to put as much weight on the top of each pile as possisble to hold them down so the top 2-4 layers will not twist.I would air dry and take to a local kiln for finish drying as you need them. kiln drying and storing outside even under cover for long periods will result in them absorbing moisutre from the air and being at the same level as air drying. It going to take more than a week or two to use 4800 bd.ft.

Also remember when cutting there is about 20% waste and more on small logs below 16" in diameter. cants, wane large knots, sawdust, etc. be sure he cuts 4/4 to 1 1/8 inches to account for drying loss(dry logs need to be at 4/4) 8/4 at 2 1/4 etc.