HI, I am new and need some help

[surfsupinhawaii]

I am new to milling and my lumbermate2000 will arrive today. I live in the Sierras and will be milling mostly sugar pine, Fir, and Cedar. I have large car port to protect the wood from the rain and snow. I will be cutting most of my lumber into 2x6, 2x8, 2x12,     8ft 10ft and 16 ft lengths. I have never cut wood and dried it. It will be under the carport , but still outside, what is the best way to stack and dry so I can have a great stack of wood for the spring. Thanks a ton. Scott In Nevada City.

[Ianab]

Hi Scott

A carport will make a good air drying shed. Lets the fresh air at the wood but keeps the sun and weather off. Just make sure you have good airflow through the stack, dont stack tight against a fence or wall. The softwoods like you have should be easy enough to dry, cedars especially. The pine can stain if it dries too slowly in warm humid conditions, but I dont think that will be a problem for you. You basically need some heavy timbers to build the stack on, keep the stack off the ground / concrete. And LOTS of 1x1 stickers to build your drying stack. The cedar you can probably get away with using green sawn stickers, but dry stickers would be better with the pine, reduces the chance of staining. If it's just for construction use that may not worry you, it's just a cosmetic thing. Drying may be slow over winter, but once the weather warms up those woods will finish drying pretty fast.

Cheers

Ian

[surfsupinhawaii]

Thanks for the info Ian. I have a question about how far down the run to space my 1x1 stickers. If I have an 8ft board should I space the sticker 12'' apart. Another question for you, I cut a lot of pines already clearing for a building pad, I cut them in various lengths about 6'' too long. How much shrinkage should I account for and how much over my lengths should I cut my timbers. Example I cut one 8'6'' is this too short to allow for shrinkage. Thanks, Scott.

[Ianab]

With 2" softwood boards you can space the stickers out a bit more. 18" is plenty close enough.
The wood wont shrink in length any noticable amount. The 6" over isn't a bad thing, means you can trim off a split end if needed. But you could probably trim them only 1" over, as long as you are accurate. A board thats 6" too long isn't a problem, 1/2" too short is  :D
The shrinkage will be across the width of the board, maybe only 3 or 4 % change with softwood.

Cheers

Ian

[jbeat]

END SEALING THE LOGS BEFORE CUTTING MAKES IT EASIER AND NEATER.