ERC Sleepers

[TexasTimbers]

I cut up some regular old lumber yard white pine I had lying around for my sleepers in my small (3' x 4' x 12.5') kiln chamber but I made them shorter than what I like for my forks to go under the stack that sits on them.

I'm going to replace them with some 2" thick stuff and 45 the tops so I have a 1" footprint for the boards to sit on. Is there any reason I can't use ERC? It should not stain other species should it? I will usually have a low grade board on the bottom there will probably be times when I don. Just wondering if anyone has used ERC for sleepers or even stickers.

[limbrat]

I dont know sleepers from sleeping. But aint erc kind of soft and brittle and weeps from the knots till dry. I wouldnt think it would make a good work surface for extended use even if it is just a base, would they tend to deform over time? I think that sourwood and hichory are tough woods that have little durability so they might not have many oils that would react with other woods once dry. I have very little knowledge in this area and you know what they say a little knowledge is worst than.

[TexasTimbers]

Well I call them sleepers cause I don't know what i am talking about. i can't ever remember what they are called there is another word for them. They are the bigger "stickers" on the very bottom of the pile which the subsequent  stickers are placed over between the boards. i need to come up with some of those in my kiln. Permanent ones which won't stain wood. I figured I could cut some ERC ones with all sapwood being on the top which might not stain the other species.

I have some hickory available on the stump but don't have time to go log one out of there and do all that. Can you thik of any other woods you'd recommend? I currently have walnut, oak, elm, osage, sycamore (not a candidate I know), Loblolly Pine, Honey Locust, Pecan, Box Elder, and of course the good old lumber yard 2x white wood I am trying to replace.

I know most of those woods probably are not candidates at all, if any of them. What I need is some aluminum rails. Maybe I can use any old wood and lay some stainless or aluminum sheet across it. I bet aluminum foil might work in a pinch until I get something more durable.

But as far as stickers I would like to know what would be best. I am not going to have enough flitch from these walnut logs to cut stickers.

[Cedarman]

We use pieces 3" by about 4" as spacers between bundles.  We have always called them bolsters.  Cedar works great because the wood dries fast.  We have never had any staining from using it.  I would use air dried wood only. When we have logs that are doughty we will saw them into bolsters.    If you make 6" high ones, you can put them on the ground and know they will never deteriorate.

[TexasTimbers]

Thanks Richard. I wish I didn't need affirmation/confirmation on things so seemingly minor. I can have no problem gambling on major purchases but these "little details" sometimes paralyze me. Thanks for your response. I'll be cutting more scraggly ERC logs directly and putting them to good use. ;D

Oh yeah I will try to remember that Bolster nomenclature. Knowing me I will end up calling them Sleeping Bolsters.

[metalspinner]

I guess your biggest concern should be how the bolsters dry.  Bad twisting or sweeping of the timber will transfer to your lumber pile on top.  Keep an eye on the bolsters after the first few drying runs to make sure things have stayed straight.

[Cedarman]

Thats the nice thing about ERC, it is a very brittle wood so it doesn't warp when changing moisture.  We make a huge number of bolsters because they leave here on trucks. 

When sawing a log and it turns nasty, it is nice to know that at least you can make sleeping bolsters.

[WDH]

I guess if it is a "sleeping bolster", then it must be made out of ERC.  Out of anything else, it is just a plain sleeper or a plain bolster.  It takes special wood to be a "sleeping bolster" ;D ;D. 

[TexasTimbers]

I don't get to coin many phrases I wonder if it will start to catch on. ;D

I did not cut any sleepers or bolsters yesterday but I did cut a bunch more sleeping bolsters.

[Jeff]

Up here we use stickers and stringers.  Some times if we get a bunch ahead we will sticker our stringers on either stringers or stickers to bolster our sleeping supply of wooden bunks.

[Tom]

 smiley_tom_dizzy03

[TexasTimbers]

Bunks! That's the word I was trying to think of in the first place. I have to rethink this whole thing now. 

[WDH]

Sleeping bolster bunks ???.  Not gonna work .

[LeeB]

No no. The bolsters wood be sleeping on thier bunks

[Cedarman]

I've got several bunks of sleeping bolsters.

[Don P]

Huh, dunnage  ??? ;D

[WDH]

This discussion bolsters my confidence in sleepers and de-bunks several misunderstandings. :

[Cedarman]

When it rains on a bunk of sleeping bolsters, does it wake them up? Or are they tucked to bed in a shed?

[TexasTimbers]

I went to Wally World to buy some stickers. Blank sticky price stickers to write prices on my bolsters because I thought about selling my excess bolsters to local fellow sawyers who swaggered through my bolster yard.

Bolsters with stickers on them seems normal enough. Shopping is sort of like fishing so if you went "fishing" for them, figuratively speaking,  you could put them on a stringer as you "caught" them. Bolsters with stickers on them on a stringer seems normal enough.

Anyhow, I couldn't find them so I went to the nearest counter to inquire of the sticker where-abouts but the attendant was sleeping - or so it seemed. She was pretending to sleep and was just stringing me along the whole time. 

She said that the stickers are a well-kept special secret at Wally World, are and so they are kept in a special secret bunker out back. I had just caught a stringer full of bolsters with stickers on them and so I went into the bunker looking for more stickers so I could attach them to the few sticker-less bolsters I had caught this morning.

I don't much care for plain ol bolsters. I prefer bolsters with stickers from a bunk, on a stringer.