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Yellow pine dry time

Started by rconkie, July 25, 2015, 07:40:44 PM

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rconkie

How long will it take to air dry yellow pine from around 33 percent moisture content down to 8 percent.

beenthere

No location in your profile, so can't tell even what country you are in.

But will depend on air temperature, be it in a kiln or not, also the relative humidity of that air, as well as the air flow. All will have a hand in how long the pine will take to dry.

Click your user name, and it will take you to where you can update your profile with location. Will help with helping answer your questions. ;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

rconkie

Ok... will do that. And am near fort Smith Arkansas. Also the lumber I'm wondering about is mostly 4/4 and 6/4. And no kiln to help yet. So any tips to keep quality in this lumber would be much appreciated.

scsmith42

I'm in central NC so my environment is probably similar to yours.

4/4 pine will air dry from green down to 16% MC in 60 - 90 days here in the summer if it is stacked and stickered where it has good airflow through the stacks..  About twice that in the winter. 

6/4 about 100 - 140 days.
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Den-Den

It is very possible that the pine will never air dry to 8% in your area; it might get there in the summer months.
You may think that you can or may think you can't; either way, you are right.

Planman1954

Remember that even IF you get the moisture content down to 8% or so, you should still not use the wood for anything interior. The wood still has bug larvae in it. The idea is to get the wood over 135 degrees to kill them, and that is where the kiln comes in.
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 / Solar Dry Kiln /1943 Ford 9n tractor

slider

I have a house full of air dried syp and bugs have not been a problem.Powder post beetles are a problem but they seem to favor hard woods.Here in south ga 12% is as good as i can get with air drying.Although cooking the wood to kill bugs is not bad advice.
al glenn

WDH

You should be OK with pine as for insects.  Not so with hardwood, especially the ring porous hardwoods like oak, hickory, pecan, elm, etc. 

I am with Slider.  I cannot get any wood below 12 - 15% by air drying alone. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

The average humidity in Little Rock is nearly the same, year-round.  The lowest is 12.8% EMC and the highest is 13.9 EMC (December).  So, if you wait long enough, you will air dry to around 13% MC, but cannot go lower.  A kiln would be used to get lower MCs, but you could also dry the wood in any hot location.
Gene - Author of articles in Sawmill & Woodlot and books: Drying Hardwood Lumber; VA Tech Solar Kiln; Sawing Edging & Trimming Hardwood Lumber. And more

Planman1954

I design houses for a living, and so hear lots of stories. One I heard once was about molding made from air dried lumber. It moved so much in a new home (that had forced air heat and cooling) that it all had to be replaced. That amounts to thousands of dollars in repairs.not good!
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 / Solar Dry Kiln /1943 Ford 9n tractor

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

To clarify, the term "air dried" has no particular meaning with respect to moisture content.

We usually do not dry pine or other softwoods under 10.0% MC as they become too brittle and machining is poor.  As these woods shrink very little, a higher than usually MC for interior pieces is acceptable in most cases.
Gene - Author of articles in Sawmill & Woodlot and books: Drying Hardwood Lumber; VA Tech Solar Kiln; Sawing Edging & Trimming Hardwood Lumber. And more

Planman1954

Norwood Lumbermate 2000 / Solar Dry Kiln /1943 Ford 9n tractor

tmbrcruiser

Hope it is ok to add a question to this thread and my lack of experience to the mix. I picked up a large loblolly pine butt log from one of our logging jobs. After quartering the log with a chainsaw, a good friend brought his Lt 15 over and we quarter sawed the log into 4/4 and 8/4 lumber. Stickered the lumber for about four weeks and took the lumber to another friend who put it his nyle 200 kiln. To my surprise after four weeks the lumber was at 18%, after two weeks in the kiln was down to 8%. So here is my question, did the lumber dry faster because is was quarter sawn? Also there is a couple of pics of the log in my photo gallery if any cares to check it out.
Once you get sap in your veins, you will always have sawdust in your pockets.

WDH

SYP dries fast in good drying conditions.  You results are typical to what I see.  Can't say that quartersawn dries faster, it might just a little, but I don't believe there should be much difference on flatsawn, rift, or quarter in drying speed.  It probably has more to do with air flow and environmental conditions. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

We see about 15% slower drying with quarter sawn hardwoods, but the difference is less for softwoods.
Gene - Author of articles in Sawmill & Woodlot and books: Drying Hardwood Lumber; VA Tech Solar Kiln; Sawing Edging & Trimming Hardwood Lumber. And more

WDH

Does that have to do with the orientation of the ray cells in hardwood?
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

tmbrcruiser

Thank you for the feed back, I did not expect the lumber to dry that quickly.
Once you get sap in your veins, you will always have sawdust in your pockets.

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

It has to do with the assistance that ray cells give to drying of flatsawn.
Gene - Author of articles in Sawmill & Woodlot and books: Drying Hardwood Lumber; VA Tech Solar Kiln; Sawing Edging & Trimming Hardwood Lumber. And more

WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Magicman

I had the SYP that I used for flooring and wall paneling in my Cabin Addition kiln dried.  It was ~8% when I brought it home.  I stacked it inside the addition (no heat or cooling yet) until I was ready to use it and by then it read 10-12%.

The SYP that I used for wall paneling on the bedroom project was only air dried; no kiln.  So far, I see very little if any difference such as cracks, etc.  All was T&G.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Babaloui

 :-X
I have a place in East Texas covered with southern yellow pine and I sawed a stack in April of this year. The boards were cut at 5/4 stacked with 1" stickers and placed under a tarp with a taper toward the predominate wind. The inlet side was open by about 1-1/2 foot and the exhaust side closed. We had a very wet spring getting a full month of rain in June, the wettest season ever recorded in Texas. I check the MC in early July and it was at a respectable and un-surprising (15%) using a Mini-LIGNO DX pin tester on the sides, tops and edges.
Last week it was 4.2%. Don't ask me how but I checked it (3) times at (4) different levels and it never got over 5%. Being the skeptic that I am, I just went into my garage (in Dallas) using the same tester on a piece of yellow pine framing that has been in there 20 years and it reads 6.2%. Go figure.So to answer your question: It may take a while, but then again, not as long as you might think.

dean herring

Our son has been looking into building a log house. Since we now have a sawmill we were  wondering  if  it would be a mistake to cut our own logs . If so what would be the correct steps to take in this process.
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

pineywoods

Dean,click here. This is the cabin pictured in my avatar. Unfortunately, it burned a while back. I'm thinking about building another. Logs cut to a D shape and notched on my mill
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,20922.msg298008.html#msg298008

more pics


 


 


 
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

bkaimwood

NICE cabin, pineywoods!!! How much is the rent?!
bk

dean herring

Thanks for your reply Mr. Pineywoods. I like the cabin. How did you dry them, did they move much after construction?
Failure is not an option  3D Lumber

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