The Care and Feeding
of White Woods
Tom Graber
Baillie Lumber
Smyrna, New York
The Care and Feeding
of White Woods
Kinds of:
• Challenges:
1) Rotation.
2) Color Retention (interior and
exterior)
3) Stain (fungal, chemical,
and…)
4) Drying environment (Air
Drying and kilns)
5) Dimensional stability
6) Kiln / boiler limitations
7) Bruising
8) Stick Shadow
9) Mixed loading / MC variation
1
The Care and Feeding
of White Woods
Kinds of:
• Solutions:
1) Fast from tree to thee as fast as
possible.
2) Scheduling, winter cut, fast
rotation
3) storage, scheduling…
4) high airflow, low temp / RH
schedule
5) Cutting, sticking, stacking,
rotation
6) Airflow, heating / venting
capacity
7) Eliminate sawmilling process
8) Breeze dry sticks / dry sticks
9) LCD scheduling
The Care and Feeding
of White Woods
Kinds of:
• Challenges:
1) Rotation.
2) Color Retention (interior and
exterior)
3) Stain (fungal, chemical,
and…)
4) Drying environment (Air
Drying and kilns)
5) Dimensional stability
6) Kiln / boiler limitations
7) Bruising
8) Stick Shadow
9) Mixed loading / MC variation
• Solutions:
1) Fast from tree to thee as fast as
possible.
2) Scheduling, winter cut, fast
rotation
3) storage, scheduling…
4) high airflow, low temp / RH
schedule
5) Cutting, sticking, stacking,
rotation
6) Airflow, heating / venting
capacity
7) Eliminate sawmilling process
8) Breeze dry sticks / dry sticks
9) LCD scheduling
2
Rotation.
Rotation.
3
Rotation
Rotation
4
Color Retention
Color Retention
5
Color Retention
Color Retention
6
Color Retention
Stain
7
Drying environment
Drying environment
8
Drying environment
Drying environment
9
Drying environment
Dimensional stability - stacking
10
Dimensional stability - stacking
Dimensional stability - sticking
11
Dimensional stability - stacking
Dimensional stability - full courses
12
Kiln / boiler limitations
Bruising
13
Stick Shadow
Mixed loading / MC variation
14
Mixed loading / MC variation
Mixed loading / MC variation
15
Some SUNY ESF
Laboratory Research
Interior Color
16
@ 90F
Drying days
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
7
12
3
7
12
@ 110F
Drying days
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
17
@ 130F
Drying days
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
7
12
3
7
12
@ 150F
Drying days
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
18
After 12 Days
Temperature (F)
90
110
130
150
Schedule, Season, Log Age
19
Drying Schedules
Drying schedule for 4/4 hard maple T3-C5 (White color)
Step
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Temperature in degrees F
Moisture Relative
Wet
Wet Bulb
Content Humidity Dry
(%)
(%)
Bulb
Bulb
Depression
Above 40
70
110
100
10
40 to 35
60
110
96
14
35 to 30
47
110
90
20
30 to 25
32
120
85
35
25 to 20
22
130
80
50
20 to 15
15
140
90
50
15 to
22
160
110
50
final
Drying Schedules
Drying schedule for 4/4 hard maple T8-C3 (Normal color)
Step
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Temperature in degrees F
Moisture Relative
Wet
Wet Bulb
Content Humidity Dry
(%)
(%)
Bulb
Bulb
Depression
Above 40
86
130
125
5
40 to 35
81
130
123
7
35 to 30
72
130
119
11
30 to 25
57
140
121
19
25 to 20
35
150
115
35
20 to 15
22
160
110
50
15 to
26
180
130
50
final
20
Fresh log
W
H
I 4 wk log
T
E 8wk log
Winter
Spring
Summer
N Fresh log
O
R
M 4 wk log
A
L 8wk log
Some of our competition...
In China
21
22
Thank you!
any Question, Comments?
23