Drying lumber of submerchantable length

Softwood sawmills generate a large quantity of short pieces of lumber due to end trimming. Short pieces might also be generated by cutting the defects out of full-length, low-grade lumber. These pieces must be dried before finger-joining with conventional glues. Using Douglas-fir 2-by material, it was determined that for lengths less than 1.5 feet, sorting by initial moisture content (MC) before drying may improve final MC variability. Sorting by width may also decrease final MC variability, but this decrease may be due to a different initial moisture for each width, rather than being a direct effect of piece width. Bulk-piling of the material in the kiln resulted in similar drying, but much poorer use of kiln space compared to drying in racks that held the lumber in layers.

You must be logged in to download any documents. Please login (login accounts are free) or learn how to Become a Member