Advice drying Douglas Fir

[Big J]

I was wondering if any of you Arbtalking sawmillers out there had any experience kiln drying douglas fir?

 

I'm considering talking a wagon load for various applications some of which include interior joinery. I'm pretty confident with my hardwood drying, but have no softwood experience whatsoever beyond Yew.

 

So, have any of you dried Douglas Fir in a non commercial type kiln (ie, low temperature, dehumidifier based), and if so, what have your experiences been?

 

I think that I have a pretty good market for it for carcassing for kitchens for which I already sell a fair bit of higher grade hardwood for.

 

Jonathan

[TrollSpiel]

Jonathan,

 

it's not douglas, but ive dried macracarpa (big boards), lleylandii, western red, and some sappy stuff, and I had them all in with hardwoods. They dried quicker, didn't over dry, suffered far less defects - in fact the softwoods have been my most successful timbers.

 

not much help, but Ive found them easy to deal with.

[Big J]

Good to hear. At the new yard, it is my medium term intention to set up a specifically soft wood drying kiln so that I can tap into the joinery market a bit more. Problem is, I don't really know anything about softwoods from a sawmilling point of view (or forestry for that matter - only cut hardwoods, thank God!)

 

My idea is that around £18 a cubic foot/£636 a cubic meter, it's worth my while producing good douglas. I just need to do a bit of market research to see whether this is a viable price and whether I can compete with the larger mills who theoretically have lower costs per cubic foot.

 

Jonathan

[timbermillers]

I've dried douglas before with no problems; and found it a lot easier than hardwoods especially in a dehumidifier style kiln. No problems with case hardening, surface checking, end split and all the other things you'll know about! I just use all the hardwood techniques that I've picked up over the years. The only issue is the knots, normal problems with splits around them and they have a tenancy to pull out when planing; this can be overcome by taking 1mm at a time off with very sharp blades, it goes like iron when it's really dry due to the sap content.

 

I looked into carcassing timber for interior use and couldn't get anywhere near it so didn't bother. All the dry douglas I have for interior use is used for staircases when wider boards are needed than the average sawmill stock and just cut and dry to order.

 

One other tip for handling green douglas (or any sappy softwood) if you get covered in sap, which you will, use a bit of WD40 or similar to get it off then clean your hands with a normal hand clearer - works a treat!

 

PS I'm no expert on this but have a little experience! Good luck!

[Big J]

Thanks for your input timbermillers! Really useful to know.

 

Regarding the WD40 - it's an old trick we used to use to get the tacky off our hands and arms when I was still competing in strongman, lifting the atlas stones. It's remarkable stuff!

[Rob D]

Good to hear. At the new yard, it is my medium term intention to set up a specifically soft wood drying kiln so that I can tap into the joinery market a bit more. Problem is, I don't really know anything about softwoods from a sawmilling point of view (or forestry for that matter - only cut hardwoods, thank God!)

 

My idea is that around £18 a cubic foot/£636 a cubic meter, it's worth my while producing good douglas. I just need to do a bit of market research to see whether this is a viable price and whether I can compete with the larger mills who theoretically have lower costs per cubic foot.

 

Jonathan

 

 

 

Softwood will be a doddle to dry after all the oak and elm you've been drying!

 

Do the local sawmills sell kiln dried douglas? I'd be surprised if they do.... In which case you should have a good advantage.

[Big J]

Softwood will be a doddle to dry after all the oak and elm you've been drying!

 

Do the local sawmills sell kiln dried douglas? I'd be surprised if they do.... In which case you should have a good advantage.

 

Not that I know of. There is one about 20 miles away from here that does kilned Larch, but not Douglas.

 

Looking forward to getting stuck into it now!

 

Next (naive) question - what thicknesses would you mill it at? I'll ask a few makers to see what they would want, but would be useful to canvass opinion here too!

[Tom D]

I have those parts for the mill J.... let me know when you want to get it.

[agg221]

Try some joiners - windows in particular.

 

We should be using Douglas for some of our windows (listed) but will probably end up using sapele as it's cheaper! It would be interesting to know how much it would work out delivered to Essex. If you happen to have some ready in the nearish future, we could be persuaded.....

 

Alec

[Big J]

I have those parts for the mill J.... let me know when you want to get it.

 

That's fantastic Tom. I'll give you a buzz when things settle down a touch here!

 

Jonathan