Timber drying plants

[HencoV]

Hi all,

I've heard that in the USA, some sawmills only "saw" with a separate business entity running the kilns on the same site, or just adjacent to it. If true, this makes sense as the saw miller can focus on what he does best, and so can the dryer.... possibly a perfect symbiotic relationship?

I am busy drawing up a proposal for a small "wet-off" processing plant to build kilns on their site and dry all their timber on a contact basis. (± 2000m3 /month , 850 MBF / month)

Can I ask that people reading this thread give me their inputs, and motivations why this is a good or bad idea. Much appreciated

[PhilM]

Dear HencoV,

I lean toward this not being a good idea since if someone appears to ruin a load in the drying process, ownership of the failure will be disputed.  I have heard that some folks will not contract to dry some species because of the risk.

It does remind me of how, to some degree, lumber was processed by the southern furniture industry.  The furniture company would purchase green lumber, air dry and then kiln dry the lumber.  In my view, this generally did not lead to high quality drying.  Over the past few decades the trend has been for sawmills to build their own kilns and dry their own lumber.

Phil Mitchell