july 2010 • volume 16, number 07 industry news & …€¦ · nant softwood, douglas fir the...

July 2010 • Volume 16, Number 07 INDUSTRY NEWS & MACHINERY www.timberlinemag.com • 800-805-0263

TROUTDALE, Oregon — There’s a lot tobe said for air drying — time-tested, age-old, viable and all the rest. And for 65 years,air-dried wood met the needs of CarlDiebold Lumber Company (CDLC). But afew years back — in order to keep pace withproduction at a remanufacturing plant builtin 1989, CDLC made a big change.

“We put dry kilns in [place] in 2005,”said Craig Clark, the dry kiln manager atCDLC. Even before deciding on which kilnto adopt, CDLC had settled on the moisturemonitor it wanted. It was the Wagner MC-4000 In-Kiln Moisture Measurement Sys-tem from Wagner Electronics Products, Inc.,Rogue River, Ore.

Dave Smith, plant manager, and JimPatrick, president of CDLC, were respon-sible for the selection of the Wagner MC-4000 system. At the time, explained Craig,he himself had little experience with kilns.But he got up to speed fast.

Craig studied in the Kiln Drying Cer-tificate program at the Centre for AdvancedWood Processing, University of British Co-lumbia in Vancouver. “Dave Scholte did theclasses,” said Craig. “Dave Smith…went uptoo.”

Kiln classes included instruction inscheduling, maintenance, hands-on com-puter interaction, trouble shooting and boil-ers. “It was extremely helpful,” said Craig.

Craig also took the self-directed ap-proach. “I started out with the manual,” heexplained. And he got a big boost from theresponsiveness built into the Wagner Elec-tronics MC-4000, responsiveness that mir-

Carl Diebold Lumber CompanySimplifies Kiln Drying with WagnerElectronics MC-4000 Monitors

Reprinted from the July 2010 issue of TimberLine magazine. © Copyright 2010 Industrial Reporting, Inc., all rights reserved.

By Diane M. CalabreseContributing Author

rors that of its maker.“It’s been really easy” to use, said Craig

of the MC-4000 from Wagner Electronics.Moreover, if he has questions, they are an-swered quickly. “Any time I’ve had anytrouble,” [Wagner] was immediately avail-able, he explained.

The Wagner MC-4000 makes all thedifference in assessing the content of mois-ture in a way that both yields an eye-catch-ing product and is economical. “I’ve hadseveral comments on the way the woodcomes out of our dryers,” said Craig. “They[customers] can tell we don’t rush. I’m re-ally proud of the way the wood comes out.”

Getting the right outcome is a matter ofmatching the information provided by theWagner Electronics MC-4000 to the resultscustomers want. “I tweaked, made adjust-ments,” said Craig. “I made a lot of phonecalls to a lot of people,” explained Craig. Heasked customers about results.

“For the first four charges [or so], youneed to watch a lot, check with the hand-held moisture device,” said Craig. The ideais to make certain the kiln is operating theway that will result in the best lumber. “I donot open until the [controller] says to open.I do have a history report that gives metracking [for the charge].”

Even before deciding on what kiln it would adopt in 2005, Carl Diebold LumberCompany chose the Wagner MC-4000 in-kiln moisture measurement system from

Wagner Electronics Products.

The economy realized with the WagnerMC-4000 derives from the reduced need forshut downs. “Having the Wagner [MC-4000] to use keeps me from having to shutdown and cool the kilns to do a manualcheck several times during a charge,” saidCraig. “I only have to check once a chargetoward the end – relying on the Wagner totell me it’s around 12 or 13%. This saves mea lot of money in natural gas expense, sinceit is very costly to bring the kilns back upto 180 degrees.”

The consistency of results obtainedwith the Wagner Electronics MC-4000 winshigh marks from Craig. “Each kiln has itsown MC-4000” measurement system, saidCraig. “One computer runs all three.”

Open architecture on the MC-4000 al-lows it to be integrated with any computer-ized kiln controller. In addition to the MC-4000, CDLC purchased other devices fromWagner Electronics. They are the WagnerL612 data collection and analysis hand-heldmoisture meter and the Wagner L722 stackprobe sensor. The devices ease checks onlumber drying as it proceeds in kilns and onsticks.

“Prior to [adding kilns], we did a lot ofair drying,” said Craig. “It would take amonth or two months.” (A hill with idealprevailing wind facilitates air drying atCDLC.)

Craig shared some examples of whichwood species are being dried and how. AtCDLC, Western red cedar is the predomi-nant softwood, Douglas fir the predominantmedium wood and tigerwood the predomi-nant hardwood. (“Tigerwood” encompassesseveral species, especially from Brazil, char-acterized by prominent light and darkbands.)

“Just about everything I dry, I try to drydown to 12%,” said Craig. For Western redcedar, it takes 14 days to dry 2-inch lumberand seven days to dry 1-inch lumber, he ex-plained. “It varies between winter and sum-mer” as well.

The Western red cedar gets special at-tention at CDLC because the wood is “soprone to cell collapse” if dried too quickly,explained Craig. As such, the cedar is airdried for at least four weeks before it is putin a kiln.

Its super-sensitivity to changes in tem-perature makes Western red cedar the onlyspecies for which Craig sets his own sched-ule. “On all the others, I let the [Wagner]control my schedule,” he explained.

“Douglas fir will come in at 25 to 30%[moisture] in summer and 60% in winter,”


American Wood Dryers, Inc., (AWD)Portland, Ore. not only supplied the kilnsto Carl Diebold Lumber Company(CDLC), but it also provided its Drystar®

Computer Control System. Making amatch between the Wagner ElectronicsMC-4000 and the Drystar was simple, saidTom Salicos, a developer at AWD.

“We interface with anybody that willcooperate,” said Tom. “The people who de-velop moisture content systems developtheir own interface.” Then, they provideAWD with the information. AWD takes itfrom there.

Tom ensures the moisture sensor andthe kiln control get together in a thor-oughly compatible way before an actualinstallation takes place. “I’ll make it allwork in my office,” he said. “I go on siteand it all goes” as it should.

At CDLC, for instance, the DrystarComputer Control System takes the mois-ture data streaming from the MC-4000 sys-tem and computes averages, predicting thebest time to stop a charge so that the maxi-mum amount of the load is dried to the op-timum moisture content. Configuring thetie between the MC-4000 and Drystarproved easy. “The MC-4000 just works,”said Tom.

The Drystar system debuted 14 yearsago, said Gary Kollari, one of the ownersof AWD. Over time, the system has been

upgraded, but one feature has remainedconstant. “The [software] architecture isvery open, so we can interface with oth-ers,” explained Gary.

The AWD approach allows a lumbercompany to choose the moisture contentsensors it prefers and then have data fromthe sensors processed by the Drystar sys-tem. CDLC chose the Wagner ElectronicsMC-4000.

Drystar runs on a Windows platform.The newest version runs on Windows XP.

Principle features of the Drystar sys-tem includes:

• Each kiln has its own PC-104 singleboard computer.

• Temperature and humidity controlis fully modulating using position feed-back for each valve and vent actuator

• Either pre-programmed time-basedor moisture-content-based drying sched-ules

• Easy troubleshooting with Drystar’sembedded web-based help pages

• Dual modem capability enables off-site monitoring and control of your kilnsfrom any location and alarm notificationto any telephone number

• Integrated variable frequency fanspeed control software enables program-ming of fan speed

For more information, call AmericanWood Dryers at 503/655-1955.

American Wood Dryers’ Drystar Control SystemMakes Match with Wagner Electronic MC-4000

Craig said, “The Wagner MC-4000 keeps CDLC from having to shut down and coolthe kiln to do a manual check several times during a charge. I only have to check oncea charge toward the end, relying on the Wagner to tell me it’s around 12 or 13%.”

said Craig. It takes five or six days to reach12%. “Hemlock starts at 100% moisture insummer – 110% in winter [and] takes sevento eight days to reach 12%.”

The Wagner Electronics MC-4000gives CDLC the flexibility it requires in itsdrying operation. With different species ofwood of varying sizes of lumber enteringthe kilns (1¼, 5/4 and 7/4 predominate butall common dimensions are in the mix),there is already a challenge. Add the com-plexity of wood that must be dried to some-thing other than 12% moisture content andthe challenge jumps an order of magnitude.

“There’s some [wood] I dry down toseven or eight percent,” said Craig. But it’snot usually a full kiln load and that presentsa challenge. A very big part of his job, ex-plained Craig, is managing species, sizesand desired moisture content to optimize theuse of the kilns. Kiln load management de-mands a great deal of planning, he ex-plained.

CDLC was founded by Carl Dieboldafter he returned from serving in World WarII. The company began as a wholesaler oflumber in 1945 and by 1946 it had added astud mill. The company is now in its thirdgeneration of family ownership. CDLC islocated in Troutdale, Ore., a city approxi-mately 20 miles east of Portland inMultnomah County.

All work done at CDLC is custom. Two


Weinig moulders and in-house knife-grind-ing capabilities allow the production of al-most any pattern. The 30 employees atCDLC produce construction studs, beadedceiling and double-siding as part of a longroster of offerings.

Other key pieces of equipment atCDLC are two McDonald 54-inch bandsaws. Both saws have tilting feed works, al-lowing angled cuts for beveled siding.

Based on 2" material, the three kilns

PRODUCING QUALITY LUMBER IS PARAMOUNT to keeping customers and market share in today’s competitive environment. With profi t margins thin and kiln dried quality critical, it pays to add value with American Wood Dryer kilns and controls.

Quality kilns and controls by American Wood Dryers give you a strategic advantage and provide the lumber drying information you need to be profi table. AWD’s aluminum and stainless steel dry kilns interface with moisture sensors, and are available with a patented heat recovery control system to closely

monitor moisture and save energy. The result is greater product uniformity, whiter, brighter lumber and reduced drying times.

MASTER YOUR MOISTURE

the dry kiln expertsCALL FOR YOUR NEXT KILN UPGRADE OR NEW PROJECT.

503-655-1955 • [email protected] • www.drykilns.com

have a total capacity of 240,000 board feet.All are made by American Wood Dryers,Inc., Portland, Ore. “Two are single trackand one is a double track,” said Craig. Theheat source for the kilns is a Hurst boiler,which obtains its power from natural gasobtained from the grid.

“We told American Wood Dryers whowe wanted for the [moisture monitor]” andthat was Wagner Electronics. It was the firsttime the two companies had ever worked

View of a full tram load of lumber from inside of double track American Wood Dryer kiln.

Moisture Management & Grade Recovery a business unit of

326 Pine Grove Road, Rogue River, OR 97537 | 1.800.634.9961 | www.wagnermeters.com

Having gone from visionary to reality, the Moisture Management and Grade Recovery Program brings a common-sense fi nancial approach to improve profi ts in the drying of softwood lumber.

Find Your Sweet SpotA paradigm shift is occurring in the way that mills are looking at lumber drying, and Wagner Electronics is at the forefront of this shift. Tapping into a wealth of resources, Wagner Electronics has worked closely over the last fi ve years with industry experts Tom Maness and Catalin Ristea of the University of British Columbia, and Mike Milota of Oregon State University. The outcome: Wagner’s breakthrough Moisture Management and Grade Recovery (MMGR) Program.

The MMGR Program utilizes a revolutionary patent pending process to bring a common-sense fi nancial approach to the drying of softwood lumber.

Wagner Electronics now has a methodology to optimize your lumber value and allows you to maintain the optimum lumber value over many varying conditions.

together, said Craig. Both companies af-forded advantages in addition to qualityproducts. “They’re pretty local and servicemeans a lot,” said Craig.

With close to 12 years at CDLC, Craigrecalled how he came to work there. “Iwalked in and applied for a job,” he said. Hestarted out as a Hyster forklift driver,worked his way to supervisor and thenmoved to kiln drying. It’s all been a goodexperience, he said. Prior to working at

Three American Wood Dryers (two single track and one double track) have acombined drying capacity of 240,000 board feet of lumber.

CDLC, Craig drove a truck.A native of Oregon, Craig has roots in

wood products. “I started out years ago log-ging and road building,” he said. Then, hemoved to truck driving before becoming amember of the CDLC team. It was a goodmove, he said.

“I like the challenge,” explained Craig.“I like the variety – how to dry this, how todry that.” Solving problems to get the bestresults for customers of Carl Diebold Lum-

ber Company is very satisfying to him. “Westrive to put out a quality product,” said Craig.

The assistance from Wagner Electron-ics has been sustained and intimate, saidCraig. “They’ll just call me and ask me howit’s going.” That ongoing connection and in-terest matters, he explained.

“Both American Wood Dryers andWagner, I call them anytime and they’reextremely helpful,” said Craig.

Craig added that he would not be nearlyas proficient at drying as he is without theWest Coast Dry Kiln Association of whichhe is an active member. In particular, hesingled out that Steve Carroll of WatercareIndustries, treasurer of the association, hasbeen extremely helpful and very informa-tive. As anybody familiar with kiln dryingwill acknowledge, to a certain extent lum-ber drying is an art. Doing it well requiresan understanding and a feeling, as well astechnical knowledge. Having friends to relyupon can be valuable.

In his free time, Craig has a top prior-ity. “I have a 12-year-old daughter,” saidCraig. “[We] go places, do things.” Of course,with a 5:15 a.m. start to his day at work, timeis precious, so Craig uses all of it well. “I amvery active in my church,” he said. “I teachfourth and fifth graders on Wednesdays andattend regular Sunday services.”

For more information, call Wagnerat 800/634-9961.

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july 2010 • volume 16, number 07 industry news & …€¦ · nant softwood, douglas fir the...

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