So I'm new to milling. I had a pine log that was green that I made some stickers out of so I could start milling some oak logs I had. Stickers were 1" x 3/4".
I cut them, stacked them, left them outside a couple weeks to air dry.
I noticed on the oak slabs , wherever the stickers were, is a lighter color than the rest of the oak slab. Is this okay? Is that considered stained? How deep would that go?
I'm trying to find out what other options are for stickers if I do end up having to let the stickers dry longer because now I'm at a standstill as far as milling till I get this figured out.
I read some people have used pvc or some sort of plastic pipe for stickers. Seems though has to be schedule 80 and schedule 40 can't withstand all the weight.
I've never used pine stickers, but my guess is that you have nothing to worry about if the place where the stickers were is a bit lighter. Contact with air oxidizes the wood a bit and darkens it. When you run the wood through the planer, the oxidized wood on top will be removed it it will all go back to the fresh-sawn color. Sticker stain is usually darker under the stickers, and you have to plane off more wood to get rid of it. I've seen 1/2" PVC cut in half lengthwise used for stickers (otherwise, they'd roll all over the place). Might Google it and see what you come up with. In a pinch, I bought a couple of sheets of 3/4" plywood and ripped them into 3/4" wide stickers. Sounds expensive, but getting nearly 200 4' stickers per sheet in just a couple of minutes isn't a bad deal (much cheaper & faster than PVC). By the way, here's a video of how I do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XXE1BcfEpA&t=20s
Good judgement comes from experience... experience comes from bad judgement.
I make my stickers out of side lumber of what evers on the mill so they are of 1/2 doz. species never had any staining. You get stripes where the stickers are reguardlees of what you make them out of.
Thanks for the help guys :) Thats good to know Bill! As soon as I seen the stripes I stopped milling till I could figure it all out on how to proceed :) Now I can start milling again, YAY!
All my stickers are made of what ever is on the mill and there are cut to a little over 4' or 50" ruffcut 2" X 1"
If your stickers or your lumber is real green ( wet ) you can get mold staining which can be a little more difficult to plane out if it penatrates to any extent.