Southeastern Dry Kiln Club Newsletter 2

September 2000

MARK YOUR CALENDER FOR THE FALL MEETING

By popular demand we are going back to the Thursday and Friday format for the kiln club meeting. The Fall Meeting for the Southeastern Dry Kiln Club meeting will be held on November 9 and 10 in Marion, Virginia. The plant tours are scheduled for Thursday afternoon, followed by a social and dinner. The technical session will be on Friday morning. The meeting hotel will be the BEST WESTERN in Marion, Virginia. Rooms are $47 per night. The hotel’s telephone number is 540-783-3193. You must make your own hotel reservations if you plan to attend. We will send another flyer out before the Fall Meeting with exact directions, etc., but please make your hotel reservations now so you are not left without a room. The registration fee is $40 per person which covers the Social and Banquet plus the Friday morning program. Spouses will be the guests of the club (The club will pick up their dinner tab – so bring’em!) Below is a tentative schedule, click here for a printable registration form. Click here for a map of Marion

Thursday – November 9, 2000

12:30 Meet at Visador Company, Marion, Virginia

We will tour Visador’s lumber drying operation including their receiving operation, lumber inventory system, planer that surfaces before drying, predryers (1.7 million board feet capacity) including a new cross circulation predryer SII just recently completed and 11 steam heated kilns (8-900,000 board feet capacity). They dry oak, beech, and poplar at the facility.

2:00 – 2:30 Travel to Woodgrain Millwork, Inc.

2:30 Tour of Woodgrain.

They operate several high-speed package kilns that have swing out center reheat steam coils. This limits the distance that the air has to travel through the lumber before it is reheated. This insures fast and uniform drying in a package kiln of green poplar.

5:00 Social and Trouble Shooting Session

6:00 Dinner

Friday – November 10, 2000

7:30 Breakfast in meeting room

8:00 Technical meeting

Dry Kiln Energy Use – Miguel Camara – Miguel was a graduate student at North Carolina State University and attended many of the Kiln Club functions. Upon his return to Mexico City he built a kiln for his family wood business. He has monitored gas energy use, boiler demand and electricity in his kiln and will present this information at the meeting.

Sample Watch System – Bob Little – Bob will discuss his experiences in developing a new in-kiln sample measurement system he developed for SII. He will present the data he has collected during in-kiln trials of the system.

HIGHLIGHTS, SPRING MEETING, 2000

Members gathered Friday, May 5, at Catawba Valley Community College for a lunch sponsored by Lignomat USA. Following lunch we toured CVCC’s Furniture Program facilities, including the new Irvington-Moore Kiln Boss kiln control system. Our next stop was at W.M. Cramer Lumber Company’s stacking and kiln drying facilities in Hickory. Cramer lumber has 450 MBF kiln capacity and 9 warehouses in which to store dry lumber. Appalachian Hardwood Flooring was the next stop where Dennis Clay of BOLDesign helped explain the new venting system.

That evening, club members were treated to the 50^th Anniversary Meeting, which began with an extended social hour hosted by the SEDKC. The social was followed by an excellent dinner sponsored by Irvington-Moore. Dinner attendees were treated by presentations by Mike Sanders of I-M discussing the evolution of dry kilns, and Steve Hanover (SEDKC lifetime member) who presented slides from meetings past.

The talks were followed by the presentation of awards. Steve Hanover received the Outstanding Contribution to the Southeastern Dry Kiln Club, sponsored by U·C Coatings and awarded by Tom Johel, President of U.C Coatings. Lifetime members were recognized with SEDKC pens, and Past Presidents were recognized for their contributions by being awarded SEDKC watches and pens.

Past President plaques were awarded to our most recent Presidents, Dave Anders and Chuck Rowland. The 2000 Outstanding Kiln Operator Award was presented to Martha Keener of Zickgraf Hardwood Company by Mike Sanders of Irvington-Moore, sponsor of the award.

Trinia Bradshaw, Dee Darnell, and DL Turbyfill were recognized for their outstanding effort in making the 50^th Anniversary Meeting a success.

SEDKC presented a plaque to Irvington Moore in recognition of their generous contributions to the Club.

Brenda Flood, Wood Products Extension Secretary, and responsible for keeping meeting registrations in order, was recognized with a bouquet of flowers.

Our Saturday morning breakfast was sponsored by BOLDesigns and SII Dry Kilns, and was held concurrently with the Dry Kiln and Dry Kiln Equipment EXPO.

We thank our exhibitors for taking part in the EXPO:

BOLDesigns

Brunner-Hildebrand Lumber Dry Kiln

Delmhorst Instruments

DiVi Enterprises

Hurst Boilers

Imrie Dry Kiln

Irvington-Moore

KDS-Kiln Drying Systems & Components

Lignomat USA

SII Dry Kilns

U·C Coatings

Following the EXPO the business meeting was opened by President Dave Anders. The minutes of the fall meeting and the Treasurer’s report were approved.

Jennifer Smith, technician at NC State, demonstrated the SEDKC web page that she has designed. There was some discussion about whether job openings should be made available on the web page.

There was a motion that a club camera and album be made available to the SEDKC President for the purpose of establishing a photographic record of club activities. The motion passed.

Motion was made and passed to raise the community college scholarships given to Haywood Community College and Catawba Valley Community College from $600 to $800.

Our new officers for 2000 were elected: Alan Phillips, President (Bryant and Young Lumber Company), Tim Dalton, Vice President (Stanley Furniture). Phil Mitchell and Joe Denig (NC State) will remain as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.

And remember SEDKC’s new site on the world wide web:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/wood/dry_kiln/

Phil Mitchell, Secretary (919) 515-5581

Joe Denig, Treasurer (919) 515-5582