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Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Keeping lumber flat during drying When drying, any weight on the top of the stack is better than none. In fact, it is the first few pounds that do the most good. However, to get really flat lumber
Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical expert
On sticker spacing, would closer than 12" on sweetgum and sycamore help? What is the limit to how close you can go? We have some sycamore air drying that is on 16" spacing with only some warping. I had some sweetgum kiln dried that was on wide spacing and has warped a lot. Is there any thing i can do to correct this now that it is dried?
I put lower quality and mis-cuts on top of high quality, well cut wood. I only use planed white wood for stickers, and take much care with placement. Low quality wood gets stickers as far as three feet apart with high quality as close as one foot. All stickers are aligned in any one pile--this may seem like too much work, but pays off. Any wood that will be ripped in the middle, like those with center wood, may also be used for weight, as the cup will be ripped out.
I would not go closer than 12". I would think that good 16" spacing will have no more warp than 12". Warp is next to impossible to remove from dried wood. Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical expert
In dry kilns that have a high airspeed available to them, a useful technique is to use little or no heat, low humidity, and very high air velocity in the very first few days of a kiln charge, before being placed on a normal drying schedule. This technique creates stresses in the shell of the boards, which helps hold the lumber flat while drying. These stresses are relieved at the end of the charge using normal equalizing and conditioning schedules. Stickers on 12" centers are definitely a plus on gum and sycamore. Dry aggressively. Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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