Lico Machinery Stackers optimized stacking systems at Southern Kentucky Hardwood Flooring, Gamaliel, KY

Southern Kentucky Hardwood Flooring in Gamaliel, KY runs a Lico Machinery Stackers optimized stacking line supplied through US Machinery Sales. The installation covers the green stacking and grading line.

We have video of this line running. It stays private at the customer's request, so it sits behind a password. If you are evaluating optimized stacking systems and want to see one working, call 615-948-9983 and we will get you access.

A stacker sits at the end of the green chain, after sorting and before the yard or the kiln. Its job is to build the stickered package the lumber will dry in, which makes it the last machine that can affect drying quality and the first one blamed when a load comes out of the kiln degraded.

The details are unglamorous and expensive to get wrong. Hardwood stickers usually run 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches wide and 3/4 to 1 inch thick, and hardwoods generally need closer sticker spacing than softwoods. Most stacking machines have guides adjustable in one-foot increments but get run at two feet for everything. The tiers have to line up vertically through the pile, because misaligned stickers put unsupported spans into the load, and the Forest Service is blunt that considerable waste results from incorrectly aligned stickers in 4/4 lumber.