<story><title>The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DannyBee</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t think of any reason to acclimatize them this way instead of kiln drying&amp;#x2F;vaporizing them (depending) to roughly the right moisture content and waiting for 1% change (instead of kiln drying them to 0, or waiting forever for completely green wood)&lt;p&gt;There are studies going back to the 70&amp;#x27;s by the forestry service (and others) showing there is no change in mechanical properties of pine&amp;#x2F;fir from these drying schedules.&lt;p&gt;(This is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; true of a lot of hardwoods, but is true of these softwoods)&lt;p&gt;Waiting years seems like a pointless waste of time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>exDM69</author><text>The material they show in the article is massive. Thick, long and heavy. Even if there are kilns big enough, the wood would no longer be straight after a fast kiln drying.&lt;p&gt;A 50&amp;#x27; 3x3&amp;quot; board would be twisted and bowed so much that the ladder would be a spiral staircase.&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter for 20&amp;#x27; 2x4 destined for a construction site.&lt;p&gt;Even if the wood was kiln dried, it would still have to acclimatizate for months or years before it would be at a stable 13% humidity of San Francisco.</text></comment>
<story><title>The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DannyBee</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t think of any reason to acclimatize them this way instead of kiln drying&amp;#x2F;vaporizing them (depending) to roughly the right moisture content and waiting for 1% change (instead of kiln drying them to 0, or waiting forever for completely green wood)&lt;p&gt;There are studies going back to the 70&amp;#x27;s by the forestry service (and others) showing there is no change in mechanical properties of pine&amp;#x2F;fir from these drying schedules.&lt;p&gt;(This is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; true of a lot of hardwoods, but is true of these softwoods)&lt;p&gt;Waiting years seems like a pointless waste of time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jeromenerf</author><text>&amp;gt; Waiting years seems like a pointless waste of time.&lt;p&gt;They have a long running stock. They are not wasting time anymore, they may be wasting storage though.&lt;p&gt;Something could be said about the stock fire risk exposure, but hey, they are the firemen after all.</text></comment>