Rules Corner

More Educational Opportunities

with Chief Inspector Dana Spessert

As we watch our world changing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, NHLA continues to look for new ways to meet the educational needs of the hardwood industry.

In June, NHLA held its first live webinar event on the topic of kiln drying hardwood lumber. We were fortunate to work with Dr. Eugene Wengert, aka the “Wood Doctor” and co-author of the manual Drying Hardwood Lumber, who graciously volunteered to teach the series.

The topics for the Kiln Drying webinar series ranged from cutting samples to storing kiln-dried lumber. The webinars were set up to allow attendees to ask questions via typed messages and the presenter to respond to the questions at the appropriate time. The webinar series had more than 400 registrants and more than 250 attendees at each live session. The webinar series has been archived on NHLA.com and is available for replay at your convenience.

Since the first series of webinars were so well received, we are pleased to announce that we will be continuing our partnership with Dr. Wengert to offer more educational opportunities for the industry. The second webinar in this series will focus on edging and trimming. These two webinars will be based on another book co-authored by Gene, “Sawing, Edging and Trimming Hardwood Lumber Putting Theory into Practice,” as well as the many years of practical experience obtained in working at and managing sawmills.

We will continue to provide webinars based on the various aspects of wood product manufacturing, and we have more interesting topics in the works such as Air and Shed Drying, Tips for Drying Oak, Tips for Drying Hard Maple, Tips for Great Gluing, Machining Defects and Cures, Yield Improvements in a Rough Mill and many more.

I would welcome recommendations on topics that would have the most benefit to your company or the overall industry. Please email me at d.spessert@nhla.com or give me a call at 901-399-7551.

NHLA will be providing more information on these events as they become solidified using our website, E-newsletters and social media outlets. So please make sure to follow-us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and subscribe to the Enewsletter.

Remember

NHLA has programs in place to help with Profit Recovery. The program will conduct an audit of your facility to measure production performance throughout the sawmill, dry yards and kilns. The audit will provide measurements of profit recovery as well as identifying educational needs and outlining a plan of action. For more information on this program, please contact your area National Inspector or the Chief Inspector.