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Wingstress

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Jul 28, 2015
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Location
West Simsbury CT
This is my first post on this site, so please go easy on me. I did search for the last hour or so and couldn't find what I was looking for. I'm an addicted woodworker who a few years ago started making slab furniture because I found some in a barn at an estate sale. Now that I'm addicted to that and I have depleted all my slabs I realized the price of 8/4 slabs when bought commercially. Ouch!

I have a small Alaskan mill, which for the 4 weekends a year that I use it is plenty. However, what I can't stand is waiting for the wood to dry. I want to build my own kiln, but almost everything is solar powered (I live on a wooded lot and get very little sun on my property) Also drying takes 6+ weeks (again with my impatiences)

So I came across the sauno kiln unit from logosol which advertises because of the heat/steam it drys wood in a week. I would build it off the back of my shop so getting 220V is no problem. I was very seriously considering purchasing it, but the fine print right above the buy button, says that because of the acidic level of oak, it has to dry outside 1 year before putting it in the kiln. Well considering I'm surrounded by oak trees on my property and I was waiting a year anyway for my milled wood to dry, what the heck is the point of spending $1k-1.5K on a kiln if you have to air dry it anyway.

Does anyone know of another solution (No solar, 110V or 220V is fine, rough dimensions 12X4X4, has the ability to do oak, is faster than 6-10 weeks, costs around $1k)

thanks
Tom
 
Maybe contact Logosol and see if they can help find a solution to the oak issue. They are a good company with good customer service in my experience anyway.
 
My old employer built his own. It was 40x30x20 for drying turned logs. He basicLly built a water tight shed, then insulated the hell out of it with 3" thick sheets of 4x8 foam panels. Then he built a radiator system out of 1" galvanized pipe on the back wall. On the outside of the kiln he built a boiler system. 300 gallon tank on top of a big fire box. We would keep a fire going year round with our trim ends, which would boil the water and the steam would flow through the pipes in the kiln keeping it hot. It took about 3 weeks to dry a room full of doug fir logs to the point they wouldn't shrink after the finish turning.

Was great place to hangout in the winter too!
 
You know, I've been thinking about using a shipping container lately. I don't see why one couldn't be made to work really well. Loading and unloading could be a bear unless you did modifications, but other than that, they seem like they could be a great solution. Might want to get a refer unit so it would be insulated, or could spray foam it or something.... Just a thought.
 
You know, I've been thinking about using a shipping container lately. I don't see why one couldn't be made to work really well. Loading and unloading could be a bear unless you did modifications, but other than that, they seem like they could be a great solution. Might want to get a refer unit so it would be insulated, or could spray foam it or something.... Just a thought.

My wife would kill me if I put a shipping container in the yard. I fall into the category of a hard core weekend warrior. What ever I choose has to have a nice roof line that matches the barn/shop and is painted with nice pretty hinges on the door etc... I have to be sneaky when I want to be industrial, hence the nice compact, clean, look of the sauno kiln.
 
My wife would kill me if I put a shipping container in the yard. I fall into the category of a hard core weekend warrior. What ever I choose has to have a nice roof line that matches the barn/shop and is painted with nice pretty hinges on the door etc... I have to be sneaky when I want to be industrial, hence the nice compact, clean, look of the sauno kiln.

Treemonkey has a kiln, heated by an OWB I believe. You might start a conversation with him for advice on how it is built and how it works.
 
Once you get your dry cycles going the air drying time is no big deal. It will speed up any wood that you will put through the kiln.
Your slabs you are building with are how thick?
Dave
 
Heck shipping container or old box truck body- just frame over out side to make look pretty. Former customer ( pallet co. ) did just that - made a kiln out of a container so they could heat treat pallets ( kill bugs) , don't know what was used for heat though, likely ng or electric as 98% of employees were fresh from south of the border.
 

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