How I dry small pieces of lumber

[Ted J]

Brad,
Cool looking "Hot Box Kiln" ya got there!

I say "Hot Box" because it reminded me of a few times when working out in some of the Petro-chemical plants. They wouldn't allow the use of micowave ovens in the trailers that we were working in, so we could heat up a lunch.

Somebody would always make a verticle "Hot Box" out of plywood, with a door, and line it with aluminum foil and add a 100 watt bulb at the bottom and wire shelves in the top. If you put a frozen microwave dinner in there in the morning, it would be cooked and ready to eat by lunch, and you had to let it cool down.

I'm thinking of making a solar kiln, one of these days soon, now that the Mizer LT-15 will be coming in.

Thanks for sharing!!!
Later,
Ted

 

[BIG JAKE]

Hey Brad-try throwing in some red cedar along with some of your more stinky woods! Might offset to where it smells okay. Anyway no law says you have to dry the same wood all to once eh? Innovative device-way to go!

 

[deeker]

It is not too good to mix the wood inside of any kiln. Thickness or specie.

As both will dry at different rates. Three inch thick walnut will dry at a different rate than three inch pine.

Although .....the red cedar/juniper smells....soooooo goooooood.

 

[Ted J]

Well then.... throw in some seasoned and peppered venison strips and make some jerky while the wood dries. No sense in wasting any of that electricity and heat, put it to use.... multi-tasking at it's best. Besides, drying wood has gotta make ya hungry...

Ted

 

[deeker]

Well then.... throw in some seasoned and peppered venison strips and make some jerky while the wood dries. No sense in wasting any of that electricity and heat, put it to use.... multi-tasking at it's best. Besides, drying wood has gotta make ya hungry...

Ted

Trouble maker.

Send me all your venison jerky...and I won't tell....

 

[Daninvan]

Brad,

I have a home built dehumidifier based kiln as well, and I like your idea of taking the air from one end back to the other end via external ducting. I built a plenum inside of mine and it takes away usable space in the kiln.

I also have the same experience as you in drying the old growth western red cedar - very little if any movement.

One question though, if you are using only the light bulbs and the DH is not running, where does the humid air go, do you rely on it to just 'leak' out of the box?

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Brmorgan]

If I just have the bulbs on, I usually shim the top door open about a quarter of an inch just at one end. Just had a thought though about installing an air drier that would circulate the air through drying pellets like on an air compressor. You can get the pellets from some woodworking supply stores too, they change color when they're saturated and you can bake them in the oven to use them again.

 

[Ted J]

If I just have the bulbs on, I usually shim the top door open about a quarter of an inch just at one end. Just had a thought though about installing an air drier that would circulate the air through drying pellets like on an air compressor. You can get the pellets from some woodworking supply stores too, they change color when they're saturated and you can bake them in the oven to use them again.

This should work when the DH is off. Prices look good.
http://sorbentsystems.com/desiccants_types.html