Wood kiln

[HeX0rz]

-Anyone have a wood kiln?
-Can you build one yourself?
-How hot does it need to be to dry out a cord of wood?
-What do you use for a fuel source to dry it?
-How long is it need to be dried?
-Would it create more business?
-Does it give any more "value" to the wood?

 

[RAG66]

I have a friend who is getting some done at a local lumber kiln. I have used a small amount of mixed kiln dried wood, it is nothing super exciting. The only thing that is really nice is it lights and burns; no question! The reason it is an advantage is it offers consistancy and you have seasoned wood within 2 weeks after cutting. You can build kilns but at what cost for seasoned wood? I think it wood be an advantage if you did all your wood and charged a good amount for truly seasoned dry fire wood. Good product will keep people coming back. My only worry is that the price/cord would have to be close to what the bundles cost at the grocery store.

 

[Pulp Friction]

-Anyone have a wood kiln?
-Can you build one yourself?
-How hot does it need to be to dry out a cord of wood?
-What do you use for a fuel source to dry it?
-How long is it need to be dried?
-Would it create more business?
-Does it give any more "value" to the wood?

I don't own one and am by no means an authority on the topic but I've been looking into details such as you are. Seems the small kilns used to process around 6 cords appear to use about $100 of propane for each cord. They claim to require about a half million Btu's to bring the wood up to temp, and then maintain close to 200F for 1-2 days. Then add the cost of powerful electric ventilation blowers and you now have to charge around double for your kiln-dried cords. Some may say " just buy it seasoned" but too often even what's being sold as seasoned holds way to much moisture content. I've visited quite a few firewood operations where they are splitting their wood on the day of delivery. They seem to think seasoning "in the round" is adequate. Or many dealers will "blend" seasoned with unseasoned in hopes that the customer maintains the same proportion of blending when loading the stove where the drier pieces help ignite the wetter ones. Unfortunately the only way to guarantee seasoned wood is to split and stack it yourself, ahead of time. As far as fuel sources, waste wood is popular and economical if using an OWB, but neighbors may not like the smoke during a hot summer day with their windows open. It sure must be nice though to cut a few cords and trim a year off of the seasoning step within a couple of days. I hope those that own and operate the kilns would chime in with first-hand experience.

 

[Buckethead]

I've thought about building a solar kiln for seasoning firewood...

Basically I'd start with a 20' shipping container. Then I'd install a vent in the roof and cut air inlets along the sides, down low. Finally I'd paint is flat black and plunk it in the middle of my pasture for maximum sun exposure. I'd stack the wood on pallets to allow good air flow from below and allow easier loading and unloading of the container.

I figure 2-3 weeks in the "can" (with the heat and air flow) would really speed up the seasoning process...assuming, of course, that the sun cooperated.

....But then again, I could just be totally wacked......:biggrinbounce2:

 

[HeX0rz]

Hmm, I do not think that doing my firewood at a local lumber mill will be of much benefit to me. Closest one is 14 miles. I'm betting they would not even give it a single thought unless I was willing to pay them the same amount of money they would make off of all the wood they would be cramming into one of their kiln bays.

The grocery stores around here charge about $4-6 a bundle for firewood and it is not even a cubic foot of wood. That comes out to $768 for a cord of wood if you bought it at the store in cubic foot shots.

I have only a few ideas to even make it worth while. But I also have been giving it thought that if a customer wants to save save save, I sell them my wood in spring, not fall. That way it has been sitting processed and stacked wherever they keep their wood until winter. That way they have their wood already and they know it will burn for the winter.

Yea, the other idea to consider besides bulk kiln drying in a solar kiln is maybe making a kiln setup on a trailer and kiln drying the load with waste wood by means of some sort of fire containment unit. Making the exhaust pipe long enough where it is 200 degrees (if thats whats required) at the wood and then exhausts out the top of the unit. But then again, I wonder how much of the wood would be covered with soot?

I know there is a few guys on here that do kiln dried wood. Where ya at?!

 

[wdchuck]

I know there is a few guys on here that do kiln dried wood. Where ya at?!

They are busy delivering.

 

[7sleeper]

This is a company in germany that are doing solar firewood drying. It works similar to a green house, but they also have some fans installed(as far as I read).

7

 

[SpiralAcacia]

Anyone ever tried wrapping a stack w/ plastic sheet w/ some holes in top?
Or a plastic over a 2X4 frame to hold a few stacks?

SA

 

[pipehead]

My uncle was going to build one using an old grain bin (those corrugated steel types) and a high CFM blower. Not sure what ever became of it, but it seemed like not a bad idea.

 

[leon]

kiln drying firewood

I have a thread or posting on the site here in which I described how to use a large amount of solid drainage tubing and a hot box made from plywood and 2 by 6's-12's, painting everything flat black and using a full sheet-4 by 8 of plexglass.


What you need is at least one roll of 4 inch solid drainage tubing to act as the heat sink and a small squirrel cage fan that has an adapter to fit the tubing end to pipe air into the tubing and then the hot box which is set up with a drilled hole using a hole saw bit to create a baffle and resistance to the air flow to slow it down and heat it up when the suns out the black tubing adds to the heat generated by the hot box which is piped to where ever you intend to dry fire wood.


The active kiln is a more efficient way to heat the wood when you simply throw wood as the wood has more surface area exposed when drying.


If you built an insulated box with enough capacity to dry a 10 cubic feet of fire wood stacked which would be about 18 cubic feet or so you can dry that much every time the sun shines.

Ideally you want to have short lengths of cut and split wood, I use 12 inch fire wood and coal in my boiler.


Unless you bag and seal the firewood with heavy plastic bags after it is dried the termites and ants will go after it anyway simpy as it is a food source so keep this in mind.


The more you split the fire wood the more area is exposed to the heat source to dry it.


Edit: The use of plastic sheets over a frame is counter productive as it will hold in the moisture that exits the firewood when it heats from drying.

 

[Dalmatian90]

What I didn't see mentioned above is the regulations that are or soon will be in place in most areas regarding transporting firewood.

Kiln dried -- maintained above a certain temperature for a certain time, which I don't think solar can achieve -- is exempt from the rules since the bugs would've been killed off.

It's a reasonable cost for those who sell bundled wood at camp stores, convenience stores, and supermarkets.

Plus the extra weight savings from being super-dried probably means they can fit (I'm guesstimating) 10% more their truck for each trip going out to resupply folks.

 

[TreePointer]

Here you go: Search: Keyword(s): kiln ; Posts Made By: STLfirewood

 

[wdchuck]

This is a company in germany that are doing solar firewood drying. It works similar to a green house, but they also have some fans installed(as far as I read).

7

I've done that on a smaller scale, it worked so well a 20x100 is in the works.

 

[wdchuck]

What I didn't see mentioned above is the regulations that are or soon will be in place in most areas regarding transporting firewood.

Kiln dried -- maintained above a certain temperature for a certain time, which I don't think solar can achieve -- is exempt from the rules since the bugs would've been killed off.

It's a reasonable cost for those who sell bundled wood at camp stores, convenience stores, and supermarkets.

Plus the extra weight savings from being super-dried probably means they can fit (I'm guesstimating) 10% more their truck for each trip going out to resupply folks.

Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection website in WI lists the five acceptable methods. They range from passive to expensive and it only counts if you are registered and certified.

 

[BSD]

i'm not sure why more guys don't use hoop houses or step up and get a portable garage to season wood. I used to have some lab classes in a greenhouse at college and even in 10F weather it was +30 in the greenhouse without any heat system (as long as the sun was out). Last year I painted a work truck in 12x24 carport in february. it was 39F air temp outside and by high noon the carport was up to 72F.

You can buy a 12x24' hoophouse for $500 +/- and then it'll cost about $150 to cover it with clear plastic. if you can season a load of wood in 2 weeks i'd say it'll pay for itself very quickly. You could even add a wood furnace and really speed it up, burn the splitter trash, crotches, shorts and ugly pieces you can't sell anyway.

 

[vandiesel99]

That sounds feasible. If you had a large enough straight shot building with a nice wood burner blowing good warm heat into it 24/7, it seems to me that you could season wood pretty quickly that way. Especially if the wood heat was ducted in to the building evenly. Or the wood burner could be placed inside the building which seems like it would dry the air even quicker therefore pulling more moisture out of the wood. Right?

 

[eugene kirkvold]

hi everyone I thought I would give my 2 cents worth here I plan on building a forced air furnace with blower and running the chimminy directly through the firewood pile at low fire and then putting a pellets half way into the pile height and adding a blower on each side of the furnace chiminey to help cool it down and dissipate the heat through the pellets and pluging the pellet ends so the heat from the blower would have to travel up ward and down ward but not out ward and would put plastic on the very top with a strip open in the middle of the pile the full length of the pile so moist air can escape plus the black plastic on top would create more heat and help the drying process farther and less drying time I plan on building one on a small scale first to dry a half a cord of wood to see if this would work.(note the wood would be stacked on pellets to keep it off the ground. any comments would be helpful im trying to build this on the cheap I already have 20ft 20 inch diameter piece of corrugated culvert I would use for the chiminey the chiminey would run horrizonely olong the firewood pile and capt on the end with 8 inch stove pipe goin straight up my wood furnic now in my house is about 300 to 400 degrees when running at full capacity in the side walls and in front of it this might sound extream but it might work I like to experiment thats how things get invented this could be biult for about 5 t0 $600 the bad thing about this is this would not work very well in the winter when its cold or use an insulated blanket on the outside of the wood pile that water proof and the very top where the opening is I would put some kind of very narrow roofing sheet on top and not nailed down so it can be taken off when the wood is dry it would be held in place with old tires hanging on ropes on each side above so air can escape I will be using a barrow stove for the first experiment have a nice day and please no gross negative comments please but advise or what you think would be appreciated thanks and have a nice day

 

[eugene kirkvold]

I forgot to mention in the above post the cheapest plastic you can get is from farmer that use it for silage they have to pay to get rid of it and many would give it away so you country people out there take notice of this when you see a pile of plastic that a farmer has used as he can not use it again the plastic is huge and it will out last any plastic you can buy and a lot tougher than the plastic you buy down town it has a life of 5 yrs against the sun try that with the stuff down town it wont last past 2 hope this helps why pay when you might get it free or cheaply