Best/Fastest seasoning of firewood

[Woodworks]

30 minutes ago, richardwale said:

I'm ok with the labour side of things, so im not really looking to save anything there, just wondered if an old 20 ft shipping container could be cheaply modified to dry firewood? Even if drying from green to dry took a few weeks?

Big J on here made a few kilns. Think he has one for drying planks but also one for drying logs. I would like a small kiln  just to finish drying say from 30% to 20%. Just cut plenty of wood in the last few weeks but it wont be dry enough to sell until next winter without assistance.

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Woodworks said:

Big J on here made a few kilns. Think he has one for drying planks but also one for drying logs. I would like a small kiln  just to finish drying say from 30% to 20%. Just cut plenty of wood in the last few weeks but it wont be dry enough to sell until next winter without assistance.

I think BigJ used his timber drying kiln to dry some logs but it took too long and used more electricity than expected, as drying logs has less added value it's harder to justify.

 

You need to work out the value a 20% log will be worth to you in a few weeks compared with the  value of a 30% log now.. In the case we built one for a client  it was the difference between an unsaleable by product compared with  the raw material to produce £2000 worth of kindling over night.

2 hours ago, richardwale said:

I'm ok with the labour side of things, so im not really looking to save anything there, just wondered if an old 20 ft shipping container could be cheaply modified to dry firewood? Even if drying from green to dry took a few weeks?

Not a lot wrong with a container, they tend not to be airtight which leads to losses. With just 7weeks to Christmas and sales tailing off from then till next autumn  what good is a kiln that takes 4 weeks, you'll only fit a couple of cycles in. whereas a high temperature one will deal with 50 times as much, using a bit more than a pro rata amount of fuel as losses will be higher, which is why I mentioned utilising the waste heat. Mind I doubt the neighbours will put up with a 20ft container humming away  in an urban area.

 

[FJMatt]

Before kilns became popular, once heard of someone who had a old typhoon dryer on a tractor, he used fill a container with wood fix blower to one end open other end and let it rip and just leave it blowing, reckoned it worked 

[openspaceman]

16 hours ago, FJMatt said:

Before kilns became popular, once heard of someone who had a old typhoon dryer on a tractor, he used fill a container with wood fix blower to one end open other end and let it rip and just leave it blowing, reckoned it worked 

No reason it shouldn't work as its moving fresh, lower humidity air past the logs but the amount of moisture each volume of air is capable of lifting off the logs is severely limited without adding more heat. Heat tends to be cheaper than fan power.

 

I should add that as the logs get drier the air will not have enough residence time to saturate so will be leaving in an unsaturated state, thus some of the fan power is wasted, unless the  container is very long. This is the reason most kilns recirculate air and only exchange a portion at a time.

Edited November 11, 2017 by openspaceman
paragraph added

[richardwale]

On 10 November 2017 at 17:25, Woodworks said:

Big J on here made a few kilns. Think he has one for drying planks but also one for drying logs. I would like a small kiln  just to finish drying say from 30% to 20%. Just cut plenty of wood in the last few weeks but it wont be dry enough to sell until next winter without assistance.

I'm the same, just need a small kiln to finish off the last bit of seasoning. I have a stack of timber, seasoned but uncut and rain wet, chuck into a small kiln set up and ready to sell.doesnt have to be top spec at all, stacks of pallet wood etc to feed it. Must be a way.....

[Woodworks]

31 minutes ago, richardwale said:

I'm the same, just need a small kiln to finish off the last bit of seasoning. I have a stack of timber, seasoned but uncut and rain wet, chuck into a small kiln set up and ready to sell.doesnt have to be top spec at all, stacks of pallet wood etc to feed it. Must be a way.....

I am not sure on the lorry container. I would want to heavily insulate it and then I dont think they would take 2 IBC abreast. You could insulate on the outside but then it would need another waterproof cover. I had wondered about using stuff like this https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/s-i-p-pannels to make my own. A wood burning stove and some heat recovery units but it's a lot of time, money and effort if it doesn't work 

[openspaceman]

26 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

I am not sure on the lorry container. I would want to heavily insulate it and then I dont think they would take 2 IBC abreast. You could insulate on the outside but then it would need another waterproof cover. I had wondered about using stuff like this https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/s-i-p-pannels to make my own. A wood burning stove and some heat recovery units but it's a lot of time, money and effort if it doesn't work 

I wonder how that compares with 150mm rock wool batts and steel profile sheeting on the outside, I'd worry about insulation on the inside getting bashed.

[Justme]

You often see old industrial walk in fridge or freezers being stripped out. The panels are modular so can be made to suit most plans. Should be cheap as they will be paying to scrap them.

[bankhouse builder]

Why don't you just get a fridge body of a truck already insulated ready to go

 

[SbTVF]

Insulated shipping containers are easy enough to come by. Might want lining in the inside with aluminium sheeting perhaps but add a heat source and ventilation and you’ll be laughing.