Solar kiln advice

[Forest2Furniture]

I ran a solar kiln for about 8 years, fans at the top open vents at the bottom, baffle board across the top of the boards inside surfaces painted black.

Successfully dried 1"-3" Oak, Yew, Sweet Chestnut and others, just takes a little longer then other kilns.

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, Forest2Furniture said:

I ran a solar kiln for about 8 years, fans at the top open vents at the bottom, baffle board across the top of the boards inside surfaces painted black.

Successfully dried 1"-3" Oak, Yew, Sweet Chestnut and others, just takes a little longer then other kilns.

Good experiance with them? How long did it take to dry 2" and 3" Oak? What made you move away from them? Any issues with checking etc? 

[Forest2Furniture]

On 06/03/2019 at 12:38, trigger_andy said:

Good experiance with them? How long did it take to dry 2" and 3" Oak? What made you move away from them? Any issues with checking etc? 

I found I got better results if I had air dried the thicker stuff for at least a year before putting in the kiln 2" was left in for at least 4 months, 3" ended up being in for best part of 6 months mainly over winter months, if you angle the collector roof correctly you'll benefit from the low winter sun too.

 

The one I built only took 8' lengths as that's all I had the space for, so I donated it to the rangers at NNR Sherwood Forest as they have a small alaskan mill.

 

Didn't get any problems with checking but that only tends to happen if the wood is dried to quickly.

 

Solar kilns are environmentally friendly but can never be described as fast.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Forest2Furniture