Filled my first kiln

[Rob D]

Thanks Rob!

 

Bit concerned that the amount of water being ejected from the kiln hasn't increased much in the last few days, though the temperature has. It's now sitting at 38 degrees inside (to be expected with the minor heatwave we've just had) but still only pumping out 25 litres a day (roughly). At this rate it's going to take 11 weeks to run the full cycle, which seems to be a bit too long in my mind.

 

Anyone have any personal experience with when the kiln really starts to shed the water/optimum operating temperature etc?

 

Jonathan

 

I'm no expert Jon but 25 litres of water a day is fine... And I would expect this to start going down as time goes on and the temperature in the kiln to start going up. The free water in the wood will come out quickly and easily but as time goes on you'll then be pulling out bound water (in the wood cells) and this will take longer.

 

You don't want to pull out too much water too quickly as you'll get a lot of defects in the wood like case hardening and such.... 11 weeks seems a good length of time to get the wood dry - it's mainly 2" isn't it?.

 

I've done 4 kilnings - the first was the best, the second not so good as the electricity tripped while I was away for 3 weeks and the third wasn't too good either as the dehumidifier was not working properly. 4th was good though....

 

Next I'm going to use one of the polytunnels as a solar kiln (where hopefully I can dry more wood cheaply) and the kiln/dehumidifier combo for more valuable/rarer wood only.

 

All this wood drying is tricky....!

[Big J]

Thanks for the response Rob - this being the first run in the kiln, I'm a little bit paranoid about the details. I would say that the timber in the kiln has an average thickness of 1.75 inches, so perhaps 11 weeks is a fair estimation!

 

I am curious to learn more about solar kilning - it's something that I am aware of, but know little about.

 

Interestingly, several different people I know know Willie Dobie in the borders (seems to be one of the experts in timber in these parts) and he has been quoted as saying that steam kilning is the best form of timber drying as it produces next to no distortion or degradation in the timber. Had a quick look online and found a company called Sauno Kilns - they seem quite reasonable and I'll maybe consider trying one at some point in the future.

 

Jonathan

[Rob D]

Solar kilning is good in that it's cheap but there'll be a lot of degrade I think... But perfect for lesser value wood like softwood and such.

 

But these sauno kilns look the business! Wonder if Tommer has heard of these and his thoughts?

 

Good price - I knew that the big kilns steam first as it changes the structure of the wood and allows the water to then be taken out with minimum problems with the timber.... But I asssumed buying something to do this would be out of my price range.

[Ian Flatters]

Heres some instructions http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalog/Sauno-Kiln-Dryer.pdf

and logosol sell them http://www.logosol.co.uk/_industrial/sauno/?p=0

[Big J]

Kiln has stabilised at 37 degrees centigrade. Only pumping out 25 litres a day - I had hoped it would be more, but hey ho, nothing I can do. Now all I have to do is wait!

[Big J]

Temperature is still stable at 35-37 degrees but now pumping out slightly in excess of 30 litres a day. I get the feeling that this might continue going up for a few weeks to come.

[Rob D]

30 litres a day is a good amount of water coming out... After all over 5 weeks thats 1000 litres or so which is a ton of water!

[Big J]

It's not bad at all I suppose! I think it will still go up though as the dehumidifier has an operating maximum of over 45 litres a day. Time will tell.

[Danny Boy]

you got some nice timber there mate!

 

whereabouts are you based?

[Big J]

Just west of Edinburgh - if you know anybody that might be interested, their please let me know!