Filled my first kiln

[Big J]

First, and hopefully last hiccup in the kilning - the fan on the dehumidifier broke yesterday leaving me in a situation where it was extracting no water. Had to get into the kiln and reposition one of the other fans to blow through the coils. Horrible hot work, but seems fine now!

 

Timber looks good - at about 20-25% moisture content, so not too far to go.

 

Jonathan

[18 stoner]

Not too serious then Jonathan, what amount of water are you getting out at the moment?

[Rob D]

Yes shouldn't be long to go now before you're looking to do the big unstack!

[Big J]

18 stoner - about 25-28 litres a day presently, though a slightly lower rate today as the humidity builds back up again after having had the doors open.

 

Rob - hopefully not!! Pretty damn skint so needing the timber out and sold asap!

[Big J]

Right, finally, the kiln is open!

 

Due to the length of time in the kiln, the timber has come out with practically no distortion or checking and the yew especially has come out superbly!

 

Sold a bit so far, emailed the secretary of the Scottish Furniture Makers Association and advertised locally. I saw Rob, that you have advertised on ebay? Might try that too.

 

In bad news, for no apparent reason, my dehumidifier decided to commit suicide and throw itself off the wall. So I now need a new one. If anyone has one, I would be very keen to purchase it!

 

I will get pictures up asap.

 

Jonathan

[Rob D]

Nice jon,

 

I just bunged a few pics on ebay and by far it has got me the most sales to date. So much so when time permits I will list a big range there as part of an ebay shop.

 

But expect 75% of enquires to be good ol honest time wasters though....

[Big J]

Update:

 

Sold approximately 10% of my stock with a couple of customers coming this week. Also, next Friday is the start of the Scottish Furniture Makers Association Exhibition in Edinburgh, to which I'm invited to the private first viewing. Plenty of business cards and stock lists are going to be handed out to the 50 or so furniture makers who are exhibiting.

 

I have been doing a lot of milling this last week, which has been lovely after a period of relative inactivity on that front. All Oak, some wonderfully pippy stuff, some small stuff for the local church lectern and a beautifully curved section for a green Oak bridge.

 

I'm also really excited about getting the new kiln load up and running. I've had to change my set up a little due to the aforementioned dehumidifier suicide, but I think the change is for the better.

 

I've ended up with an Ebac BD150 dehumidifier. I thought that I would need two in the kiln reading the extraction stats, but putting it in to just bring the last lot of timber down from 15% MC to 10%, it was extracting twice what it said it should. So only one needed. Similarly, the heat it produces is huge, resulting in the need for an extractor fan (previously closed system with only moisture removal coming from dehumidification) as the dehumidifier shuts off above 35 degrees C. No bad thing really, as Oak can honeycomb above that.

 

Also, as airflow was a bit of an issue in the previous load, bought a snail fan (carpet dryer) locally for £50. It pumps out at least 20 times as much air as a standard 10" fan and is amply sufficient for the whole kiln.

 

Anyway, I've yet to finish the set up for the new kiln fully, but I'll post some photos and diagrams of it once it's done - might help someone else avoid the mistakes made in the first run.

 

Regarding stock for the next kiln, it's almost all going to be Oak at this point. I have a beast of a log to mill - 27ft long at an average 3 foot diameter, which will fill most of the 250 cubic foot capacity. Beyond that there are some other random bits and bobs going in too.

 

Jonathan

[Robert_S]

Great posts Jonathan i follow them with interest, good work:thumbup:

[Big J]

Thanks Robert!

 

You are always welcome to come and see the operation - my workshop is just outside Uphall.

 

Jonathan

[Rob D]

Thanks for posting Jon - is all good info.