2nd kiln progress thread

[Big J]

Everything unloaded today with mostly excellent results. Only glitch is that the 2 inch and up Oak isn't dry, and the thickest ash and Yew needs a little longer too. To be expected though - will teach me to stop milling thick boards!

 

Yew - 7% MC

Elm - 8% MC

Ash (1.5 and 2 inches) - 9-12% MC

Oak (1.5) - 9-12% MC

 

Very little distortion in any boards - extremely clean and little fungal growth owing to the borasic acid. Little bit of surface checking in some of the pippy oak and some heart shake opening up with the ash, but all as expected.

 

Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a lot of the Oak, Elm and Ash is due to go out this week and next. Once the space is cleared in the kiln again, the thicker Oak, Ash and Yew will go back on along with about 25 CF of Ash I'm contract drying for a customer.

 

Very chuffed!

 

Jonathan

[Rob D]

Nicely done Jon.

 

All the pippy oak I've ever dried always comes out a bit like that

 

 

[Big J]

Thanks Rob - very pleased with the outcome of this kiln. Still changes that I will make for the next one, but it's always a learning process!

 

Sold 1/10 of the kiln today to a young furniture maker fresh from college. And she is going to send her friends along too!

 

Jonathan

[Big J]

Quick little update.

 

Almost all timber from the first two kilns has sold (have perhaps 10-15% of it left) and the third kiln will open 3 weeks tomorrow. I decided to use a woodmizer for this kiln, and in many respects it was ok, but it did require the shaving down of quite a lot of logs and due to some metal work, some of the boards in the sycamore were wavy.

 

Anyway, lots of lessons learned, and the fourth kiln fill (scheduled for the start of May) will be better still. All logs going into that kiln will be of ideal size for the woodmizer and I've now got my own little forklift to speed things up.

 

This kiln contains roughly a third elm, third oak and third sycamore.

 

Jonathan

[Rob D]

Excellent Jon cheers for posting.

 

When you fill the next kiln can you get some pics of you cutting it, sticking and loading it and then the full kiln finished as I'm going to link to this thread when re doing the alaskan website later in the year.

[Big J]

Not a problem Rob! It's always a learning curve, and each time I do a decent amount of milling, I always take something from it that I do differently the next time.

 

Quick question - can anyone recommend a good hygrometer that won't break in the heat and humidity of the kiln? Needs to be remotely viewable and happily operate at 35-40 celsius and up to 85% RH.

 

Jonathan

[John Hughes]

Did you get a Buggsyscopic handler?

Photos?

John

[Big J]

Alas, but no buggiscopic - that's further down the line! For the time being I have a little Misubishi Compact tractor with a Mcconell forklift attachment. It will only lift about a tonne, but that is fine for 95% of my work.

 

Jonathan

[Big J]

Update:

 

Kiln opened three days ago, and just shy of one third of it (approx 90 cubic foot) is now sold.

 

All timber, bar one Oak, has been felled, cross cut and extracted for the next kiln. It's been fantastic to be a part of it at every stage, and amazing that the little Alstor (8x8 mini forwarder - google it!) can extract 3/4 tonne logs.

 

The next kiln will go on within two weeks, and will consist of:

 

Beech - 45 cubic foot

Cherry - 50 cubic foot (mostly consisting of one, quite stunning 20 inch dbh tree)

Ash - 75 cubic foot

Oak - 130 cubic foot

 

If there is any space, I might try to squeeze in a bit of Elm.

 

Interestingly, I had one quite particular furniture maker come for some Elm, who requested random moisture tests at random points on the timber. 3 or 4 readings followed, and the highest measurement I had was 11.6% MC, which I am damn pleased about!

 

Jonathan

[TrollSpiel]

really nice to see what someone else is doing. I do like that elm.