Drying Wood

[nantmoel]

Have any of you made a kiln to dry your milled wood? I have been thinking of making something small, just enough to take about a 4' length, but mainly to dry bowl blanks.

 

Any advice is welcome.

 

Brian

[Big J]

I just posted a huge thread here on the milling section!

 

The kiln I use is 18ft x 7ft x 8ft. If you work out the volume and then scale it down for your operations, it should work fine.

 

Btw, I've still not had any Elm burr through - getting a load first thing in January and will make sure that last section wings it's way to you

[ucoulddoit]

Are you wanting to dry timber from green or already air dried? If drying small quantities of timber to a low moisture content (7 - 8% for use in a centrally heated house) is your priority rather than drying it quickly from freshly cut/green planks, then you can do this without a kiln. Planks can be air dried outdoors down to a moisture content of between 15% to 18% and the rule of thumb is a year per inch thickness. I run a dehumidifier in my small workshop and simply put a small stack of air dried timber in the corner which then slowly dries to the required moisture content. It takes a while to dry in this way, for instance I often leave two inch planks for about 6 months. But there is the advantage that the workshop is also kept dry so that machinery and tools don't rust and dried timber stored in the workshop stays dry and ready for instant use. I adjust the dehumidifier settings so that the air is not too dry to start with, to reduce the risk of causing splits/degrade, then steadily reduce the humidity settings over a period of weeks/months, monitoring the air humidity with a cheap hygrometer and the moisture content in the timber with a pin meter. There is a table available showing the relationship between the equilibrium moisture content in the timber against relative humidity in the air. I aim for a final relative humidity in the workshop of about 40%. Even the smallest dehumidifiers are more than big enough for a small workshop. I've been using this method for about 10 years and have been drying more timber than I can manage to use, albeit that I only make a few things a year in my spare time. I've seen the same idea done but with the stack covered with a plastic sheet which also covers the dehumidifier so this may work faster.

 

Andrew

andrewbriggsfurniture.co.uk

[Big J]

Welcome to the forum Andrew! How is the walnut doing?

 

You must post pictures of those bookmatched curved shelves - they are one of the standout ideas I've seen in furniture making.

[ucoulddoit]

Thanks for the encouragement Big J. The walnut is drying fine and I'm looking forward to using it. Attached pictures are the shelves I think you are referring to made using some small pieces of burr elm (from a 2 ton log I bought and had milled a few years ago). I've cut some of walnut in the same way and the thin sections have dried much quicker than waiting for a large block to dry before cutting out the curved sections. Just a bit awkward sticking small curved sections to let them dry.

 

Andrew

[delabodge]

lovely work andrew,,like them alot,,,,

[Mike Dempsey]

Thats an excellent method to use a lovely piece of burr elm economically. Worth all the effort in my opinion.

 

Mike

[slackbladder]

lovely work

very impressed

[Rob D]

Very cool!

[nantmoel]

Here are two bowls I turned for the wife to give as Christmas presents - I milled this Sycamore in about February.