firewood kiln - How do you build one? does anyone know

[Big J]

Softwood sells, but the price has to be right, in my experience.

 

I have no kiln experience, so excuse me if this is a stupid question/comment, but wont the kiln cause more of the bark to come off the logs, giving a quality issue?

 

Certain softwoods can be a pain for this, even air drying.

 

Ian guessing this will be a greater issue as your force drying.

 

That's assuming your processing fresh felled softwood.

 

I have got a chap who is happy to do all the delivery for me, deal with the customers etc. We were thinking around the £50-55 a cubic metre mark delivered.

 

The cedar that I have in at the moment won't have any issues with the bark falling off, and future spruce will already be dry so most bark should fall off before going into the kiln.

[arboriculturist]

I have got a chap who is happy to do all the delivery for me, deal with the customers etc. We were thinking around the £50-55 a cubic metre mark delivered.

 

The cedar that I have in at the moment won't have any issues with the bark falling off, and future spruce will already be dry so most bark should fall off before going into the kiln.

 

Are you proposing to selling retail / wholesale or both?

 

Cedar has always been one of my favourite softwoods - dries easily and burns beautifully.

[Big J]

Well sort of a bit of both. I'd planned to simply retail it wholesale, but having a gardener based out of my yard with a good customer base, it makes sense for him to sell some too. Either way, I avoid having to deal with customers, which is fine by me.

 

Cedar is hard to come by up here - it sadly won't be processed very often. Most likely to be sitka, but that would be priced lower than cedar.

[arboriculturist]

Well sort of a bit of both. I'd planned to simply retail it wholesale, but having a gardener based out of my yard with a good customer base, it makes sense for him to sell some too. Either way, I avoid having to deal with customers, which is fine by me.

 

Have you an 'aversion' to customers Jon I wonder why

 

Thats sounds like a plan - be cautious running alongside someone who is effectively competing with your retail side even though you are their wholesale supplier.

If this was milling - would it work?

[skyhuck]

I think you may have problems with mould if the kiln is not running continually.

[arboriculturist]

I think you may have problems with mould if the kiln is not running continually.

 

Mould fortunately will not be a problem, as algae, litchens and fungi are generally temperature sensitive, in addition to the short drying cycle time - any existing organisms will simply dessicate

[openspaceman]

I think you may have problems with mould if the kiln is not running continually.

 

 

I can vouch for that if you don't complete the drying cycle and get the stuff below 25% wwb, the warm moist surface quickly sprouts a covering of moss green fur.

[Big J]

Well sort of a bit of both. I'd planned to simply retail it wholesale, but having a gardener based out of my yard with a good customer base, it makes sense for him to sell some too. Either way, I avoid having to deal with customers, which is fine by me.

 

Have you an 'aversion' to customers Jon I wonder why

 

Thats sounds like a plan - be cautious running alongside someone who is effectively competing with your retail side even though you are their wholesale supplier.

If this was milling - would it work?

 

I like to keep the number of customers that I speak to to a minimum!

 

It does work with the milling. From various felling ops, I've sold over 200 tonnes of sawing butts to my main competitor in the area. If they are going to make money, I might as well make some money off them!

 

Regarding mould, it won't be an issue with cedar as it won't mould at all. Spruce, if it's well dried enough before going into the kiln will be close enough to 25% for it not to matter.

[arboriculturist]

 

I like to keep the number of customers that I speak to to a minimum!

 

It does work with the milling. From various felling ops, I've sold over 200 tonnes of sawing butts to my main competitor in the area. If they are going to make money, I might as well make some money off them!

 

There are a finite number of Firewood customers and I would certainly be looking to secure as many as you are able to supply.

 

Regarding mould, it won't be an issue with cedar as it won't mould at all. Spruce, if it's well dried enough before going into the kiln will be close enough to 25% for it not to matter.

 

Yes, mould not an issue as the whole objective is to dry the wood close to 20%.

 

That's what a quality timber should always be as you know.

[Big J]

Had more difficulty getting the boiler to temperature today as was using exclusively sawmill offcuts that were a bit wet. Seemed to make quite a difference and it was hovering at 35-50c (though I honestly wasn't stoking it as often as I was busy). I need to dig back through my offcuts stack for the dry stuff.