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

[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.

[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.

[skyhuck]

Put the boiler fuel through the kiln.

[Duffryn]

Your drying time will be significantly increased by only running in the day time. It will take a couple of hours ( if not longer) for the logs to absorb the heat each time the kiln is switched on. The warming up and cooling down times will be very ineffective drying periods. You could be loosing 50% of your drying time in an 8 hour day.

[TTS North]

Big J - been watching this thread and your toils with great interest. Learning a lot from you - thanks and well done indeed! We're thinking about ways of drying more of our product on site before moving it off to sell. I doubt we'd be as sophisticated as you, but we've so much brash etc lying around that it seems lunacy not to use it to power a drying set up somehow.

 

We have a Sitka forest (also somewhere near Edinburgh) and some of our customers specifically ask for it. It's almost all we burn on our own stove. I think it's great stuff. Once it's dry it's so light you can move so much around at once - an issue for us as we don't sell anywhere near where the wood is cut.

 

Light to move around when dried, dries quickly, easy to split and stack, lovely clean wood inside and out. Despite what I read elsewhere it burns great - bit quick, but hey ho! it's softwood. Mr+Mrs retired urban wood stove Tyneside love it and will pay top dollar come February for 18x24 bags which they can collect in their runabout themselves six bags at a time on a Saturday morning.

 

If you ever throw your wood drying experiment open to the public I'd love to see it in action.

 

Cheers and keep posting, TTS.

[Duffryn]

Nothing I can do about it. The boiler has a short burn time and will only last about an hour after stoking.

 

Had it up to 67c today at the doors, so probably 80 odd in the middle.

 

Could you not turn the temp down to say 30-40 degrees and keep fans on very low. You might get an extra 3-4 hours on the last burn of the day ? This would still increase drying time dramatically

[briquette_seller]

Diesel burner for night time