Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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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
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Right! 53 days have passed and the kiln is being emptied tomorrow! Courtesy of Rob D, the swanky new moisture meter he sent confirmed that the timber is just about perfect (8-11% MC throughout) and ready for sale. With having used the Borasic Acid, there is no mould anywhere on the timber and very little end checking too. I'll get pictures tomorrow! Jonathan
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I think the very fact that that sentence was posted on the internet, which Stephen Fry also uses, caused him to die a little inside.
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F R Jones
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I saw that the other day. I really liked the chap and his enthusiasm, but unfortunately the house was completely flawed due the cold bridging in the wall. Having a steel I beam with both an external and internal surface means the heat will rush out through them, rendering any further insulation or air tightness useless. Wife's an architect
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Just want to say thanks peckerwoo for taking the time to post this thread - finding it fascinating!
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Got an idea for kiln drying logs. Any feedback appreciated.
Big J replied to Danny Boy's topic in Firewood forum
My sawn timber kiln costs £5.50 a day to run. It will hold about 9 cubic metres of boards (maybe a little more for firewood?). Take 6 weeks to get the timber to 15% MC. So if I were to run firewood through it, it would cost a total of £231, or about £25 a cubic metre just in electricity. Not worth it, especially if you are small scale and the contribution to turnover puts you over the VAT threshold. -
Got an idea for kiln drying logs. Any feedback appreciated.
Big J replied to Danny Boy's topic in Firewood forum
The issue of mould has already been brought up in this thread, but I think it merits another mention. I think you might genuinely struggle to inhibit mould growth in the kiln (it takes very little time for timber to become permanently discoloured). As has already been said, spend the money on some good, secure, under-cover storage for split timber. Once up, there are no running costs and it should prove a better investment than a kiln. -
Great video - watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Spending a little time on the North American Pacific coast is one of my life's ambitions.
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Got an idea for kiln drying logs. Any feedback appreciated.
Big J replied to Danny Boy's topic in Firewood forum
Air flow is what you will really struggle with. Even in a conventional lumber drying kiln it can be an issue, and this is with relatively uniform boards with uniform air gaps in between them. Getting effective air movement with multiple trolleys of loose logs with no clear path for the air is going to be very difficult. Kiln dried firewood maybe has it's market, but it isn't something that I would bother with. It burns a bit too quickly (in my opinion based on beech and cherry that have been kilned and then burned) and the additional cost just isn't worth it. -
I think that if timber is stored outside, it's not physically possible to get the MC down to 16% during winter. The equilibrium MC for timber air drying outside in Scotland varies depending on the time of year, but at it's lowest, it's about 14% (in August) and at it's highest, it's around 20% (December). Unless stored in such a way that encourages additional drying (clear plastic roof on log store for instance), it's not possible to get the logs drier than that outdoors. That said, 16% is achievable if the timber is sold in September or October and has had the summer to dry. It will however take on moisture throughout winter, but there isn't much that can be done I suppose.
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Covered yourself in Leylandii resin and hit the town? Like a big human fly trap!
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Planning a trip up to Cairngorm at some point this winter - a friend of ours is a ski instructor and we've now got an Audi quattro. No excuse really! Love the cold weather - even today was too warm at 6 degrees. my jumper didn't go on once all day.
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That must go down well with the ladies! I just hear the pick up line: 'Hey beautiful - want to come back to mine and get sticky............? I've got this muckle great pile of Leylandii that needs splitting and I'll be damned if I'm doing it myself!' Arboricultural pickup lines - there must be a thread in that!
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Touché! That said, I will concede that Leylandii smells lovely when burnt, but it's not something I'd ever bother with again unless it was free. Jonathan
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Saying things like 'I love Leylandii' only backs up the 'I'm a bit nuts' persona implied by your avatar!
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As a firewood - great, burns hot and bright, though not for that long. To handle - blinking 'orrible, resinous as hell and if you get through any quantity, you can be sure of everybody and everything around the stove/fire being covered in the stuff!
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I've burnt a bit of Sitka on the stove, and I've found it a good Autumn/Spring wood - plenty of flame and OK heat, but it really struggles to leave any embers, making a lasting fire difficult. I wouldn't choose to burn it, but when I get it as offcuts from various chainsaw operations, it goes into the stove like everything else.
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I get through at least 15 cubic metres a year on one stove. Even at the cheapest local price, that would be almost a grand a year. Madness!
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Interestingly, the stratified engine arrangement coming into the chainsaw market at the moment has been in cars for a while. For instance, if you see an Audi with the FSI denomination, it stands for Fuel Stratified Engine. I'm only bringing this up as speaking to a few folk they are worried about reliability of the newer generation saws, but the technology is actually tried and tested, though perhaps not on such a small scale.
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Clearly not working hard enough you lazy *insert expletive*! Like Rob, I would love to be able to regain some weight back. I was 20st 8lbs when weightlifting, now down to 15st 5lbs. I pack away a daft amount of food each day (my sandwich box today had 14 slices of bread in it) and my weight won't move! Only when I'm off the forestry for a bit does the weight creep up a bit. To echo Stephen, eat less, move more!
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No probs Bolt - only recently learnt that one myself! On the 'green' log front, out of curiosity, I chucked some 4 month seasoned (cut mid July, stacked since then - nothing split as logs are max 5 inches diameter) cherry, willow, sycamore and elder on the fire and it's burning superbly. It went onto a bed of Elm embers and it's burning without smoke and with an intense heat. I suppose it has been seasoned (as in had a season to dry) though. Either way, I'm quite happy about that as I've another 8 cubic metres cut at the same time stacked too. Jonathan
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If you regard the absolute dry weight of the timber as 100% and for example that weighs 500kg for a cubic metre. If that timber has 250kg of water in it, it has a moisture content (MC) of 50%. If it has 500kg of water, it has 100% MC and so on. Moisture content is based on the weight of the dry timber, not the percentage weight in the green timber, if that makes sense!
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Moisture content varies tremendously depending on the different species, for instance: * Ash has a moisture content of around 37% when felled * However Elm can be as high as 120% and sycamore as much as 140% (depending on when cut). Pine sapwood can be as high as 200%. Oak is typically 62-68%. You might find that Ash will burn and perhaps Oak too, but you really would be better just sitting the logs to dry for a year. That way, you have less weight to carry when bringing in the logs, more heat and less chance of gunking up the chimney. Creosote will form according to flue temperature, but if you are burning very wet wood, you will struggle to achieve as hot a fire, resulting in a greater chance of tarring. Hope this helps. Jonathan
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Moisture content varies tremendously depending on the different species, for instance: * Ash has a moisture content of around 37% when felled * However Elm can be as high as 120% and sycamore as much as 140% (depending on when cut). Pine sapwood can be as high as 200%. Oak is typically 62-68%. You might find that Ash will burn and perhaps Oak too, but you really would be better just sitting the logs to dry for a year. That way, you have less weight to carry when bringing in the logs, more heat and less chance of gunking up the chimney. Creosote will form according to flue temperature, but if you are burning very wet wood, you will struggle to achieve as hot a fire, resulting in a greater chance of tarring. Hope this helps. Jonathan
