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Hi, am new to this and forestry management/firewood processing in general. I currently have circa 550-600 cubic of hardwood to be taken out of my woods in a thinning programme. I am trying to look into maximizing the timbers value and it seems to me selling standing timber is worth £50.00 a ton (worth more if you add in the fact it’s income tax free) but once processed a ton of wood may convert into 3 dumpy bags which could be sold at say £120 a bag of kiln dried. Is this an accurate estimate/conversion rate? if the above is relatively accurate then my 550-600 cubic metres could be worth, processed, between £130-£150k. We have some equipment already I.e tractor etc but would need to buy a processor, basic timber trailer and importantly a kiln. The idea I have for the kiln is to buy a shipping container and install a kiln drying unit into it. Clearly, 600 cubic metres would soon be processed so I need to try and make it continue to earn its keep afterwards. Would it be feasible to mount the kiln unit on a low loader trailer and in essence have a portable wood drying kiln which can be hired out on a weekly rate together with the processor? It seems to me there is no reason this can’t be done as it will run off electric which can be done by a generator or customers own supply. I estimate a 20 foot container could process circa 15 cubic metres of wood in a week. Does anyone think there would be a demand for this in light of the change in firewood regulations?

Dear Arbtalk people, I'm brand new to the forum and I'm kindly requesting some advice. I'm based in western Kenya where I manufacture charcoal briquettes from waste charcoal powder. The entire country is facing a looming disaster because 60% of the people rely on firewood for fuel and heating. Obviously this isn't exactly sustainable and I wish to use sugarcane bagasse, rice husks and sawdust waste from the timber industry and convert it to charcoal dust in a kiln. My reseach indicated that a large exter double barrel retort kiln may do the trick on a commercial basis! 1. Does anyone please advise me on my options on kilns. 2. We distribute our product through poor rural women as a community empowerment means so financial considerations are key to our success so we cannot afford to import a kiln. Does anyone have drawings or know where i can get drawings/instructions on how i can construct an exeter retort? I highly appreciate any advice

Hi all, I was just wondering how many people on here kiln dry their timber? What sort of kiln set ups do you have and what drying schedules do you use! Are there any published drying tables or other resources online that you would recommend. I am getting a lot of advise and help from big J (as it's his old kiln I'm using!), but am interested in other people's experiences and thoughts!

Hello woodfolk, I am designing a portable charcoal/biochar retort for use by professional woodcolliers. I am pretty sure about the way my design will work, but I am after ideas of what people would want from a retort, such as capacity or the maximum weight of the thing. Most of my experience has been in woodland creation and tree surgery rather than charcoal making. I have used a ring kiln a couple of times but a retort is obviously a little different. My main motivation is environmental. ie. local charcoal, produced as cleanly as possible, from sustainable woodlands and not destroying habitats on the other side of the planet. What do members think of the state of the market for charcoal and biochar? What do you think of the current devices out there? I am open to any thoughts really. Although I've thought the design through pretty thoroughly over the last couple of years, I'm sure there will be some things that I haven't thought of yet.

I've been doing small experiments with air drying, where essentially the sun is heating air and increasing its capacity to absorb moisture, and in free air (i.e. log standing by itself) and seeing oak dry from green to 20% mc wwb in 44 days. So as heat speeds drying up and solar heat has no fuel cost I started looking at small scale solar drying. I found just using cheap corrugated acrylic sheeting I could make a simple greenhouse where in the last 2 days the temperature has stayed above 40C for much of the day in sunshine with relative humidity falling to 24%. This is consistently more than 10C hotter than outside in the sun. RH is about the same because there is free air flowing and out. Last week I was employed dragging tops and stuffing an ancient chipper on a commercial refurbishment where the previous tenants had allowed the Leylandii and mixed broadleaved hedges run away. I noticed a pair of old cycle racks had been removed and set aside. I mentioned the possibilities of these being the beginnings of a solar log drying kiln for the boss's son, who runs a log round with about 40 customers in his college holiday. Boss being a petrolhead was not at all interested. I made an enquiry and they were available for sale (these things new cost about £5k erected) I sent a photo to the son and explained my thinking and he was interested. At this point father and son took over and bought the shelters. Now I'm not sure if they are going to implement the idea but I estimate placed side by side and south facing they will intercept 18kW(t) in sunshine. This is enough theoretically to evaporate nearly 30kg of water an hour if the air circulation is good enough. With the shelters side by side and south facing and a roofed area behind and the back being a curtain side from a lorry he should be able to stock about 20m^3 of split logs in stillages. I think wit a few low powered circulation fans and a differential thermostatic switch only running them when inside temperature is 10C above outside and a humidistat controlling a vent fan he should get good drying. If I am kept in the loop I will update progress.

Hi guys, just thought i'd share something i've been working on, currently only in the planning stage though so please play nicely. I've been doing a bit of reseach into making my own custom castings for table legs, solid bronze similar to the hudson table that beyonce bought for $70,000 (photos of their tables are attached) the basis of my Foundry design is based around the artful bodger's waste oil furnace Home - The Artful Bodger's Home Foundry/ for which i take no credit, the guy's a genius. anyway I was busy adapting the plans of his foundry to suit a much larger scale bronze melt, when the idea suddenly struck me - why not use this same design i'd come up with that could melt 80kg of bronze within an hour - using nothing but waste oil and a small amount of electricity - to dry timber? I figured that my adapted foundry setup could heat a container sized kiln to just about any temperature i want to, with the temperature being controlled by some circuitry essentially reducing the output of the blower, and feeding less oil, this reducing the burn rate and temperature. garages and the like have to pay to get rid of waste oil, and I've noticed as soon as you mention that you're interested in it, they'll force upon you as much as you can possibly hope for. Now without going into the science of it, your average motor oil has 3 times the fuel density of the wood you're currently powering your kiln with, meaning you use a third of the fuel you're currently using, and this Doesnt accunt for the water content in that wood you're burning which would to let's say 50% of the overall mass of that wood, so in essense by burning oil you're saving six times as much timber to then put into the kiln to DRY, which can then be SOLD Now like i said, this is still in it's infancy, i'm just looking for your input and experience as to whether you feel this sort of system would benefit you chaps that currently run a kiln on wood or gas. Thanks for reading!