Frankenkiln lives!

[Dave Shepard]

Our quasi-container kiln is working. ;D Despite the best efforts of everybody hanging around the yard to confuse the builders of the kiln. We have two 80,000 btu heat exchangers running off of an outdoor boiler, a couple of fans and a little dehumidifier unit. We had  a little (read HUGE)  condensation problem on the ceiling of the kiln, as predicted. We insulated the roof and we are leaving one of the doors open a smidge to waste some of the heat and humidity. We have a thermostat hooked up that has a range of up to 220 F. We are also going to try and find some vent fans with the auto louvres and hook them up to a humidistat and just waste the heat and humidity when it gets too high. All in all we are doing better than I had predicted.  The little dh unit seems to be pulling at least a quart an hour, but I'll have to study that tomorrow to see how it compares to how much water should be coming out of the wood. We have about 3500 feet of pine and it's about 100F in the kiln. I am also going to try and find some kiln schedules and see how we should be doing it. I know, we're doing it backwards, but that's the way it is here. : We have a few mods we are going to do before the next batch, like kiln carts and better baffles and air flow. Call me crazy, but I think this might work! ;D


Dave

[Furby]

Hi Crazy, nice to met ya! 8)
Put Dave back on when ya get a chance will ya?

[WkndCutter]

Dave,

Look at Woodweb for your drying schedules.  Sounds like you have it figured out.  I plan on shed drying a bit before loading the kiln.  I have the drying hand book around somewhere, if you can't find the schedules give me a bmail and I'll dig them out of the hard drive for you.

[Dave Shepard]

Thanks for the tip WkndCutter, I'll check it out. The MC of the wood in the kiln ranges from 9% to 16%, depending on when it was sawn. The first lumber sawn was in the beginning of December and the newest was about three weeks ago. It seems to be air drying quite fast right now. My mantra around the kiln is "Heat and vent , heat and vent". ;D


Dave

[Dave Shepard]

Our first load is done! It's coming out this week, and we just finished the planer today. With a little refinement, this will be a pretty good system, I think.


Dave