Solar kiln sucess

Busysawyer · August 29, 2018, 07:43:57 PM

Pulled my first load of dry lumber out of my solar kiln the other day. Decent little load of some real nice 4/4 walnut. Checked moisture in a bunch of locations and the highest reading was 8%. Cut a board in half and was getting the same reading in the center so in calling it good. I hope its dry enough, I had a full time woodworker want some boards. We checked the load together and he said it was good enough for him. He took a few rows off the top right out of the kiln and I dead stacked the rest. Some sticker mark on the boards but I dont think it's too bad. The guy that bought some said it was no big deal and would plane out. Anchorseal did its job and little to no cupping or warping. All in all a nice flat stack of lumber.

Stephen1 · September 03, 2018, 08:49:28 AM

How long did it take in the solar Kiln?

E-Tex · September 03, 2018, 09:38:29 AM

congrats on your first load......pretty boards!

GeneWengert-WoodDoc · September 03, 2018, 06:12:46 PM

The sticker marks you have in the one picture are lighter in color than the rest of the wood. This indicates that the stickers were very dry and so they dried the wood very rapidly, which results in lighter color. A good sticker MC for most darker woods is 10% MC, which is 54% RH approximately. A bit higher, maybe 12% , is ok, but no wetter.

Busysawyer · September 04, 2018, 07:25:11 AM

Stephen, that load went right off the mill into the kiln and was in there for about 10 weeks. I was really busy and didnt run the kiln the way I had planned. My baffle wall was incomplete and I had all the vents wide open most of the run. It stalled at 6 weeks at about 10%. At 8 weeks it was still 10% or so, I plugged 90% of the vents and got the temperature up and it dropped 2-3% in a week or so.
Etex, thank you. Overall in very happy with the results.
Mr. Wood doc, I used pine furring strips for stickers. Do you think the light sticker stains will be deep into the wood? I haven't done anything with the boards and the 3 people that took some haven't got back to me.