Drying Wood

[Rob30]

Well I finally have my sawmill, now I am piling up some nice lumber and slabs for firewood. However I am looking for ideas about how to speed up the drying process. Not all the wood needs to be kiln dried, but I would like to get some dried, especially the hardwoods. I have looked at the driers online, but don't have the money to invest in one right now. So looking for ideas. I am thinking of a homemade solar dryer. I also have a nice big wood stove I was thinking of incorporating for speeding up the drying process. I have lots of scrap woods for burning between my trimmings and down fall in my bush. 
Anyone have ideas where to start? Pictures of set ups would be great.

[Frontier_Paul]

Here is one of the most economical DIY kilns out there, from Virgina Tech. You can search the old google machine for many more. Good luck and happy slabbing!!

https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/420/420-030/420-030_pdf.pdf

[Brad_bb]

From what I've head, being so far north you wouldn't be able to dry in winter, so the effectiveness of a solar kiln is greatly diminished than if you were in a more southern latitude.  Been going through this with another forum member in SK on the southern part and that was his conclusion.  He may go with a small nyle kiln.  

This post will likely be moved to the Drying and Processing category.

[John Bartley]

If you build a small box, large enough to handle wood for one or two projects, have one face covered with something like plexi to let sunlight in, and seal it to keep humid outside air out. Then put an evaporative dehumidifier in (old style) inside and run the drain tube to the outside.  Run the dehumidifier ..... this will dry your wood.   Beware : wood moisture is corrosive and the cheapy used dehumdifiers eventually fail due to the tubes corroding and leaking.