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Using the new solar kiln

Started by btulloh, September 09, 2017, 07:02:03 PM

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50 Acre Jim

Btulloh, it's been almost 2 months since you updated.  How's the kiln working during these colder months?
Go to work?  Probably Knott.  Because I cant.

btulloh

Time flies.  Seems like only yesterday I was putting my first load in the kiln.

The kiln is working well for this time of year - better than expected, I guess.  On sunny days it's getting 60 or so degrees above ambient temp and drying the load well.  The main thing slowing it down right now is the number of sunny days.  I would call the weather this fall good - warmer than usual, not a lot of rain - but there's more overcast and cloudy days.  All in all it's working well for this time of year and we're only a couple weeks from the winter solstice.

I've dried 7 loads now.  It could have been a few more if I was more efficient about the changeover when a load is done.  Proper storage and overall handling takes more time than I'd like because I don't have enough good space at the moment.  I'm also using some of the lumber I've dried - mostly paneling and trim for a small cabin.  The same crew does the machining and finishing that does the lumber handling - ME.  Come to think of it, that's the same crew that does the sawing.  I need a bigger crew, 'cause I have logs sitting around that need to be sawed.

I have a load of red oak live-edge slabs that I need to put in the kiln now, but I can't seem to get to it.  I've dried 2 loads of WO, and it came out well.  It was all 4/4, so it went pretty fast.  The last 2 or 3 percent took a little longer the achieve, but I think that's typical.  These RO slabs will be my first crack at thicker oak.  They've been air drying for about a year so they shouldn't present a big challenge but I think it will take some time.

It's been a good and productive learning process so far.  I'll try to update a little more often as we go through the colder, shorter days.

Having the kiln and being able to produce kd lumber to use has been much more beneficial than I would have thought.  I should have built the kiln sooner.  It really has changed the nature of my sawmilling.

How's that new planer working out?  Sure looks like a nice machine.
HM126

50 Acre Jim

Quote from: btulloh on December 06, 2017, 08:40:17 AM
How's that new planer working out?  Sure looks like a nice machine.
Well, my crew is no larger than yours and my time is spread between sawing beams for my sawmill shed, remodeling a rental house, cutting Red Oak for the floors in said rental house, getting ready for Christmas, cutting a pad for my upcoming solar kiln, studying and designing the upcoming solar kiln, etc.  And in my slow time I'm known to be having a beer or two. 

But so far the planer/sander/molder is working as expected.  It's never going to be a full-on production machine but for what I do it's just fine.  I'm sure it's just a step in my woodworking evolution but and informative step that needed to be made.

Here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas (yes, it's coming up quickly!) and lots of good sawdust in the year to come.

Jim 
Go to work?  Probably Knott.  Because I cant.

btulloh

Drying has slowed considerably in the solar kiln today  >:(



 
HM126

Darrel

1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

Crusarius

is it still warmer in there than outside?

btulloh

Just funnin' with that picture.  The snow doesn't sit on the 12/12 pitched lexan very long.  We had a little sleet/freezing rain/snow combo that caused the snow to build up.

I don't have a load in it right now and the vents are wide open.  We've got a couple really cold but sunny days coming up this week, so just for scientific purposes I'll close it up and see what kind of temp it can achieve.  It does pretty well so far with short days and low sun angles.  I've been too busy to really do anything with it since I took the last load of WO out.  I need to put some RO slabs in it that have been air drying for 18 months.
HM126

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