(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12408/adisland.jpg)
Here is a pic of my sawmill setup. The shed on the left is my solar powered kiln. Works great dries about 500 ft load. I dry 1 load a year could do 2 if needed, mostly birch and larch.
Middle shed is 2/3 for firewood storage an 1/3 for dried lumber storage.
Shed on right is sawmill shed Enercraft 20hp gas logs 17' long. I have a log deck that holds about 400 logs. Fill it during the winter and saw part ime in the summer.
Quebnewf
Whatcha' need a sawmill for? You got no trees! ;D
Hey DR Buck,
He had trees till he got the sawmill!!
hey, Ernie-Edwards and Dr. Buck ::)
by the look of that picture perhaps the trees are being used to build a boat! :D
eh eh, Quebecnewf;
How does the solar kiln work for you, I have the plans for it but never built it :-[ :-[
Is it facing south? and doing ok for you?
Robert ;D
Sawmill is on an island trees are on the mainland bring them by snowmobile in the winter.
Solar kiln works great for my small needs. I do woodworking as a hobby and sell some of the KD lumber on the side. Will be painting the kiln this coming spring so it should look a little better.
Logs are harder to get now in this region not due to overcutting but about 4 years ago we had a bad outbreak of a bug called the hemlock looper and it destroyed all the best areas were I planned to cut for the next ten years or so. This was all old growth fir and spruce first class logs but all gone now . Thats life.
You make do with what you have
Quebecnewf
If the infestation has happened so recently, won't there be any good dead trees for small volume? Seems they would be cheap, though i don't know how the sawing works up there. How come the kiln only does one or 2 loads a year? No sun? I'm in the 2nd cloudest place on earth next to seattle, and i could run through a bunch of loads a year. Do you have double or triple glazing on the top? Good insulation? Doesn't really matter how cold it gets. It was 3 degrees here last night, but if you get sun, the temp differential makes up for the drying. Are you putting the wood in green? Solar kilns work good when you air dry to 12%, then put in. Should be doing something more than one charge a year? Maybe its just a place where you are at temp? Any elec for circulating fans?
You can add a waste wood burner, which made mine dry in about a week, but i got careless and burned the whole rig down. Need not have happened though. I took an old house wood furnace and used forced air to send hot air to kilns through insulated duct. built a little shed for the furnace. It can, and did work quite well.
Just some ideas,
KP
Quebecnewf and Kelvin, What temp are you reaching in the winter? How long does it take to dry a load down to 6%?
Howdy,
Well depends on what it is when you put it in. 12%? Maybe a month in winter and a week or so in summer. Of course i burned mine up before i did much testing. I had them maybe 2 years. You can't loose with a waste wood burner on the side. Just be around when using it. Temperature differential is important. If you take 20 degree air and warm it to 80-90 that will hold a lot more water. Like in the summer you take 85 degree air and warm it to 160 quite easily. I had a single layer hoop house for my tomatoes. It could be 30 degrees out, but if the sun came out it might get up to 130 inside! Its easy to experiment.
KP
I only do one load a year because thats all I need. No problem to do 2 or maybe 3. The fan is all solar no electricity and I am sure I could have made it better insulated but it meets my needs. Air drying helps but here near the sea the best you can get is 15% more times you will only get 19% and you have to be aware of mold on the lumber. The timber that was eaten by the looper is mostly all down now and what is not down is rotten.
Just got back from the woods -20 here today good for working as you don't get wet. Cut some big spruce today.
Quebecnewf
Nice looking set-up! Are your buildings anchored directly to the rock?
The kiln is achored the others are just sitting. one is full of firewood and lumber and the other has the mill in it
Quebecnewf
Here is a closer picture of my mill . You can see a few logs left on the log deck. This log deck is about 80 ft long can hold around 400 logs or so and further back has a ramp that allows me to drive accross it with snowmobile in the winter and dump the logs of the sleigh and right on the rack. Works real good.
In my gallery you can see some winter pics of the deck loaded with logs
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12408/ashed.jpg)
Quebecnewf