wood-fired kiln

[brdmkr]

Does anyone know of a web site with plans for a wood-fired kiln?

[ronwood]

brdmkr,

I am installing a Central Boiler Wood furnace this summer. Thinking of using it has the heat soruce for a kiln when I get a chance to build the kiln. Not sure how it has to be put together.

Ron

[karl]

Don't know of plans like you are looking for.
Maybe some State or Fed agricultural sites- I found some solar ones that way

I use an outdoor wood boiler to bring temp up in my DH kiln.
Just made a heat exchanger with several lengths of copper pipe and elbowws, valved it so that I could manually control the flow, used a 120v thermostat with a probe wired into the circulator.
Once up to temp the fans and compressor usually make enough heat.

[Den Socling]

We have used outdoor furnaces for heat in vac kilns. They would work fine for any kiln. Use a proportional valve controller and it will compensate for the furnace temperature fluctuation.

[Furby]

What if you don't have an outdoor furnace, but still want to heat the kiln with wood, are there any other options?

[Den Socling]

Any wood fired hot water boiler would work.

[Ga_Boy]

Brdmkr,

I am building a kiln that will be heated by a wood fire furnance.

In a few days I will have time to go into a little more details.  Got a lot happening right now.

The first thing you need to know is how to dry wood, if you have not already done so; take a course in drying wood.  This will answer a lot of your questions.  Then do a lot of reading i the archives.




Mark

[woodbeard]

I have a question on this as well.
Do you need to use a liquid heat exchange for a wood fired kiln, or can hot air be used? Like the cabinet type wood stoves with a blower, or a wood burning hot air furnace?

[GaS]

I imagine you could use hot air but you would probably need a signifigant source of humidity: aren't force air heaters really 'dry' in the winter time?

I've seen veneer drying units which are direct-fired, but they are very crude compared to hardwood drying machinery.

Hmm... :P

[Don_Lewis]

The biggest problem with furnace or stove kilns (where there is no fluid circulated) is control and the second biggest problem is corrosion.  Why spend time and money and end up with those kind of problems? The wheel has been invented.

[sawmillsi]

Hi guys,

There is a company called tritherm, its the largest kiln manufacturer in all of asia.

They produce a product they call a 'hot water heater'. This does not 'boil' the water (boilers are expensive and take a lot to maintain).

It uses either sawdust or timber to burn. The sawdust is held in a hopper and fed automatically. The timber bit is really easy too, when a green light comes on you shove a bit of wood in.

Here is the link http://www.tritherm.com

Good luck

Simon