drying firewood

[Timberjack_395XP]

Anybody drying firewood with their kiln? Got place close that has a decent size one but doesn't use it all the time was gonna see what I should pay to have it dried or ? Does anyone lease or pay to have someone dry their wood?

[thecfarm]

There's some members that have 2 years of wood drying. They just build a good size wood shed and do the drying that way. A wood shed is a good idea. Build it once and use it for years. If a kiln was used,you would have to pay for that service each year.Some put the wood on pallets to cut down on the handling part.
Here's a thread on drying wood.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,44996.0.html

[Timberjack_395XP]

I was gonna do the state certified wood for emerald ash borer and moth.

[DeepCreek]

I dry for a wood stove. I cut in the fall/winter, split in the spring. I stack the splits and small rounds on PT landscape timbers in the open on a southern exposed hill near the house. Uglies go on pallets.  I do not cover anything.

In the fall of the year following the splitting year, I move enough wood for that winter onto my covered porch. By then, the wood is very dry.

Top covering the drying stacks slows drying and does nothing for the process in my climate. It can also add hazards if the cover is old tin roofing, which I see all too often. That stuff can be a killer in a windstorm. If I was in the PNW or anywhere else with constant drizzle, I would likely rethink the top cover. Tarping the stacks promotes rot and bugs anywhere.

Sun, wind, off the ground, and time are the key.
 
 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

As a starting point, a fair price would be around $35 per cord...that would cover energy, labor, equipment, profit, etc.

[CRThomas]

Anybody drying firewood with their kiln? Got place close that has a decent size one but doesn't use it all the time was gonna see what I should pay to have it dried or ? Does anyone lease or pay to have someone dry their wood?

buy a twemty foot shipping container build a wood burner in the bsck burn you split scraps to dry your good wood very effective

[glassman_48]

timberjack,
I buy 8' logs by the semi load, I let the logs set for 1 to 2 years.  The year old stuff I process in the spring and sell for fall use.  The 2 year old logs my customers will purchase in the fall and use right away.  I take any of the bigger logs and put them in a palletized bagging system and they will dry out very quickly.  The company I purchase the bagging systems from (canada) tells me that they can take green wood and put it in the bagging system and it will be ready to burn in a wood stove in 40 days.  I dont have a moisture meter, but I let mine sit longer than that before selling or using myself.   If you go to www.hakmet and scroll down until you see the bagging system.  The 48 by 48 size bagging system is supposed to hold a face cord, I use the next size smaller which is 42 by 40 pallet size.  The 48 by 48 size is sold by apache forest products and the smaller sizes are sold by hakmet.  I can also do mobile processing in the spring on green logs and the customers are using that fall.  I tell them to set any dead standing aside and use that first and it seems to work well also.   

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Regarding making firewood that is free of the emerald ash borer, you need to reach 133 F throughout the pile and in the center of the piece.  Time alone will not provide certification.  To reach that temperature will require around 150 to 160 F air temperature in the kiln.  You may have to have a recording of the temperature to prove you did get hot enough.  You may even need to have the recording instrument certified.

Are you certain that a state will certify firewood even if it heat treated?  Also, if certified can you move it anywhere within the state?  I would think that moving it to another state would not be allowed in any case.  The problem is that an inspector on the highway checking firewood would not know if a certificate applied to a particular load or if the certificate was for another load.  So, the states around here all said NO MOVEMENT in our out of the EAB zone.

[CRThomas]

There's some members that have 2 years of wood drying. They just build a good size wood shed and do the drying that way. A wood shed is a good idea. Build it once and use it for years. If a kiln was used,you would have to pay for that service each year.Some put the wood on pallets to cut down on the handling part.
Here's a thread on drying wood.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,44996.0.html

To start with I only sell Ash from a boreworm free area I put cord of Ash in my shop  which is my kiln it is plit and stick stacked. in the winter time I keep my shop about 65 degrees on natural gas furnace a five foot fan on low my 6 gal dehumitfier i have to mty the 6 gal 2 times in drying cycle. checking the end it will be 8 to 12 percent i split some of the pieces check the middle they will be 14 to 15 percent. iI do a cord five days a week. I buy logs by the semi load and have hundreds of acres to cut off of. I made a test run on winter cut red Oak took me 72 hours to pull it down to 14 to 15 percent. I only sell bundled firewood. I am looking to go back into bagging firewood with dino bags. I tried to use seed bags but the wood m/d in 3 months. I do some times a 4 ft x 2 ft x 32 inch streach wrapped for $30.00 delivered in town thats is a half a rank. Selling bundled firewood I get a 100 bundles out of a rank minum $2.50 a bundle that is about $250.00 a rank that is just doing a little extra work over $50.00 a pickup load. I even buy pick up loads in the summer time from the old boys that need beer. Have got a loads for a case of beer. To a drunk a case of beer get you more than money.  Do bundled firewood year round I sell as much in the summer as I do in the winter. Later

[glassman_48]

crthomas,
My twister manual wrapper came with the small and large size holders for wrapping.  So far I have only used the large one and I sell the bundles out front on my wood lot for $5 a bundle.  Do you sell both size bundles or only sell one size?  I am trying to keep things simple and a bunch of people want me to wholesale but I am so busy with my glass business its hard to keep up, and I wont sell to a retail store unless I can be reliable and keep up with their demands. My son has stepped into the picture and so far has been keeping up with our bundle demand.  Sorry to get off topic a bit.  thanks ed