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Nyle L50 vs Nyle L200

Started by nanook, August 08, 2007, 09:06:41 PM

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nanook

I have a Wood Mizer Lt 28 and am interested in making plank flooring mainly for personal and family use. Have done a little research on kilns and would like comments on the relative virtues of those two units. My first desire is not a commercial use so am leaning toward the smaller unit. would love to hear from people who have used either.

Brad_S.

I've got a L-200. Sometimes it's hard to fill all that capacity with the same species of wood or at least lumber with similar drying characteristics, but then again, once word got out that I had a kiln, the calls started rolling in. You may be able to have a nice little side business custom drying if you go with the larger unit.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

scsmith42

I've got the L200 (Woodmizer 4000) unit, and would not want anything smaller.  The nice thing about it is that I can dry 1K bd ft or 4K bd ft, depending upon demand.

Keep in mind that fast drying woods such as pine, cedar, spruce, etc reduce the capacity of the kiln.  I can do up to 4K bd ft of oak in my L200, but only 1,500 bd ft of pine.

Scott
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

tim1234

Quote from: scsmith42 on August 08, 2007, 10:09:48 PM
Keep in mind that fast drying woods such as pine, cedar, spruce, etc reduce the capacity of the kiln. I can do up to 4K bd ft of oak in my L200, but only 1,500 bd ft of pine.

Scott

Why do FAST drying woods reduce kiln capacity.  Is it the volume of moisture you take off over a shorter time?  Seems counter intuitive.

Tim
You buy a cheap tool twice...and then you're still stuck with a cheap tool!!
Husky 372XP, 455 Rancher, Echo CS300, Alaskan 30" Chainsaw Mill

scsmith42

The DH unit is only capable of removing X number of gallons per hour of water from the kiln.  4/4 oak targeted daily MC% reduction is about 3%, pine is 12 - 15%. 

You have to match up the volume of wood with the max daily MC% loss, with the max capacity of water removal of the DH unit, otherwise you will dry your lumber too slow and risk degrade.

Let me know if you'd like me to break this down into gallons and pounds of water.  Don Lewis can probably explain this better than I.

Scott

Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

MikeH

 If its for personal and family the L50 will eventually produce more dryed lumber that you could ever possible use. 8) I wish they would come out with a L100.

nanook


Den Socling

The drying capacity is complicated by the fact that the gallons per 1% MC are not the same for all species. A species that is fast drying may mean more water for the DH unit to condense but, at the same time, it may have only 2 or 3 gallons per 1% MC in a 1000 bf  compared to 4 or 5 gallons per mbf for a more difficult species. So it gets a little tricky in saying what the capacity actually is.

David Freed

   I have an L200 and I agree with MikeH, an L200 would be overkill for personal use. If you can pick up a lot of custom drying it might be worth it.    David

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