kiln time

[xlogger]

About how much time do you take to dry 9/4 in a Nyle 53. Around 4-500 bd ft maple air dried to upper teens %.

[customsawyer]

Mine is a L200 and I do bigger loads than that, however my 9/4 maple takes around 10 days including sterilization.

[YellowHammer]

I agree, 10 days, including sterilization, in my L53.  Set it to 120/98. 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Soft maple or hard maple?

Highest temperature you expect to use...115F?

What is the final MC target?

The 53 is designed to dry 300 to 1000 bf of lumber.  This means that it has enough power to evaporate a certain amount of water.

Note that 9/4 dries abut three times longer than 4/4.  We can dry 4/4 soft maple from 20% MC to 8% MC in about four days at 115 F and constantly running DH.  However, sometimes after air drying to a very low MC, the water seems to be locked into the wood and the wood dries much slower than expected.

When drying thicker lumber, the time is also depending on if you want the core to be the same MC as the shell.  If the core is a bit wetter, it will dry after kiln drying and May result is a little warping.  At the same time, we do not want to over dry the shell.  So, so, the settings that YellowHammer has given are perfect. 

 As a rule of thumb, figure about 1% MC loss per day.