iDRY Vacuum Kilns

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Woodmizer dehum kiln

Started by Shutterman007, April 01, 2021, 02:13:30 PM

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Shutterman007

Anyone care to comment on their success using a woodmizer kiln, specifically how hard is to learn, how busy does yours stay, how long to dry stock and does ur kiln make money?! Thanks, Carl

YellowHammer

Woodmizer uses Nyle kilns, and yes, they are easy to learn the basics, but you have to learn the advanced stuff if you want to be consistent.  Anybody can plop a load of wood in a kiln and have it come out dry and looking like curled up Fritos.  There are very few who can use a kiln to make their wood better than when it went in.  Ours stay busy 24/7 and never turn off.  We have 2 Nyles, one bigger than the other.  Considering a load may contain $10 to $20 thousand bucks of wood, and a load comes out every 7 to 9 days, so, let's see, at a minimum of $10,000 (walnut is $40,000) per load, x 30 loads of various species per year, = yes, they make money..... :D :D

YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Kevjwright

Hi yellowhammer 
I've heard you are the master of the nyle
I was originally looking at iDRY but someone told me to consider the nyle 
Could I get your opinion and any recommendations/suggestions for a rookie?
Thank you in advance 

YellowHammer

A Nyle kiln is a very good and reliable machine.  They are wood drying monsters, and mine run 24/7 for years, trouble free.  They are relatively easy on electrical power and easy to operate.

If you air dry your wood for awhile, they will finish dry it in a week, about the same speed as a vacuum kiln at significantly less electrical cost per bdft.  Even a vac kiln requires air drying some species of difficult wood, such as white oak.  

Vac kilns are nice, but other than drying very thick wood, or green wood on contract, for which they are very good, they don't have an advantage over a DH kiln for conventional 4/4 or 8/4 wood if it is air dried first for at least 6 weeks or so, depending on species and climate.  Pre air drying does many good things for wood.  Air drying takes zero electrical energy.

I have dried pretty much every species of Appalacian hardwood I can find in mine DH kilns, as well as different species of pine.    

The key is that whichever style you choose, you must actually learn how to operate it, and understand wood drying.  A vac kiln or a DH style kiln will not do the job by themselves, the operator must do their part.  Neither are set it and forget it machines, despite what the manufacturer says, but both are easy to operate if you know the fundamentals.  

My Nyle 200 will produce 3,600 to 4,000 bdft of 4/4 wood every week or so, year after year.  My L53 will do 800 to 1,000 bdft in the same time.  That's a lot of wood over a years time.  

When I talk about energy per board foot, that is the long term cost of a kiln to operate.



YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Walnut Beast

Good stuff Yellowhammer 👍

customsawyer

I'm going to second YH on this one. I only turn mine off when I go out of town. Since I haven't been anywhere in over a year, it's running 24/7. When you are putting in a kiln try to take advantage of the situation and plan where you're going to put the second one.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

Mhaaland

Good stuff guys!  I was dead set on buying a vacuum kiln for awhile but have since thought it through and I'm dead set on a Nyle L53.  I want to actually learn how to dry wood.

Mhaaland

Yellowhammer & Customsawyer, do you guys use the electric vents in your kilns?

customsawyer

Yes it's electric. It is thermostatically control. You choose the temperature it is set at. If set at 120 degrees, mine will come on when the temp gets to 120. It will turn off once it gets back down to about 110. This is used for a couple of different reasons. One of the main reasons is to keep the chamber from going above 130 degrees, which will trip the breaker on your compressor.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

beenthere

Quote from: Mhaaland on August 29, 2021, 07:48:49 AM
Good stuff guys!  I was dead set on buying a vacuum kiln for awhile but have since thought it through and I'm dead set on a Nyle L53.  I want to actually learn how to dry wood.
Suggest you actually find and attend a wood drying course to learn the basics from which you then know the how and why wood dries. 
Updating your profile to include your location will help a lot when trying to help you.
Just click your username, and there you will see the profile update button.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

YellowHammer

I have one that has manual vents, one that has electric with user selectable set points.  I prefer the electric vents.  
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Mhaaland

Beenthere, I've been looking for some kiln classes.  Someone mentioned the state of Minnesota has a course so I'm looking into that.
I also updated my profile.

beenthere

Course

Possible for you, on MN border with WI
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

4x4American

Similar boat here, I'm still researching, scoping out all of my options.   Looking at iDry, Nyle, Kiln Direct, and Nova dry kilns..  I like the idea of the quick turnaround in the iDry.  I like the idea that Nyle has been around forever and there are Nyle kilns all over, so it's a proven platform, and I'm sure getting any kind of parts or whatever is easy.  Today a guy told me that iDry kilns could make HM too white so that then you might not be able to match what the big producers make, so bigger customers that buy from the big places might not want HM because it sticks out like a sore thumb
Boy, back in my day..

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