I am almost afraid to post this idea... The culvert kiln!

[SwampDonkey]

What is interesting is pallets have to been cooked - but not a load of teak. Heck, you can ship it wet if you want!

Maybe it is assumed our tropical pest could never survive up there? I know I would freeze to death...  :D

[pineywoods]

CT I'm afraid you are going to run into the same thing we did with the solar kilns. A big stack of wood will store a amazing amount of heat, enough that things won't cool off enough at nite to condense out moisture and stabilize things.  That's why we wound up sticking a cheap room de-humidifier in there to wring out the moisture. In any case, keep on tinkering, looks to me like you have a basicly good idea.

[crtreedude]

More update. Surprise, surprise - it works (I feel like a mad scientist on a cheesy movie "it lives! it lives!")

The first load of teak is coming out of the kiln now after about a month, dry as a bone, with no appreciatable defects. In fact, very very good looking. Amazingly so.

Our schedule was 6am to 2 pm, keep the fires burning. During the night, let it cool down. On the weekends, do nothing (too lazy and no one around to watch it besides me).

Highest recorded temperature, 53 C  (that would be about 127 F).

Now, a disclaimer. If you don't know it, teak is about the easiest wood there is to dry. Very stable. And, we put it in after air drying a couple of months.

Still, we are thrilled - and it did a great job of using up scrap wood too.

By the way, yes, our mechanic has been using the fireboxes for cooking in the evening, he says they are great.  :D

[jim king]

Fred:
I have seen various versions of used container kilns used with good results.  This link will give you some ideas.  The ones I have seen used a simple wood furnace --Two 55 gal drums as the heat source and the used containers are usually very low priced but you would need to but in a cement floor.  The fans and thermostat are the most critical parts.

http://www.palletdrykiln.com/drykiln/Photos.html

[crtreedude]

Hi Jim,

Yes, I have seen those. I wanted to have something that I could build away from electrical sources. For example, as I am sure you are well aware, wet wood is very heavy. Dry it out first, and there is a big savings.

This was built from scrap pretty much, so the cost was perhaps 500 dollars for something that would dry nearly 10,000 BF.

A old container would have cost me 2,000 to 4,000 dollars and another 800 dollars to get it here.

Granted, that isn't much, but I like my solution - and it eats more wood... :D (sawmills have scrap issues...)

[Paul_H]

Pics will be - yesterday we ran a test and amazing enough, the overall idea tested out just fine.

Okay folks, just to force me to take pictures. We are loading up the first test. So far, it appears the temperature goes up to about 120 F and stays there - we let it stop during the night to equalize the moisture between inside and outside in the wood.

So, pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Here is a link that will help you to post your pics.




https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,23851.0.html

[SwampDonkey]

 :D :D

[crtreedude]

Pics will be - yesterday we ran a test and amazing enough, the overall idea tested out just fine.

Okay folks, just to force me to take pictures. We are loading up the first test. So far, it appears the temperature goes up to about 120 F and stays there - we let it stop during the night to equalize the moisture between inside and outside in the wood.

So, pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Here is a link that will help you to post your pics.




https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,23851.0.html

Sorry, I think that is just way too technical for me...  :  ;D

[Banjo picker]

Fred:
I have seen various versions of used container kilns used with good results.  This link will give you some ideas.  The ones I have seen used a simple wood furnace --Two 55 gal drums as the heat source and the used containers are usually very low priced but you would need to but in a cement floor.  The fans and thermostat are the most critical parts.

http://www.palletdrykiln.com/drykiln/Photos.html

Why would you need a cement floor?  ??? Tim

[crtreedude]

I think the need for a concrete floor is because a lot of the water that comes out of the wood is corrosive. I might be wrong though. I know for example Corteza is very corrosive to tools.

[Banjo picker]

I think the need for a concrete floor is because a lot of the water that comes out of the wood is corrosive. I might be wrong though. I know for example Corteza is very corrosive to tools.

Thanks for the reply.  I have two containers, both still have the axles under them.  One is still road worthy (thinking about making a chip trailer out of it someday) the other I was thinking about turning into a kiln eventually.  One of my favorite words.  They both have wood floors in them now-  Tim

[jim king]

Fred is right, it is the acidity of the water coming out of the wood that eats steel.