Guy I contacted just got back to me. He wants .40 bdft to do small lots, 300ft or better. What's the price in your area, or, if you have a kiln and someone approached you, what would you charge??
I take mine to a place in Rebersburg, PA. The guy charges 20 cents a bd.ft. for less than 1000bd.ft., and 18 cents for 1000 or more.
The closest guy to me has a WM vac kiln and he gets .35 a board foot.
A little further away is a big steam unit and he gets .20...
Funny thing...every time I go over there, the closest guy tries to sell me his WM vac unit...
The guy I take my wood to charges .16 bf and he likes it air dried a while. He has a Nyle DH kiln that holds 5000 bf.
Kind of a long haul from FL though..... ::)
Jason
Can't help you much up here F_D but the prices are around 0.25. Some guys won't touch you unless you have a full load to go in. I'm probably going to charge the same when I build mine and if someone has a small amount I'll save it aside until the next full load goes in.
Larry Copas Has a solar kiln and he charges 30Cents BF.
I take my lumber up when he needs some to fill up his kiln
or to make up a load to air dry befor the next load. Mat be
this summer i can git my saw mill guy to make a kiln.
Sawwood
Hi Fl DH.
N.central TN. I use a propane direct fire kiln, 1200bf cap (home made Baby!).
15%mc or less .15
More than 15% .20
Build your own kiln People. It's prety easy. Study kiln publications on CD. Follow the kiln rules. Start with 15%mc pine to learn the kiln and your monotoring/control equip, then 15%mc hardwood. Don't push the loss of mc rate. Do the stress tests on your product.
My burner is a 55000-85000 "salimander" type , about $120
3 220v furnace fans (Im above the general reccomendation of 450fpm air vel.), Wet bulb/dry bulb ( I started with 2 sets diff locations just to proof the readings)
I use 3/4" tall kiln sticks.
Don't skimp on the kiln samples
JIM
DH, as I mentioned in the other thread I have a hotwater system with a Taylor as the heat source and n Ebac 800 to remove the moisture. I require the wood to air dry for at least 30 + days befor entering the kil. I use 1" stickers on 18 to 20 inch spacing, both before and during kiln processing. I charge $.50 a bd. ft.
Are you using a de-humidifier solidwoods?
Tim.
No dehumidifier, just a propane burner as described above.
I have wondered if someone had a cold water source, if they could get enough condensation from pipes in the kiln, to remove a significant quantity of water. Of course the water would have to be measured and tallied into the daily rate of moisture loss, so the rate of moisture loss is not exceeded.
JIM
I am in the process of building a kiln in one of the barns here. I had sunk 200 feet of pipe 6' underground in a closed circuit loop. I had put a radiator out of a ford truck into the return air to the furnace with a collection trough under the radiator. My borther had an old injection pump that I was going to use for circulating the water in the closed loop. I was thinking that as long as there is a temperature differential between the return air temperatue and the temperature of the water in the closed loop it would condensate some of the moisture out of the air.
I haven't run this set up yet... Soon though... when we get back inot pine or hardwoods.
Tim
I would say you could put the cold pipes inside kiln and hot pipes outside in winter and get good condensation, or creek water, or a submerged heat exchanger in a pond if close enough. You pay a price in heat loss though when you do it this way. And most importantly the proper amount of water needs to be removed per day, not to much, and not to little (to little on some woods will cause problems, other woods may not be effected, but more energy/time will be consumed). Combining vent and condensation is OK just stick to removing the proper water amount per day. I guess you would have to use kiln sampling boards or a moisture meter since the condensed water only represents that systems water removal, wet bulb depression is still showing water evaporation rate, but how you correlate and combine the two I don't know. I think board sampling is the answer.