Scott T Smith
06-10-2011, 7:28 PM
About a month ago a local woodworking friend of mine sent me a PM asking me if I had seen the posting on the Raleigh Craigslist for a free solar kiln. Nope, I hadn't seen it (the posting was about 2 hours old when I received his PM), so I checked out the listing and was intrigued. The solar kiln pictured was the standard Virginia Tech design (one of the best and most popular designs), and the posting didn't say much about it other than that it was free, tall (14' tall), and that it would be suitable as a solar kiln or perhaps a greenhouse, but that it may need to be cut down for transportation. The posting also stated that insurance would be required from whomever moved it.
I have been thinking about building some solar kilns to augment my existing dehumidification kiln for my quartersawn oak business, and to dedicate at least one of them for drying 8/4 quartersawn oak (it takes almost 4 months to kiln dry 8/4 oak). So the opportunity to get a jump start on this project was of real interest.
No phone number was listed in the posting, just the standard response via Craigslist, so I fired off a short response indicating my interest. A couple of days go by with no response, so I sent another e-mail response but from a different e-mail address, thinking that maybe my first mail was blocked by a spam filter or something. In my second mail, I kept it simple and stated my interest, the fact that I had the equipment necessary to move it, and that I could provide the required certificates of insurance.
The next day I receive a phone call from one of the asset managers at SAS, a large corporation based in Cary. Turns out that they built a new building a year or so ago, and wanted it to be LEEDS certified. So they recycled a lot of the timber from the building site into wood for interior use, and built the solar kiln to dry it. Since the project was complete, they no longer needed the kiln and wanted it to go to a good home (they had previously offered it to a museum, NC state University, and another sawmill but to no avail). Hence the craigslist posting before they sent it to the dump.
Their contact told me that they had received over 100 responses to their posting! Fortunately for me, nobody else could move it.... so he told me that it was mine if I wanted it.
I went down to look at it, and this is what I found:
197592
Of the two VA Tech designs, this was the larger model (about 18' long), and originally designed for about 1,600 - 2000 bd ft of 4/4 oak. SAS had tacked on an addition to one end in order to accommodate the lengths of their lumber.
During the next few weeks I provided the requested insurance certificates, and waited for their Risk Management folks to draft up a legal agreement between us. I also spent some time figuring out how best to move the kiln. Last week we signed all of the agreements, this past Tuesday I stopped by NCDMV to pick up an oversize load permit and yesterday we arrived on site bright and early to prep the kiln for moving and to load it.
Because of the height (turned out that it was 12' 6" overall), I could not load it upright onto my trailer, as it would be too tall to fit underneath the highway overpasses (the peak would have been 15' above grade). So my plan was to brace it internally, bolt some skids to one side, and then pivot it onto my trailer by hinging the skids to one side of the trailer.
We took the backhoe from the farm with us in order to handle the loading.
Here we are arriving at the SAS campus, preparing to unload the backhoe:
197593
After unloading, we removed the extension scabbed onto the end, and installed the temporary internal bracing.
The next step was to install the 6 x 6 skids on the door side, and to install some plates across the top of the skids so that the backhoe forks could support the side of the building:
197595
Next step was to measure and determine our hinge location, so that the kiln would be properly centered on the trailer after we pivoted it over. Because the center of gravity was not equidistant to each side, I opted to stagger the kiln about a foot to one side of the trailer in order to achieve a more balanced load. After measuring and installing the hinges, we jacked up the side of the kiln so that we could place the trailer right up against it, and then lower the hinge pins into the rub rail of the trailer:
197596
After I positioned the front of the trailer against the skids, I took the backhoe and picked up / skidded the back end of the trailer up against the opposite end of the kiln, and we lowered the hinges into position.
197600
The next step was to attach a safety chain to the backhoe fork carriage, along with a come-a-long, and raise the forks up to the top of the building. The plan was to start pivoting the kiln onto the trailer by using the come-a-long, until we had the top plate where it would intersect the first foot of the forks. This would give us ample clearance for the fork carriage not to damage the roof as we pivoted the kiln over. It worked perfectly (and I'm still surprised!).
Starting the pivot with the come-a-long:
197598
Continuing the pivot by using the forks:
197599
Attached to the trailer and ready to depart:
197601
Instead of strapping the kiln to the trailer and risking damaging it, we lag bolted timbers directly to the trailer deck and then lag bolted the timbers to the skids. Worked like a champ!
Continued on Part 2....
I have been thinking about building some solar kilns to augment my existing dehumidification kiln for my quartersawn oak business, and to dedicate at least one of them for drying 8/4 quartersawn oak (it takes almost 4 months to kiln dry 8/4 oak). So the opportunity to get a jump start on this project was of real interest.
No phone number was listed in the posting, just the standard response via Craigslist, so I fired off a short response indicating my interest. A couple of days go by with no response, so I sent another e-mail response but from a different e-mail address, thinking that maybe my first mail was blocked by a spam filter or something. In my second mail, I kept it simple and stated my interest, the fact that I had the equipment necessary to move it, and that I could provide the required certificates of insurance.
The next day I receive a phone call from one of the asset managers at SAS, a large corporation based in Cary. Turns out that they built a new building a year or so ago, and wanted it to be LEEDS certified. So they recycled a lot of the timber from the building site into wood for interior use, and built the solar kiln to dry it. Since the project was complete, they no longer needed the kiln and wanted it to go to a good home (they had previously offered it to a museum, NC state University, and another sawmill but to no avail). Hence the craigslist posting before they sent it to the dump.
Their contact told me that they had received over 100 responses to their posting! Fortunately for me, nobody else could move it.... so he told me that it was mine if I wanted it.
I went down to look at it, and this is what I found:
197592
Of the two VA Tech designs, this was the larger model (about 18' long), and originally designed for about 1,600 - 2000 bd ft of 4/4 oak. SAS had tacked on an addition to one end in order to accommodate the lengths of their lumber.
During the next few weeks I provided the requested insurance certificates, and waited for their Risk Management folks to draft up a legal agreement between us. I also spent some time figuring out how best to move the kiln. Last week we signed all of the agreements, this past Tuesday I stopped by NCDMV to pick up an oversize load permit and yesterday we arrived on site bright and early to prep the kiln for moving and to load it.
Because of the height (turned out that it was 12' 6" overall), I could not load it upright onto my trailer, as it would be too tall to fit underneath the highway overpasses (the peak would have been 15' above grade). So my plan was to brace it internally, bolt some skids to one side, and then pivot it onto my trailer by hinging the skids to one side of the trailer.
We took the backhoe from the farm with us in order to handle the loading.
Here we are arriving at the SAS campus, preparing to unload the backhoe:
197593
After unloading, we removed the extension scabbed onto the end, and installed the temporary internal bracing.
The next step was to install the 6 x 6 skids on the door side, and to install some plates across the top of the skids so that the backhoe forks could support the side of the building:
197595
Next step was to measure and determine our hinge location, so that the kiln would be properly centered on the trailer after we pivoted it over. Because the center of gravity was not equidistant to each side, I opted to stagger the kiln about a foot to one side of the trailer in order to achieve a more balanced load. After measuring and installing the hinges, we jacked up the side of the kiln so that we could place the trailer right up against it, and then lower the hinge pins into the rub rail of the trailer:
197596
After I positioned the front of the trailer against the skids, I took the backhoe and picked up / skidded the back end of the trailer up against the opposite end of the kiln, and we lowered the hinges into position.
197600
The next step was to attach a safety chain to the backhoe fork carriage, along with a come-a-long, and raise the forks up to the top of the building. The plan was to start pivoting the kiln onto the trailer by using the come-a-long, until we had the top plate where it would intersect the first foot of the forks. This would give us ample clearance for the fork carriage not to damage the roof as we pivoted the kiln over. It worked perfectly (and I'm still surprised!).
Starting the pivot with the come-a-long:
197598
Continuing the pivot by using the forks:
197599
Attached to the trailer and ready to depart:
197601
Instead of strapping the kiln to the trailer and risking damaging it, we lag bolted timbers directly to the trailer deck and then lag bolted the timbers to the skids. Worked like a champ!
Continued on Part 2....