Idry kiln

Me and a couple other family members just pulled the trigger on a Idry vacuum kiln. I wish we would have decide this before the price increased 10k. I'm wondering if anyone on here has one and can offer any tips on getting started using it. I have some time to do more research before it gets delivered. I'm also wondering what else is helpful to have to make the process easier particularly on the material handling side. I was thinking maybe a jib crane with a vacuum hoist of some kind for slabs or maybe just have everything on a pallet and swap that out with a skid steer or forklift? Any advice would be helpful as I'm new to kilns. I have air dried lots of lumber mostly due to the shortages of places to dry lumber in my area. Also how are others pricing drying? we plan to mostly dry lumber rather then sell it. I have seen prices all over the map on this. One local guy with a kiln will dry for 1.25 a board foot (seems high to me) and he is the only person I know of around me that will dry other peoples lumber.

If there's no competition except one guy charging $1.25/ft, I guess the market will bear it. It seems quite high to me too, but if I charged myself my shop rate for my hand-loaded solar kiln it might approach that. If you have a forklift that would help a lot. Material handling is certainly key to running a kiln efficiently, second only to the actual drying process.

My impression is that properly operated vacuum kilns can turn around thick lumber quickly with little degrade, if you can accomplish that you ought to be able to charge a premium. I will be interested to hear how the venture works out for you.

I see that Idry is located 45 minutes away from me - I'll have to check it out one of these days.

I saw one of the Idry units on a 'Tube video recently...that looks like a great solution. Vacuum kilns seem to have an edge in many respects, to my non-educated eye. Best wishes to you and the family!

I've been operating kilns for 18 years and have toured the iDry factory. A few comments.

First, the iDry system is a low vacuum kiln. It has enough atmosphere present to use convective heat for warming the lumber, as opposed to a deep vacuum kiln that requires heat exchangers. They work well for the money, but are not well suited for all species (such as thick white oak). Usually you can plan on 7 - 10 days per inch of thickness for most hardwoods, which is 3X to 4X faster than conventional or DH kilns. Some species, such as black walnut, have their own idiosyncrasies when drying and frequently require some special techniques.

The iDry includes a track system for loading. My advice is to preload a long pallet with your lumber, and then simply fork the dry one off and the replacement on to the cart.

Kiln operating costs are directly correlated to the species, thickness and moisture content. I'll dry 4/4 white oak from green for $1.25, but not 8/4! I've read about some people stating how they can get their lumber kiln dried for .35 per bd ft. They are probably using a conventional kiln that's drying 40,000 bd ft at a time, and the kiln operator has a much better economy of scale when drying such a large quantity at one time. Plus, the kiln operator is not optimizing their kiln schedule based upon the needs of the little guy's load, so YMMV with respect to quality.

Smaller loads commonly dried in an iDry or DH kiln - such as 2K - 4K bd ft, cannot be dried on the same economies of scale and you will lose a lot of money if you try to compete with the larger operations. Besides, most large kiln operators don't want to dry someone's 100 bd ft load.

There is a lot to learn about proper kiln drying techniques and schedules. The USDA Forestry Products Lab has a wealth of material available on the subject, and the NHLA usually hosts a kiln operators class in Memphis once or twice a year. Most of the written information is related to conventional kilns, with more and more coming available for DH kilns. Vacuum kilns have the least amount of information available, but it's still best to learn proper wood drying techniques irrespective of the kiln type that you are using.

In my area I have had a really hard time finding any kiln to dry lumber for me. Others I know have said the same thing so that is what pushed me to get one so I don't think there is too much for competition in the small quantity loads. Scott how do you price drying do you go by the species and thickness?

We did get the kiln today I thought I would share a few pictures of the unload. It was pretty interesting.Attachment 473703 Attachment 473704Attachment 473705Attachment 473706

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Originally Posted by Mitch schiffer

In my area I have had a really hard time finding any kiln to dry lumber for me. Others I know have said the same thing so that is what pushed me to get one so I don't think there is too much for competition in the small quantity loads. Scott how do you price drying do you go by the species and thickness?

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I price based upon an estimated time to dry. This correlates to species, thickness and initial moisture content.

4/4 oak is around 4-5 weeks from green. Air dried oak is 5 - 7 days to finish off, but we still have all of the associated handling costs and higher utility costs (since a couple of those five days are at 135 - 160F.