John TenEyck has answered your questions. Follow his advise an you will have a good shot at ending up with nice, useable wood.
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John TenEyck has answered your questions. Follow his advise an you will have a good shot at ending up with nice, useable wood.
I am going to build a solar kiln as well.
I'm building one that is almost finished. I still need to build a plenum, install the fan and stain the outside. I sized mine to hold 300 bft. A solar kiln is about as fool-proof as wood drying gets because the wood is "conditioned" every night as the temperature drops and the humidity rises. It's also a great place to store lumber while keeping it at a low MC.
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I based mine loosely on the one from American Woodworker Magazine http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/...olar-kiln.aspx
The critical element is sizing the solar panels to the kiln capacity...1 sq ft of solar panel for every 10 bft of lumber capacity. The angle of the roof is based on the latitude where you live plus up to 10 degrees to help during winter drying.
In addition to Dr. Wengert's "Drying Hardwood Lumber", Bruce Hoadley's "Understanding Wood" is also a valuable source of wood knowledge. There is an incredible amount of misinformation regarding wood characteristics on woodworking forums and those two publications will correct most of it.
Dr. Wengert is also the in-house expert at the WOODWEB "sawing and drying" forum. He will generally answer any questions posted there and will also respond to e-mails. In addition, there is a ton of info from him in the "Knowledge Base" there. It's become a regular reference library for me.
Thanks guys for all your help. I have really got some good info and have gotten down the right path to being able to start doing my own lumber.
Cody, that is precisely the setup I was looking at. I saw how alot of different ones have the roof lift off but I don't have the luxury of having someone around to help me take the roof off so was going to make it hinge like yours as well as the front. What type of panels are those on the roof. Are they just clear corrugated plastic panels that you can buy at big box stores?
What type of plywood did you use on the outside and inside and how thick is it?
I got the solar panels at Home Depot. They had two types of clear, corrugated panels and these are supposedly UV resistant. (Sun-Tuf Panels?)They were around $29 each for 12' long panels. (I cut them in 6' lengths for my kiln).
The outside sheathing on my kiln is 3/8" beaded plywood. I intended to get T1-11 plywood but the stack didn't look like very good quality. The stack above looked better so I got sheets from it, not realizing it was beaded siding. When I got it to the truck and realized what I had, I kept it rather than go through the hassle of swapping it out.
The inside sheathing is 1/2" PT plywood and all of the framing is PT lumber. For the floor, I used two layers of 1/2" PT plywood with a layer of 4 mil plastic in between. There's R-13 insulation under the floor and in the walls. I'll also staple a layer of clear plastic to the underside of the roof framing to create a dead air space there.
I haven't totaled up the cost but it will probably be around $1500 by the time I'm finished. My kiln is 4' x 11' outside dimension with a 41" high front wall and a 7' high rear wall. I can dry 10' long boards.
Joe, there are several quality meters. Most kiln operators use Delmhorst meters, and I like my Merlin pinless meter too. Lignomat and Wagner meters have a good reputation too.
You will find that meter accuracy varies above the fiber saturation point of lumber (around 32%); at the higher MC%'s the only really accurate way to measure MC% is to weigh the boards. However, this is not really required for a hobby dryer.
In addition to Dr. Wengerts book, the USDA has a host of manuals available for free (download); but they can be tenacious reading at times.
Howard is spot on regarding not putting green wood in an attic. Once it dry's down to 25% or less, it is safe to do so.
Re solar kilns, there are a lot of plans available, and these are a great way to go. If you want to dry in larger batches (1200 bd ft or so), the plans by Virginia Tech are generally considered to be the ones to have. Virginia Tech also offers a short course in drying lumber with a solar kiln, and if you're going to seriously pursue drying I would highly recommend the course, even if you build the smaller FWW based solar kiln.
Thank you Cody. That is just about what I had in mind and sounds like a great way to go. That is pretty much the size I was looking at too. Thank you for your help.
Thanks Scott, I did see the Virginia Tech write up and was very impressed by what they built. I am going to keep on reading up on this before I start, but I am pretty sold on this solar kiln idea.
Joe,
I also framed in four vent openings in the rear wall of my kiln but they are covered up with the interior sheathing. I'll drill holes in the corners from the outside and saw the sheathing out on the inside then cover with screen wire. The vents are used to regulate the heat and humidity although they can be kept closed. It just takes a bit longer to dry a stack.