Unintended Kiln

[myxpykalix]

A friend of mine has a swamill and cut me some nice 2" thick Maple. I had left it in the back of my window van for 2-3 days trying to make a place to put it to dry.
I opened the back of the van and all the windows were full of droplets of water and the water came pouring off the door where it had obviously migrated from the wood.
My question is has anyone made any type of miniture kiln for this type of thing? I still have my shopbot shipping container would that make a good mini kiln? What about the appropriate type of ventilation?

[dray]

Careful Jack..

A friend of mine bought $18k worth of Peralta for a remodel. It was about 80% dried they bought a cargo ship container and stacked it in there to dry without stickers between the wood and without binding it and all of it twisted like pretzels

[bob_reda]

There are some plans on the net for small solar kilns. The secret is to control the amount of moisture leaving the wood so that it does not degrade.

[myxpykalix]

Well in the meantime I have stacked it behind my shop under a roof off the ground on shelves that has plastic sheeting around it to allow for airflow and keep it away from the elements. Also i have it "stickered" so it gets airflow around all pieces. I usually also coat the endgrain with sealer to control the amount of moisture escaping. Usually always do this for turning wood. I just didn't want to wait for 2 years to use it. I need to invest in a moisture meter.

[rick_woodward]

an old geezer i know had a flower shop at his house years ago. He and his wife got out of it. He still had the little room he used to refrigerate the flowers. It was insulated real good. Well sir, he stickered his wood in there. Stuck a sears de-humidifier in with the drain hose to the outside. Believe he had an old box fan set on low maybe blowing towards the wall so it wont be direct on the wood.I guess the room was maybe 6x8x7 ft tall. He asked me to come check the moisture content after i think, 3 weeks maybe 4. SHAZAAM ! It twere good and dry an straight... Thats my story an i'm stickin to it....

[bleeth]

Jack: A word to the wise-Make sure your stickers are compatible species-Those black stripes can run deep.

[myxpykalix]

Rick, I had read somewhere long ago about some type of low air flow but hadn't remembered it all.
Dave Its maple and i cut some dry pine 2x4's for stickers. I think that will be ok?

[cjohnson]

One important aspect to drying wood is setting the pitch. Unless you are able to superheat the wood to kill the bugs and set the pitch, it will tend to move on you in future. I made a lot of hardwood trim just by air drying with and without the dehumidifier but I never invested in a good high temp heater to set the pitch at the end of the drying cycle. Just a thought to keep in mind.
cj

[kaaboom_99]

Hey Jack, try these sites:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WoodDrying/wood_kiln.htm

[gene]

Jack
I live in ga where it gets hot and the humidity gets high . I had about 2000 ft of red oak and what i did was to make a flat area with some palletts and stacked it with pine 1x1 stickers at every 18 " Then and this is very very inportant is to seal the ends of the boards with 3 or 4 coats of sealer .This keeps it from drying too fast and splitting and twisting. Its the difference between good wood and firewood. cover it with black heavy plastic and leave the ends open with a fan in one end pulling air out thru the wood. leave it running for two or three weeks and keep checking it then . I used a 36" attic fan and had good results . Good luck