Coop Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Has anyone made their own kiln. I have searched all over my area for someone with a kiln with no luck and I'm tired of paying $9.00 bf for walnut while watching mine dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Don't feel bad, some dude on my local CL is trying to get $15/bf for walnut! Sorry, can't help with the kiln. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Has anyone made their own kiln. I have searched all over my area for someone with a kiln with no luck and I'm tired of paying $9.00 bf for walnut while watching mine dry. WOW! No experience on building my own but, there's no way in hell I'd pay that! You can buy walnut cheaper from Bell Forrest and their prices are high! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 The ones I have are live edge slabs and I want them to become something. The one I just bought for $46 is just a damn board, a nice damn board but still.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Coop American Woodworker had a solar kiln article. I will look for the article and send if I can find. No promises, but it was a back issue and I ordered it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Coop American Woodworker had a solar kiln article. I will look for the article and send if I can find. No promises, but it was a back issue and I ordered it. Thanks Bryan, I appreciate that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 I have a buddy with a kiln, it's a connex box trailer. Don't know much about the logistics besides to say, he's been spending months getting it right. Each species of wood typically has a baking recipe. It's not as simple as sticking wood in there and turning the dial to defrost. Big learning curve. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Ken I'm going to my buddies next weekend. He has a home made solar kiln. I'll take pics for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodbutcher74 Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 I have a friend that built a solar kiln. He says it works really well. I believe he got the plans from the University of Illinois Extension web site. Wouldn't swear to it. I'll ask him when I see him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Thanks for any input. Upon reading up on this, I too think it's more complicated than just sucking water out of wood. It appears that a solar kiln might be the safest way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 The one my buddy has is the Verginia tech 1000 bf kiln. It dries 8/4 to 6-8% in four weeks on average. I've helped load and unload it. Way asier to unload . The design is also stupidly simple. Coop you could probably fit a kiln right there where your stacks are drying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradseubert Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 I built this one in my basement. Found and article in American Woodworker (I think) I should have it bookmarked at work. Holds about 300 bf. First load I put into it was 5/4 hard maple. Went in at about 40% and came out 6 weeks later at 8% 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Check on the Forestry forum. Plenty of people there have, but probably mostly much larger than what you are looking for. Brad's looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trz Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Have you checked Youtube? There must be something there on building your own! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trz Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Just checked, youtube has plenty of videos. Woodworkers guild shows one in detail how it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Just checked, youtube has plenty of videos. Woodworkers guild shows one in detail how it works. I found one last night for constructing a large one, but will go back this morning to look for others. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Coop, PM me your email address I found the article and scanned to my computer and I will send over this afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradseubert Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Building the kiln is the easy part. Drying the wood at the proper rate and being able to monitor everything to avoid defects is the hard part. Each different type of wood has different rates that you can safely dry it at before you run into problems. The manual for the Nyle L200 has tons of great info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nginear Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 from Virginia Tech http://sbio.vt.edu/for-the-community/extension/solar-kiln/index.html They have a link on there for plans for a solar kiln. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weithman5 Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 the old american woodworker site had a kiln article. if you go to pintrest and search for it someone, somewhere will have posted the links to just about everything on the web. work benches, jigs, fences, and yes, kilns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 I haven't built one though I've been looking into building an oven to dry powder paint. I just wanted to say.. WTF is up with those walnut prices? I'm at $6.50/bf here. Makes me think I need to drop a $1000 before they jack the prices on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Lumber prices are based upon supply and demand just like everything else. Right now walnut supply is down and demand is sky high. Econ101. But be sure you're comparing apples to apples when looking at lumber prices. Surfaced FAS is going to be considerably more expensive than rough commons. Not all boards are created equal...quality is a huge determining factor, despite the wishful thinking of many people..."walnut is walnut." No, not true. Just because you find a huge pile of lumber in some farmer's barn for cheap doesn't mean it's a great deal if the boards are all junk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 It's threads like this that make me kick myself for only buying 200 BF of 25 year air dried at $2 bf. As far as building a kiln, I know some guys who do solar kilns. I can ask them about them if you'd like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Tom, I just spoke with the guy that milled my trees and he has a homemade small kiln and will dry these for me. While I'm there, I'm going to take pics and get measurements of his and make me one. Thanks all for your help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDave Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Found this and thought it might be useful...http://tinyurl.com/ovtnh99 It's a MSWord doc that seemed to have some good info and links... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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