Kevin Koski

[#1]

These next few blogs will be about  kiln drying lumber in your very own, easy to build, solar kiln.

This blog is an overview.

Solar kiln part 2  will be the interior of the kiln

Solar kiln part 3 will be about the operation of the kiln.

We can also give you a rough bill of materials if there is an interest.

  I built mine 7 years ago, and other than some painting here and there, it is maintenance free, and still works great.  Most of the materials can be found for free, or at low cost.  The solar panels are nothing more than recycled sliding glass doors.  I CAREFULLY took the frames off of them, leaving the two insulated glass sheets that are bonded together.  Don't do it CAREFULLY, and you will end up playing 5 million pick up as this glass is tempered and breaks into the tiniest pieces if it gets upset at your poking and prodding.

I made my kiln 4 feet by 10 feet, but as long as you can find the glass, the size is practically unlimited.  A standard ratio is 10 to 1.  This means that for every square foot of glass you have, you can dry 10 board foot of lumber.  My kiln ended up with 30 square foot of glass, so I can put 300 board feet of lumber in mine. I had planned on a larger kiln (500 bd ft), but I played 5 million pick-up with two of my glass panels, so we ended up with a smaller kiln.
Here is a picture of the front, below

The kiln is wedge shaped with the front angled at 45 degrees to capture as much southern sun as possible.  Your kiln should have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. It's also a good idea to keep relatively close to an electric supply. I sure didn't.  Mine is a couple hundred feet from my house!  Good thing I like to dig because that was one long trench!

 It is amazing how hot it gets in there.  Today was partly cloudy and 70 degrees, but it was 93 degrees inside the kiln. 

The back has some intake vents cut into the top, and an outflow vent cut into the bottom. The picture below is of the back:

The side looks as you would expect, a wedge.  See below.

If you do a lot of woodworking, or have a large wood project upcoming, you should consider building a solar kiln.  The mark-up on KD lumber is high.  Top grade "green" red oak is .85 cents a board foot at the mill right now. "Green" cherry is only $1.56 a board foot for the same top grade!  You could even get better pricing utilizing yard trees from a tree trimmer, maybe free!  Thinking of hardwood flooring?  I bought #1 common cherry at .55 cents a board foot.  I dried some lumber for a guy that is milling it out for me, so my cost for solid cherry flooring is .55 cents a square foot, plus the scrap. Little to no cost in the drying as it was dried in this kiln!

Thanks for reading

Kevin Koski

Dry Kiln operator

Owner and OperatorCurlyMapleWood.com
www.curlymaplewood.com

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

[#2]

Kevin,

I built the kiln that was in Wood Magazine some years ago.  Built it over size from the original plan.  Dried 1000 ft per load.  Took six weeks per load to get it down to 8 % in summer.  That was after I air dried it for year.  Saw mill did not start cutting until it was dried in log size for 6 months.

Had 7000 ft of several types of wood. 

Had enough stud material to build three sheds, sold two of those.    Finished the walls in 16 x16  & 24 x 12 cabin walls. And 30 x 15 family room chair height walls and ceiling in my home.  Plus 10 x 10 library same walls and ceiling.  Had enough to also make the trim and crown molding .   

Had enough pine studs left to sell and still have couple hundred feet of black ash saved.

All done and I sold the kiln. 

Only money I spent was to have saw mill cut it @.10 ft and rather than try to plane  & T&G  the paneling it all myself I paid .11 to have that done.  Oh forgot I paid $11.00 cord to have it hauled to mill. 

All in all was long, and interesting, project.  Started with the trees and now am sitting in the rooms with the product.  Unfortunately had to sell the cabin.