Howdy y'all! An idea just came to me that I think may possibly border on the stroke of genius, in my ever so humble opinion.... My buddy has a powder coating shop, and in it there is an oven the size of an RV...when he is running a load of metal to be baked, I wonder about putting in a rack of wood, thereby having a free kiln on demand! Instant seasoning, and an endless supply of wood that is ready to burn! My only concern is whether the moisture content of the wood could possibly have an adverse effect on the baking process for whatever metal he has powder coated. Last thing I want to do is ruin his work... What do y'all think?
Hmmm...sounds interesting, but I think you already began to snuff out a little of your genius when you said- It may come to nothing. Be great if you could test the theory with a handful of water filled buckets and some powder coated "spare" pieces so as not to ruin production work? Then again, he probably runs a regular load of parts for about(?) 8 hours....that's not enough time to fully season green wood (if in fact it's totally fresh off the stump, yeah?). Best I can recall, 240°F's for @ 6 days (for a container sized load). It wood be interesting and genius if it worked, be even neater if you could duct the heat/exhaust into a container outside the fella's shop and let it cycle thru your wood that way? But ya know that Einstein said "People like to chop wood" so I guess this whole thing works on a few levels, right Shawn Curry
Well the water won't "burn", so whatever gets cooked off would need to be exhausted somewhere - does the oven vent air to the outside at all? If not I gotta think it would raise the RH of his shop pretty quick. Another thing is extra handling. I'd need about 5 cords for a winter. I wouldn't want to have to run it all thru a dang oven. Just keep growing the hoard. Pretty soon seasoned wood becomes really easy to find. It will be right there in your stacks already.
Maybe a small amount? Doesn't hurt to ask but at least if you started with something dry enough, it should be ok without having to run the crap out of the kiln. Haha on the other hand he may be all in and say "why didn't you think of this a long time ago...?" A rack of wood in there every now and then could have some benefits without having to waste space. One thing that seems best with these ovens is the more you pack them the more bang you get. Consider your fridge, when you pack that sucker good, its the best way to get the most out of it. Otherwise your mayo and relish is screaming, just waiting to be used.
The extra mass could affect the temp needed to bake the paint...possibly requiring a longer run time. Wood for thought...
true enough, I wasn't sure if powder coating kilns just have a long enough cycle where its like you set it in there overnight but then again Im sure nobody wants to see rust on a newly painted fender for their 66 nova.
We had a powder coating operation in our factory some years ago, and it was finicky. Best bet for kiln drying there woulda been to load up and turn the oven on after the enclosure panels had been thru their bake cycle.
The oven stays sealed until the cook cycle is over, then he cracks open the large door and it's a waiting game. Over the course of about 30 minutes the Temps are such that he opens the door fully and then after about 15 more minutes he'll roll out the completed powder coated metal. He has a large exhaust fan that's ceiling mounted- but to your point I wonder if we could redirect and vent the heat out the back and through a stack/corridor of wood.
That's a good idea, too- and wouldn't be costly. The biggest energy usage is getting the oven up to temperature from cold, but even at the end of the cycle when the air temp is cool enough to bring out the metal, the wall and ambient temperatures are really hot. To roll in a rack of firewood, shut the door and then hit cook it wouldn't be a big cost. Then, leave it in at least overnight. The oven would stay hot with the doors shut for at least 8-10 hours..
Yeah just get it all ready to go... might just help you get any wood you need to tie you over this year and you wait on next years. Honestly this makes me wanna do a little math but too many unknowns to solve for X.
I'm going to get some more info from my buddy, regarding temeratures, length of cook, etc. Maybe we can start with the idea of powder coating some scrap metal and put the wood in with it, checking to see if there were adverse effects. My moisture meter could come in handy, along with a log for recorded information. Now, I just need my buddy to go along with the experiment-
Time is perhaps the main factor as you need lots of it for drying even kiln. I still do not think there is a better way of drying wood than to get it cut, split and stacked then leave it in the stack; top covered until dry. Most will be fine in a year and no extra handling is needed to move to a kiln then out. For those woods that take longer than a year you can always stack them by themselves.
I have a solar oven generating heat 93 million miles away. It takes three years, but the results are consistent, cooked well done.
Follow up: I talked to my buddy with the big powder coating oven and got some more info, good and bad. It turns out that I could definitely season the wood and it wouldn't affect the humidity level because the oven does have a vent to the outside during the cook cycle. Now the bad news: the oven actually works like a convection oven and has holes on the side panels where the heated air blows in and circulates through to the rear. So, by putting wood in with the powder coated metal we'd be blowing dirt, bugs and any other debris around the chamber...in a nutshell, cooking wood along with the powder coated metal is a no-go. My buddy was intrigued enough though by the idea, and calculated the floor space and we came up with being able to put 2 cords in. He calculated the cost cycles, etc, and we figured that if you cut rounds and split them and then let them sit for a couple months before putting them in the oven, you could run the cook cycle 3 times, never open the door and have the wood exposed to an average of 225 degrees for 4 days for a cost of $55.00. Ultimately, it's not the route you'd want to go for all of your winter needs but if you are trying to build up your hoard from zero it might be a decent option at getting a 2 cord boost; or, if you got caught with a long winter you could do the insta-season process and get through the winter.
First paragraph....sadness. Second paragraph... like you said, good for being in a pinch, and certainly cost less than paying utilities.
