Ok, boys and girls. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that Uncle Augie ' s solar kiln thread inspired me, and as I had some fairly wet wood that had originally been assigned to be burned this season, I thought I'd try it. The bad news is that, thanks to an update by VERIZON. My several hundred dollar phone has lost most of its usefulness. Including the camera, most of the time. Thanks, VERIZON. Anyhoo, I shrink wrapped a 4x4x4 stack of fairly wet wood on Nov. 2, and promised an update when it was unwrapped. My original plan was Jan 2, but UA said that probably wasn't long enough. I then decided on March 2. Unfortunately, Wifey didn't want to dig under the tarp for more of her uncle's sawmill slats, so she.broke into it Thursday. A minor premature opening. She has trouble at Christmas, too. LOL. Anyway, I've been moisture testing various and sundry pieces, and most of them run about 20%. Several pieces have been lower, though, with the lowest being 17%. This being the case, I'd call Uncle Augie ' s solar kiln a resounding success, and now have an extra 1/2 cord of dry wood for padding. I'd also say that my hillbilly shrink-wrap version, with the bottom open on a skid, seems to be a very good adaptation of the principle. Any time the sun was out, at almost any temperature, the inside of the stack would warm up, and condensate would gather on the top of the stack. I took this as proof that it was working, and apparently I was right. In the end it was an interesting and fruitful experiment, and a lot of fun with very little effort.
thats great..im bout ready to put some red, white oak, locust and mullberry in a kiln fer this winter...pics ensue....... we are gonna put this to rest once snd fer all!...its a game changer fer people with limited space.....
bearverine what kind of wood is it and what was the MC when you wrapped it? Glad it worked out for you.
Mostly standing dead elm, unknown but high original m.c.. water seeping out when it was split. Few pieces of oak rounds that were suprisingly wet having been dead and down when cut, and most interestingly, a few pieces of Hackberry sapling that were GREEN when wrapped. These came out at 19%.
we don't do scientific control thingermabobbers round here That stack of pine I wrapped with pallet shrink wrap dried just fine and has long since gone through the stove. There weren't any termites in it after a while wrapped up
No control stack or beginning reading. Told you this was a hillbilly project. I was HOPING someone would get me a lousy 13 dollar moisture meter for Christmas. That didn't work out. Had to buy my own. I shrink-wrapped it by hand by simply walking around and around the stack holding a roll of shrink-wrap. Only took a few minutes. At 20% I was very impressed. I didn't expect it to work that well. It burns great.
Impressive...I like the idea, cause by theory it should work. The platform you bring this up is great... but as far as the other guy... Mom said if you cant say anything nice, dont say it at all... I'm planning to do a skid or two of Oak / Honey Locust this spring to see how it rolls this summer...
Interesting. But I thought the augster was adamant about the bottom being wrapped? With drain holes? I intend to try this also and was considering leaving the bottom unwrapped. Good to know.
I believe the bottom wrap would help heat retention...im gonna wrap the bottom and put weep holes in..
UA was several hundred miles north of where I am. Even in winter I regularly get days in the 30s and 40s. (Although not recently ). That's plenty warm enough to heat up a wrapped stack of wood, even with the bottom open. In a sub-arctic clime, it'd probably be necessary to have the bottom wrapped to keep the wind out and solar generated warmth in. That's my speculation, anyway.
Splitoak, I'm now curious to see what effect having the bottom closed up has. Please do report your results.
