I would think either use shrink wrap, which is very thin and a one time use, or use 4 mil which should hold up for at least 2 uses. The advantage of the shrink wrap is that it is dirt cheap and not something worth saving so when you are done with it just cut it off. The 4 mil means taking measures to save it when you are ready to unwrap the pile. Another possibility is the wrap that lumber comes wrapped in to your local lumber store. Once the lumber store has the wood under cover they cut it off and treat it as trash. I bet it would be dirt cheap if you just walked in and offered to take it off their hands. I have a little of it from when I ordered large volumes of lumber and the store never did unwrap the stuff that they had delivered to them, they just sent it forward to my building site. I bet it is at least 6 mil clear wrap.
Your setup kind of determines the kind of plastic that you need. I stack pallets full then wrap them with Menards or Uline stretch wrap. A $20 roll from Menards will wrap at least 10 pallets for me. I have a few wrapped pallets that have been sitting outside for over a year now & the stretch wrap is still clear & intact. Can't find any current pics of year old wrapped pallets. I want the plastic to be as clear as possible to let in as much light & heat as possible.
Still lookin fine, Deacon- I mite need to switch to shrink wrap- 6 mil milky stuff just don't hold up to UV! And I think "clear" is the way to go, too.
Improvements , updates & observations about my solar kilns Put down a heavy black tarp to raise temps. 12 pallets. 5PM. Shaded tarp temp 137 Air temp being drawn into base of pallett. Only 94 which was the day's high temp. Fairly breezy day. Exhaust air from 3x5 vent. 129 degrees & humid. Deep in the stack IR temp 122 degrees Sunny parts of tarp read 157 degrees. I was hoping to see higher temps entering & exiting the kiln. It was fairly breezy today. Partly cloudy morning, mostly clear afternoon.
Wow, what a great experiment! If only the pallets could be elevated and an envelope formed to "channel" this solar gain technique directly into the wrapped pallets... Bravo, Deacon!
I use this one, works great, you can track and take pictures of 5he stuff you are testing. That way you don't need to rely on your personal memory, or write stuff down. http://m.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Phone-Works-Moisture-Meter-ES3000/205489757/
Freshly CSS'd Silver Maple ( with a little stringy elm). Pics after being wrapped 2-3 days. Been in the 90's here. Some full sun. Humid and a little breezy Water is really coming out of the wood! Ground is even damp at this corner. Steady water drops just keep coming. Plan on checking moisture levels in the spring of 2016
Any one with some results of say the first three months of summer. Anything that was cut in say january and just had splits pulled to check? I am very interested in this!!! I am trying to get three years ahead. I am basically there just not have time this summer to cut skin think I am about two out still??? But I plan on getting a years worth by the end of the summer. I also trades a truck load of split wood for some body work on a vehicle so that made me loose a half a cord or so.
Made a small one and put some fresh cut green Ailanthus in it around April 20. I have a closed bottom slit weep holes model. The control samples are at 58-59% of their original weight. My test pieces in the kiln haven't fared as well. The top one is at 62% of original and the bottom piece is at about 65%. They are all down to losing 5-10 grams a day and the pieces outside the kiln will gain weight on very humid days. (They are covered). They are all very dry and light as feathers. Remember the loss of 1/3 of your weight is the equivalent of going from 80% down to 20% or 50% to zero. So first off the kiln did work. Although it is a few points behind it did get rid of the vast majority of the water. I think that one of the reasons that it is behind them free air dried wood is because the kiln does have a limited finite capacity to condense out water. It just couldn't keep up with the free air wood, especially in the initial few days/weeks when the rate of drying is very rapid. Some more wood has come my was since and I have observed cherry losing 25% of its weight in 28 days, oak losing 10% in three days, 20% in 30 days and red maple losing 20% in 21 days. So I would suggest not putting fresh green wood in one, but rather wait at least a month for the initial fast drying to occur. Another thing that I noticed recently was that it stopped condensing. The nightly temperature drop hasn't been low enough to reach the deep point, and there is not much water left in them to jack up the humidity level to raise the dewpoint. At the point that it stopped condensing weight loss also stalled. Last week we had a run of really warm breezy dry day. I opened the sides up to take advantage of it. I had it open for 4 days then closed for 6 and now it has been back open for three. It is very visible on the 4 week graph. Also noted is that the humidity didn't rise back to the levels that it was showing prior when I resealed it. There has been some measureable loss since I opened it up. In a couple of weeks I am going to put some of the oak/cherry/maple that I have since collected in it. I can see what the results are trying to finish the wood, especially the oak. I have a feeling the cherry might get itself there without assistance. So again my operating conclusions right now are to 1). Take advantage of free air drying during the intial drying period. The first moisture is going to be lost faster than in a kiln. 2). Have a little air exchange, especially if your unit stops condensing. Also note that I'm only getting sun until about 2:00 in the afternoon. That's the best I can do in my backyard. Kiln top humidity Kiln top temp
Good stuff Paul. The idea of never start with green wood is one I would not have thought of but it does make good sense. I bet you could fine tune it by just weighing a sample of each new stack and watching for a drop off in drying to decide to cover that stack.
Disaster strikes! Come back from vacation in Minn. to find... Combination of hail & UV damage Will try some heavyweight outdoor stretch wrap.
Oh no! Deacon, that is not nice at all! I had one of my kilns tear for some reason. I'm assuming that it was UV deterioration. I had to just rewrap it to make do for the rest of this month and half of September. ( It was not near the damage you have, Deacon.) Then I can't wait to see the results!! I'm trying to decide if i want to make plexiglass frames to set over the "frame" on the pallet.. You'd still need plastic on the bottom and a bit of wrapping to seal it up but a lot better as far as durable goes. Let me know your thoughts everyone!
That would be pricey Pete, but awesome! Now if you could source discarded materials you'd have it on the cheap.... One idea for recycled clear material would be to get a screen from the old rear projection big screen tv's which are Fresnel lenses- you'd have some hot wood then, man! Used as a roof or face- wooooh doggies!
Wow Eric VW! With the Fresnel lenses you could really drop the drying time! LOL!! I do have access to some plexiglass but not sure I want to spend the time to do it. All in all the plastic wrap is a winner! Cheap, easy, and I don't have to store it when not in use. With a little luck to get further ahead in my hoarding, I won't need to use the kilns regularly. It's sure going to help me out this year though!
Ok... I need to get my wood moved into stacks and get ready for winter. So they need to move to there final destination. My Test: Started on 4-5-15 End on 10-18-15 Weights: #1 Kiln Start 10 lbs End 5.6 lbs Loss 44% #2 Kiln Start 9 lbs End 5.6 lbs Loss 38% #1 Natural Start 8 lbs End 5 lbs Loss 39% #2 Natural Start 12.7 lbs End 7.8 lbs Loss 39% Now I did start to lose the shrink wrap in the latter portion of August and fully lost it at the end of September. My thoughts: Would I do it again? No, too much maintenance to it... By looking at my own results I get as good results with the sun and wind in the open. I just let it out there and forget about. I don't have to worry about shrinkwrap and the whole process. It has been an interesting experiment... and some great discussion, some great pictures, and some different theories... It'll be interesting to hear how long everyone else's shrink wrap lasted and has to be redone. (Deacon )
Chvymn99, Yes I have had issues with my stretch wrap. UV damage & ..... Can you believe hail damage in Nebraska! Switched to a thicker stretch wrap. Will see how long it lasts. Think I will try & get some white UV resistant shrink wrap next. I am still working towards my 3 year plan so some accelerated seasoning will help. I plan on pulling some splits out of my kilns this fall to measure Moisture content. Additionally the wrap does help as I move palletts around my hilly 10 acres as well as keeping rain & snow off the wood. Pics of my boiler wood. 23 palletts for this year.
..... What thickness? Mine just became frail at stretched points and that's were it failed at first. When I finished taking it off today, it literally broke into little pieces.... I like how your setup is, especially with them line up like they are....
