I will go as far as saying that wind is merely a vector that can carry the conditions that are condusive to drying. It's just a delivery vehicle. It doesn't do the drying. There are a multitude of ways to create and convey those conditions. By no means is it the be all and end all. And if the wind is carrying higher RH air (like what happens at night when the temp drops) then it is actually carrying conditions that re-wet your wood. In that respect the same thing will happen inside a sealed kiln when the temp drops. I think you dump about 3/4 of the water in the first 1/4 of your drying cycle. Unless you let precipitation get to it that will be true no matter how you set out to dry your wood. What starts out as a cup a day quickly becomes a teaspoon.
Anyone try one of these? You could probably make something similar but I don't see where the cross ventilation is on the shed, I think that's key to wicking moisture. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200612349_200612349
Paul bunion, I just have seen too many great results on this site with the UA style kiln to not give it a try myself. I'm nearly always a skeptic about things unless I see enough proof, or logic to make me believe it. When I see something like this, I owe it to myself to try it to see with my own eyes. I hope there are several people that try it and document the process, showing different woods, geographical locations, and even slightly differing methods.
I've got nothing but time and space and I'm 5 years ahead so I think I'll stick with single row stacking and let it season the old fashioned way.
Nothing wrong with that, I'll do the same. But some people don't have time and/or space, nothing wrong with them finding an alternative and having good dry wood.
I'm all about learning something interesting from an experiment. Especially if someone else is putting forth the effort
I css'd some of the red oak that I brought home 2 weekends ago and even though it was dead and down the amount of moisture in it today was shocking. I split it by hand because it was so nice out here and I could see and feel the moisture on the surface. I'll be wrapping this in a UA style kiln as soon as I top off a pallet. I can't wait to see, and burn, the results.
Hey Sam, Are you planning on having the pallet contained in the wrap? My quick setup from back in January has the pallet within the envelope . My understanding of the solar kiln involves a completely wrapped pile(save having some weep holes in the bottom), heat retention is the key. An open bottom may allow(or not?) for more ground moisture to perk up into the system, sure, but any wind breezing by your experiment would probably swirl up and in(or cause a change in pressure which could suck out your kiln heat) and change the characteristics inherent to this notion of plastic wrapped wood. But you might already have considered this. And, again, if you weren't, and you're under way with your experimental stack- do it sides and top wrapped... Every bit of data/info leads to more understanding. Sorry I jumped the gun at the top of this post. Eric VW
I go back and forth on this because it's a little more difficult to wrap the bottom unless I start with setting the pallet down on the plastic which I think is the way to go.
Do you have a moisture meter? If not buy one before you wrap it up, and do readings before, then after.
I will probably try the plastic wrap kiln due to necessity. I am a new wood burner, not even burning yet, so I have no accumulated wood to draw from. I am in the process of finishing the house that will be home to my stove so finishing the house is my first priority. I may get in a day or two of cutting dead falls and bucking but that will extend my construction time so not very many days. I hope to limp through 15/16 with about a half cord of dry wood that I had the foresight to harvest from a yard tree a few years ago. It will be for emergency burns only. Supplemental heat will need to wait for another year. I will use my construction lumber scrap to season the new stove a couple of weeks from now so I should at least not kill myself with paint fumes when I first need the stove next winter. Once I finish the house it will be time to start harvesting in earnest but will be far too late to support the 15/16 winter even if the kilns work miracles. Most of my wood lot is shagbark hickory, black walnut and oak but has a sprinkling of sassafras, wild black cherry, osage orange, a very few eastern red cedar and I have spotted one big sycamore. My first target is to remove dead and down so I will not be very selective on species harvested. That means I may be dealing with 2 year seasoning woods in a 1 year plan. That is where the kilns might come into play. If all I have dead and down is oak and hickory, all I can do is hope for the best on the kilns working for me.
It seems that dead or downed shagbark hickory seems to dry out pretty good by itself. If you have a lot of hickory, you might be surprised how much wood you'll have for next year, kiln or no kiln. It's premium wood too, only that osage orange will have more btu's.
Keep in mind a moisture meter isn't accurate on wood that is wetter than the mid thirties. Oak runs about 80% when green. If you can see the moisture it is probably still above 35%. A scale will be the way to figure out how much water you was lost. You can figure out the initial moisture content so long as you know the initial weight and the weight when you can get an accurate moisture meter reading.
Status from today. Sunny , dry & 70 degrees. Above is green Mulberry css'd January. 34%. 16 inch for inside fireplace. Below is green Mulberry css'd yesterday 34% 24 inch for OWB I am even getting some good drying down low. Open bottoms on my pallets. I am sure that it is cooler down low. Finally , top of freshly css'd Mulberry. Need help! Looking for a temp. Probe that I can insert deep through plastic stretch wrap to get inside air temps this spring & summer. Any recommendations/ suggestions?
Nice work, Deacon! How about a standard type K thermocouple? Plug it into a pocket sized data logger, just leave the thermocouple plug hangin out of the wrap. You can buy a pack of them and embed in several wrapped pallets? Or place several in one cube, low/ middle/ high to get some ideas about temps at those levels.... Eric VW
Nice work deacon! What kind of temp meter do you have? How about this probe, put it on a rod, stick it in? http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?i...oXqWHADHnaX5YKz0YaleSv4SKsq5LvYIxxRoCni3w_wcB Maybe an indoor outdoor thermometer and put the probe on a rod and put it in the stack.
Deacon, Cheapo here: http://www.amazon.com/Signstek-6802...27082076&sr=8-1&keywords=thermocouples+type+k
Oldman47, If possible it's nice to leave the standing dead. They don't compete with the live trees and provide homes for many forms of wildlife. Better to cut the unacceptable grade wood (damaged and leaning trees) and do a bit of constructive thinning to give your better trees a chance to grow nicely. Also good to leave some of the dead on the forest floor. If you have the time to drop some hickory, cherry and walnut, especially if in a spot at least semi exposed to wind and sun, buck the trunks and roll the splits a bit so the ends are exposed, you may find the boles will do a lot of drying even not split and stacked. Then in late summer/early fall you can split and stack the rounds. I find sugar maple sitting like this exposed to southern sun and northern wind in six months dries to 15-25% moisture content prior to splitting. Did so even last summer, when it never seemed to stop raining. I am pretty much on rock, so if you have good deep topsoil and much rain, might not work so well.....
