Example: Get a towel wet, and put it in your car. See how long it takes to dry. Now take the same towel and get it wet again, and hang it out the window of your car while you drive, and see how much faster it dries. Wind is effective at drying things
Ok, question: If all the wood is completely wrapped for the most part, almost airtight: Where does the water go? Doesn't the water stay in the "cocoon" and eventually get sucked back into the wood since now the wood is dryer than the air it's sitting in? The one thing I don't like is, I have one of those little $25 orange moister meter's and if I stick it into the same piece of wood 5 times and take a readings, it will normally give me 5 completely different moister readings like: 15%, 34%, 8%%, 22% 39%. So which one do you believe? I don't know, I split my wood, stack it in open air, let it get rained on, and come back a year or 2 later in the late fall (when the humidity has dropped for 30 days or so) and the wood is dry and ready! Interesting idea though! Ok, so I ordered custom canvas covers for my racks, big deal! Ok, ok, I'm all over the place on this one!! Firewood is soooooooo confusing!!
I misspoke at the start of this argument. I thought you said wind would make wood dry slower, but you said decrease as in decrease drying time. I agree here, and have been mixed up since. Maybe we've been saying the same thing?
When I said wind increases drying times, I meant that as in, "makes the times better". And when you said decreases, I thought you meant that wind will make wood dry slower I worded that incorrectly, I apologize if my poorly worded post started all this
I have nothing to add to this topic other than bigbarf48 I want that Dodge in your avatar they all rust in piece up here.I have a built 360 and 727 in my barn for when the others give out.
Wouldnt it be great especially for new guys or people with limited space to be able to dry oak in 1 year....its a game changer if you ask me..i have some split red oak and a bit more to get from my spot prolly bout a cord or more...im gonna do this soon and see if it will be ready by next fall
Why are you still watching? It is proven to work, tent up your oak and it will be dry in a few months.
Thanks I really don't see many old dodge trucks around down here, on the road or on Craigslist. This one was sitting outside a local mechanics for sale. Came from colorado, to Tennessee, and ended up in a barn in GA. Guy pulled it out and got it running, and it's been great for me so far
Yes, it will work, but it will take longer. What I can do in the spring/summer/fall in 2-3 months will take 6-8 months in the winter. It might take longer but I don't know, I haven't ever really worried about exactly how long it takes as I have never really needed wood enough that I didn't have a full summer to let it sit in the solar kiln. I am still stacking yet this year, in solar kilns, by next fall I imagine it may be as low as 10%. My father has used this method to season some dimensional lumber he had milled out of some cherry and walnut I felled on his property. A friend of his brought a mobile band saw mill out to rough cut the lumber, we stacked it in a really sunny location, wrapped in plastic just like I showed in the beginning of the post, and in one spring and a long summer it was roughly 8% MC. I had already seasoned some wood this way, so knew it would work, didn't know it would get so low MC.
Shoo 10% is pretty low...have you seen this to be true regardless of species..ie oak vs cherry or soft maple?..
Regardless of species, even the mighty oak, 4 months in a solar kiln in the summer will get you well below 20%. If you get a full spring/summer/fall cycle in a sunny location with the correct wrapping you will be at or near 10% if not below. This is how many wood workers dry green lumber at home saving 80% of their material costs on lumber. Most of the cost of 10% MC kiln dried dimensional lumber is in drying.
