bnew17

Ive been doing alot of research on homemade kilns and realize yal probably could give me the best advice. I talked to a fella that made a kiln out of foil backed insulation board with a 100w light bulb,,,,and ive also seen people that make the solar kiln... my questions are

I guess i should probably saw i will be working with small pieces of wood to make turkey calls out of.

Which one do yal prefer and think works the best?

What would you suggest for a beginner?

What are the pros/cons of each?

Daren

How much are you going to try to dry at a time ? I don't suspect much. The microwave is the easiest way. 30-45 seconds on high, 4-5 minutes out to cool---repeat several cycles. You CAN'T just put it in there to cook, it'll ruin your wood. One way to tell when your wood is dry is a small digital scale. I have one for postage, maybe $12 ?. Weigh the wood before and during the nuke cycles, when it stops losing weight it's dry.

The old "hotbox" with a light bulb will dry wood, but really slowly. Not much faster (if any) than just putting the wood on the heat register in the winter when the furnace is running (assuming you live where the furnace runs all winter...and your wife is cool with the idea). If you wanted to kick it up a notch use a 500 watt halogen shop light, those suckers get hot. You can make say a 4X4 box 130 degrees easy. You will need a small vent in the top of the box to let the moisture out if you are drying a bunch at a time. Which I would, I mean you are burning the electric anyway why do it in a mostly empty box.

If you aquire wood that you are in no big rush to use it can be kiln dried in the attic, works great. I live up north so it only works from say May-Sept...but the summer months it is very hot and dry up there and you could dry a years worth I bet. Down south a guy would get a couple extra months of drying.

Again not knowing where you live has me just throwing darts here. Solar would for sure work if you lived in Florida or Arizona, for example. By work I mean work all year, where I live the winter months it is cold and gloomy. The sun is out today...for the first time in several days. A small solar kiln would be a piece of cake to build. An old window pane on a box painted black on the inside. If you are somewhere that this would work we can help you design one.

__________________
Sawmill and tool sharpening

Facebook page

bnew17

thanks for the info Daren...i live in Georgia... right slap in the middle of it.

as far as how much i plan to dry...probably not a whole lot. i probably dont want a kiln much bigger than 4ft x 4ft or so